2015-06-18 12:05:00

What would the Lozis think of the encyclical, Laudato si’?


The Lozi people of Zambia’s Western Province are a cluster of Bantu-speaking ethnic groups located along the Zambezi River in what is known as the Barotse Floodplain.

In Lozi mythology, long before Christianity set foot in Africa, Nyambe (God) was recognised as the Supreme Being who created everything else that exists, including the heavens, the Earth and all the plants and animals. Some of Nyambe’s attributes included omniscience and omnipotence as seen from various Lozi proverbs and myths. Nyambe lived on Earth in consort with his wife, Nasilele. However, the aggressive tendencies of Kamunu (human being) compelled Nyambe to flee to heaven where he set up his village without Kamunu.

Were Nyambe to look at our world today, he would probably be appalled to note that the aggressive tendencies of Kamunu (human being) have become worse.

In similar vein, Pope Francis says in his encyclical, “Laudato si’”, officially launched 18 June, that the Bible story of creation is central for reflecting on the relationship between human beings and other creatures and how sin breaks the equilibrium of all creation in its entirety.  According to Pope Francis in Laudato si’, “The creation accounts in the book of Genesis contain, in their own symbolic and narrative language, profound teachings about human existence and its historical reality.  They suggest that human life is grounded in three fundamental and closely intertwined relationships: with God, with our neighbour and with the Earth itself.  According to the Bible, these three vital relationships have been broken, both outwardly and within us.  This rupture is sin.  The harmony between the Creator, humanity and creation as a whole was disrupted by our presuming to take the place of God and refusing to acknowledge our creaturely limitations,” Pope Francis asserts.

In our world today, human beings tend to think of sin as breaking one of the commandments such as stealing, adultery and so on. Pope Francis in Laudato si’ challenges us to look again at our narrow definition of sin. Cutting down trees indiscriminately could be as bad as other sins and should prick our consciences.

It is our misguided sense of superiority or even arrogance to creation that leads to what Pope Francis calls the, “use and throw away” logic.

Laudato si’ examines this “use and throw away” logic that justifies every type of waste, environmental or human, that treats both the other and nature as simple objects and leads to a myriad of forms of domination. It is this mentality that leads to exploiting children, abandoning the elderly, forcing others into slavery and over-evaluating the capacity of the market to regulate itself.

“In the absence of objective truths or sound principles other than the satisfaction of our own desires and immediate needs, what limits can be placed on human trafficking, organised crime, the drug trade, commerce in blood diamonds and the fur of endangered species?  Is it not the same relativistic logic which justifies buying the organs of the poor for resale or use in experimentation, or eliminating children because they are not what their parents wanted?” Pope Francis asks in Laudato si’.  

Pope Francis even goes further and says that this, ‘use and throw away’ logic is, “the mindset of those who say: Let us allow the invisible forces of the market to regulate the economy, and consider their impact on society and nature as collateral damage.”

There is a lot of food for thought in Pope Francis’ encyclical. It takes its name from the invocation of St Francis of Assisi: “Laudato si’’ mi’ Signore” “Praise be to you, my Lord”, which in the Canticle of the Creatures calls to mind that the earth, our common home, “is like a sister with whom we share our life and a beautiful mother who opens her arms to embrace us.” Written in Pope Francis’ now trademark style that makes even complex topics accessible, Laudato si’ should find great reception in Africa.

My guess is that the ancient Lozis of Zambia, who lived long before Christianity, contemplating how Nyambe (God) fled from Earth to heaven, would have given Laudato si’' a big thumbs up.

(Fr. Paul Samasumo)

e-mail: engafrica@vatiradio.va








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