Proselytising among Africa's richest countries, Pope Benedict presses ahead with baptising the continent's poorest people during his two-nation, weeklong tour, observes Gamal Nkrumah It is no coincidence that Pope Benedict XVI purposely paid official visits to two of Africa's leading lights in the power business -- Cameroon and Angola. The first is not even predominantly Roman Catholic and the second seems obsessed with obscure American sects and witchcraft. Neither country has Africa's largest communities of Roman Catholics -- the bulk of the continent's Catholics happen to be in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Nigeria. Angola has 10 million Catholics, but the mushrooming of Evangelical churches in the Lusophone nation in the past five years has been phenomenal. So, pray, why has His Holiness chosen to fly to these two resource-rich states? Cameroon has 4.5 million Catholics, fewer than their seven million Protestant compatriots, but slightly more than the West African country's three million Muslims. Nobody knows exactly how many Cameroonians adhere, in secret or in public, to traditional African religions, derisively dismissed as animists. What is clear is that the pope reserved his harshest admonishments to those who fear "malign and threatening powers, witchcraft and evil spirits". He assured the one million people assembled at an outdoor mass in the Angolan capital Luanda for a Sunday Catholic service in his honour that "Christ has triumphed over all those occult powers." He even hinted at the social and economic basis for the belief in the supernatural. "In their bewilderment they even condemn street children and the elderly as sorcerers." With plenty of reason to worry about oil supply shortages, the Western world, Japan and China are turning increasingly to African oil exporters such as Angola and Cameroon to meet the industrialised world's oil needs. Pope Benedict XVI must have been acutely aware of the promising future of these two African countries when he planned his African itinerary. Angola and Cameroon epitomise Africa as a land of plenty of opportunity. The pope's message, however, is that no matter how potentially rich these countries are, they are certainly never going to be richer than God, at least not the Roman Catholic conception of Deity. Indeed, the pope's African tour underpinned the immense disparities of income that characterise African oil exporters. The vast majority of people in Angola, the second richest country per capita in Africa south of the Sahara, second only to South Africa, have not benefited from the trickle down effect of the oil boom. "The multitude of Angolans who live below the threshold of absolute poverty must not be forgotten. Do not disappoint their expectations," Pope Benedict pleaded with his audience. Angola, rich in diamonds, uranium deposits and other minerals and with vast agricultural potential, is still reeling from the 27-year civil war that crippled its economy. When Portuguese missionaries first set foot in Angola they introduced their version of Christianity and today 60 per cent of Angolans are Roman Catholic. The introduction of the Bible, however, was a prelude to the colonisation of the country and the enslavement of its people many of whom were forcibly sold as slaves in Brazil across the Atlantic Ocean. Slavery led to the depopulation of the sprawling country, the size of France, Germany, Italy and Spain combined. Angolans never fully recovered from the trauma of the slave trade, nor from the civil war that erupted with the departure of the Portuguese in 1975. His Holiness, presumably, doesn't potter about with long-reigning African potentates, nor trifle with politics for that matter. Yet, astonishingly enough he has been rubbing shoulders with some of Africa's longest-serving leaders and showering them with accolades and papal blessings. But then, historically, pontiffs have often curried favour with potentates. Be that as it may, Angola can take pride in its progress since the United States recognised the war-ravaged, mineral-rich southern African country in 1993, but a fresh sense of urgency and a commitment to social justice are required in order to maintain momentum. Christianity and capitalism are not necessarily incompatible. The Marxist principles of the ruling Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (better known by its Portuguese acronym MPLA) are a closed chapter in the country's torturous history. Angolan President Eduardo dos Santos, who played pious host to the pope this week, has been in power since 1979 -- one of Africa's longest-serving leaders. He is a pragmatic, level-headed politician who has long discarded the MPLA's socialist ideological orientation in favour of capitalism. Even so, the global financial crisis should serve as a warning for the MPLA government that still needs to spend its oil wealth more wisely, encourage entrepreneurship and increase economic productivity. Dos Santos and his host understand that Angola cannot expect to decouple completely from global trends. The global economic slowdown is likely to lead to further weakness in the prices of Angola's raw materials and its powerful oil-fuelled trade performance in recent years. In Cameroon, Pope Benedict met clergy from all over Africa for a preparatory meeting of African Roman Catholic bishops later in the year to brainstorm how best to tackle the continent's economic and social woes. "Our hearts cannot be at peace as long as there are brothers and sisters that suffer the lack of food, work, housing, and other fundamental goods," the pontiff pointed out. He spoke out boldly against the "deficit of ethics in economic structures" throughout Africa and the world. "Do not yield to the law of the strongest," he told his spellbound audience. Beyond politics, Cameroon's tiny pygmy community fearful for its way of life appealed to the pontiff for support by presenting him with a turtle. The pope voiced his concern for environmental degradation. The pygmies of Cameroon embody the struggle for the preservation of ancient lifestyles and the fight to conserve the equatorial jungle and its indigenous inhabitants. However, the pygmies, too, were egged on to relinquish the superstitions of their forefathers. "We do no injustice to anyone if we present Christ to them and thus grant them the opportunity of finding their truest and most authentic selves, the joy of finding life." Catholicism is replete with contradictions, and no more so than in Africa. Pope Benedict XVI understands that conundrum all to well. "At a time when many people have no qualms about trying to impose the tyranny of materialism with scant concern for the most deprived," the pope pontificated, "more and more of Africa's people are falling prey to hunger, poverty and disease. They cry out for reconciliation, justice and peace and that is what the Church offers them," he concluded. Mired in poverty, his Angolan listeners bid him farewell singing an African improvisation of Auld Lang Syne. Towards the end of this decade, Roman Catholics in Africa are going to wake up with a jolt. They will discover simultaneously that the rise of Islam and Evangelical Christianity has deprived them of an alibi that excuses their failure to spread the faith. Cameroon, the former German colony, welcomed the German pope. Africans can forgive, but they cannot afford to forget. Fortunately for the Church, from what one can identify at present, the African propensity for spirituality and religiosity is on the rise. The underlying thrust of the pontiff's message to his African congregation is do not write off the Vatican. The Vatican now needs to draw a line. The crisis of faith in Africa demands a politically inclined pontiff ready to anticipate rather than respond to events. Despite its merits, the Church has been found wanting. Decisive inaction has tarnished the image of the Vatican in the world's neediest continent. The pope was supposed to be above all that. "Armed with integrity, magnanimity and compassion, you can transform this continent freeing your people from the scourges of greed, violence and unrest," the pope declared in memorably hubristic terms. But there are a couple of reasons why these pontific statements are not entirely reassuring. First even if Pope Benedict XVI is well intentioned, a new conventional wisdom is forming in the Vatican. This could be the Roman Catholic's moment in Africa. No less than 20 per cent of Africans adhere to the Roman Catholic denomination of Christianity, and a quarter of the world's one billion Roman Catholics are African. The Evangelists, mostly inspired by North Americans, have made serious inroads in Africa. The flipside is that the world's richest Roman Catholics in countries like America and Austria, Bavaria and Brazil, for now, write the cheques. And yet it is hard for Africa's Catholics to draw much reassurance from the Vatican. The Catholic quest for Africa is incontestable. Yet, the financial dependence of the Roman Catholic Church on North America and Europe is just one of its many flaws. And, the pope's reaching out to Africa is just a quest for other ways to mould a new image of the most powerful bastion of Christianity in the West. Coming from the pope's side as well as from his enemies, the Vatican has much catching up to do in the political, social and economic spheres. The Church cannot restrict itself to spiritual matters -- it must contemplate the mundane. The Church must be less opaque as it diversifies in Africa. It is better to get the record straight about one's history -- and that is equally applicable to the Vatican as to the adherents of Roman Catholicism in Africa.
