Jesuit Journeys
Spring/Summer 2005

BY Fr. Jim Strzok, SJ

Along the east coast of Kenya and Tanzania live the Makonde, a tribe famous for their art – a unique style of sculpture that is profound for what it represents. At the base of a typical statue one can see elderly men and women, and above them their children carved with each generation standing on the thighs or backs of a previous one.

The statues, often quite tall, follow the shape of the ebony branch from which they are carved and always are faithful to the idea of one generation of people supporting another.

An African chapel designed by Fr. Tony Berridge, SJ.

WSr. Josephine Beebwa, a native of east Africa, once explained Makonde art to me this way: “In Africa we say and live out in many different ways this truth: ‘We are, therefore I am.’ We are aware that, as individuals, we have received everything from our culture and from past generations of men and women on whose shoulders we now stand.”

Any carving of the Wisconsin Province’s history in Africa would have an image of Fr. Pat Burns, SJ and his Africa would have an image of Fr. Pat Burns, SJ and his contemporaries at the base. He had taught theology at Hekima College in Nairobi, Kenya for several years before being named provincial of the Wisconsin Province in 1984. A twinning agreement between the Eastern African Province and Wisconsin Province was drawn up the following year.

Building Pedro Arrupe House provided an assisted living facility on the outskirts of Nairobi, Kenya for retired and infirm Jesuits and jobs for local workers. Fr. Jim Strzok, SJ oversaw construction.

Jesuits from different parts of the world often enter into agreements with each other as part of an exchange or pooling of resources and personnel. For example, our province worked with Jesuits from Japan in the mid 1950s to start a college in Seoul, Korea, an agreement that is responsible for what today is Sogang University in the Korean Province. Most recently we signed a twinning agreement with the Kohima Region in northeast India. It is only a few years old but is steeped in the tradition of the Jesuit missionary spirit, a spirit that dates back to the earliest days of the Society of Jesus. I am sure it will result in wonderful accomplishments.

My experience with this tradition is restricted to but a few of the people and stories of our work in eastern Africa and with the Lakota people of South Dakota. I apologize in advance to men like Fr. Dan Kenney, SJ and many others who, for lack of space and personal knowledge, are not part of this account – one that begins in June 1986 when Fr. Jim Michalski, SJ and I departed for eastern Africa.

Kohima Region Jesuit Fr. Hector D’Souza, SJ and his Wisconsin Province guests enjoy a traditional meal after Easter Sunday Mass in Phesama, located on historic Burma Road near the Indian/Myanmar border. This 2002 visit was the first to the region by members of the Wisconsin Province..

Jim and I were the first Jesuits from our province to Jim and I were the first Jesuits from our province to go there under the new twinning agreement. However, our province was not alone. Early on we met the late Fr. Louis Plamandon, SJ and Fr. Ed Trudeau, SJ – Canadian Jesuits who were assigned to Ethiopia as scholastics and returned as priests. With Uganda just coming out of 13 years of civil war, they helped us identify regional needs. We stood on their shoulders.

Jim took on the much needed ministry of youth work, promoting vocations and establishing a retreat program called Youth Encounter the Savior (YES). I was put in charge of building Xavier House, a regional Jesuit residence in Kampala, and also assigned to adult formation. Sr. Josephine, Sr. Cecilia Nibyobyonka, Mill Hill Missionary Brendan Jordan, and I began the Uganda Spiritual Formation Program (USFP) at the former novitiate of the Brothers of Christian Instruction, in Kisubi.

An example of Makonde art.

Our work required that we travel the backroads of Uganda. We accompanied our new recruits on mission and visited their homelands. Along the way, we began to witness the devastation wrought by AIDS. “We are burying our children,” lamented one parent. “Who will take care of all these orphans, and who will take care of us when we die?” Several of our students died of AIDS. We did our part along with others as Uganda addressed the spread of HIV through the churches and government agencies under the administration of President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni.

Xavier House (completed in 1988) became a center for others from our province and elsewhere arriving to work in and around Kampala. Fr. Bob Dundon, SJ, Fr. Tom Manahan, SJ, and Fr. Tom Krettek, SJ joined us and taught at Makerere University. Fr. Wally Boehme, SJ offered retreats and spiritual direction to many. Fr. Tom Hansen, SJ, now a physician in Omaha, came to Kampala as a young scholastic to teach at a nearby youth center. Fr. Tony Wach, SJ initiated social justice programs and remains in Kampala to this day.

When Jim and I left Uganda in 1993, USFC had graduated 281 students with skills in spiritual direction and retreat giving. It was always a joy to experience one of our students presenting in their own words and cultural ways scripture and other things we had taught them.

It has been almost a decade since Fr. Jonathan Haschka, SJ helped Alice Nyambura, a Kikuyu widow infected by the HIV/AIDS virus, escape a Nairobi slum and build a modest house for her and her five children, three of whom are pictured here. Alice has since died, but Fr. Haschka’s work in eastern Africa and his love of the people continues.

Three former students went on for further special training in England. They returned and joined the USFC staff. Over the years since, other program graduates have become provincials or mother superiors of their orders. Others team up to give retreats in parishes and to religious communities. It is always a source of consolation to know I played my small part in building the Church in Uganda.

Jim left YES groups in several schools with a center for YES activities in Kampala at St. Peter’s Church, where it continues today. A number of young Ugandans he worked with as vocation promoter became Jesuits. One, Fr. Isaac Kiyaka, SJ, is presently novice master at the Jesuit novitiate in Arusha, Tanzania.

In the latter 1980s, the Jesuit Refugee Service began addressing the Sudanese refugee problem at camps in Adjumani, northern Uganda. Br. Mike Wilmot, SJ applied his mighty building skills there from 1994-95 by directing the construction of a school at one of the largest camps. Fr. Bill Callahan, SJ followed in his footsteps the next year by committing himself to counseling and spiritual pastoral work. He went to Kampala a year after that and died from malariarelated complications. His funeral was attended by hundreds of grateful Ugandans and Sudanese, and his body blesses the soil of Uganda in the cemetery of St. Peter’s Church in Kampala.

Our lay colleagues have also contributed significantly to our activities in eastern Africa, especially those associated with Ignatian Associates. In 1995, Rob and Karen Ivantic- Doucette moved to Fort Portal, Uganda with their three young boys. They worked providing medical and pastoral care for the people along the edge of the Rwenzori Mountains in western Uganda.

(From left) Fr. John Fitzgibbons, SJ, Fr. Andy Alexander, SJ, and Fr. Provincial James Grummer, SJ during a 2004 visit to Kohima.

Africa is all about relationships, and the relationships Karen and Rob formed in a year in Fort Portal were instrumental in Karen’s work in helping establish Marquette University’s nurse-led Train the Trainer Program in 2002. Less than two years later, more than 3,500 African nurses had received training in the prevention of HIV-AIDS and care of infected patients.

In 1990, Sr. Hilda Bamwine, RSCJ, a former student of mine, became headmistress of a girls technical school in Masaka, Uganda. She asked if I could help her get some used computers for her school. In God’s providence, one evening in Omaha, Ignatian Associates Tim and Ruth Leacock were seated with me at a Creighton Prep dinner. Tim mentioned he was head of the Union Pacific Railroad computer division and was talking about providing used computers for Jesuit Middle School of Omaha.

Fr. Jim Egan, SJ greets a Ugandan friend in the Lord.

“What about Africa?” I asked. Within a week, Tim and Ruth had gathered more than 100 used computers. Prep students and a handful of young Jesuits helped refurbish the machines, and a program called Computers for Africa was born. Computers for Africa now ships refurbished computers and pre-designed networks to dozens of schools in eastern Africa. Tim and Ruth have since moved to Uganda where Tim trains technical people in computer skills, and Ruth does pastoral work with women’s groups.

They often wonder at the providence of God and the goodness of people who have emerged to assist their project. Ruth once remarked, “It is as if God wants this. It has a life of its own, and it just keeps growing through the goodness of other people who want to be involved.”

It is true. As Makonde art makes so clear, we build on the shoulders of those before us and we let others stand on ours.

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