Speaking at a Eucharist held at the church of St John Divine in south London on 9 July, Dinis Sengulane, Bishop of Lebombo (Southern Mozambique) told a congregation composed of members of the 105-year old Mozambique Angola Association (MANNA): "Africa’s youngest country faces many problems and has gained independence at a time when the gap between the rich and the poor world’s is growing rather than decreasing. Above all, let us pray for peace in that country"
The largely Christian south’s independence (9 July) hopefully ends decades of conflict the mainly Muslim north in which an estimated 1.5 million people were killed.
Fears of a new war resurfaced after recent fighting in two border areas, Abyei and South Kordofan, where some 170,000 people have been forced from their homes. Separate deals – and the withdrawal of rival forces from the border – have calmed tensions. But the two sides must still decide on issues such as drawing up the new border and how to divide Sudan's debts and oil wealth.
In an interview Bishop Dinis (65) said that the independence of South Sudan reminded him of the day – 36 years ago this November- when his own country received its freedom after a decade of guerrilla war against Portugal.
After Independence in November 1975, Mozambique was ruled by the quasi-Marxist guerrilla movement Frelimo (Frente de Libertaco de Mocambique). Many hospitals and schools were taken over, churches were closed and it was forbidden to hold services in the open air.
It was also forbidden for the sacraments to be administered to anyone under the age of 18.
But soon after independence, another war started – this time between FRELIMO and the South African –backed RENAMO (Resistencia Nacional Moccambicana).
Said Bishop Dinis- “Thanks to God, the Anglican Church played a key role in ending that war and bringing peace to our country.”
This courageous man’s early days as a priest in a Marxist state were fraught with danger.
Born in 1946, he served compulsorily in the Portuguese Army until he was 24. Because he was an outstanding soldier and dedicated Christian, he was sent to England to train for the ministry. He returned home and was ordained when he was 28 and elected diocesan bishop when he was just 31.
Those were days when anti-Christian feeling among many of Mozambique’s Moscow and Peking educated new rulers was explosive.
To curb the former excesses of the Roman Catholic Church (which had such a close relationship with the Portuguese authorities) Frelimo introduced a series of restrictions which saw some churches turned into clinics, schoolrooms – sometimes stables for horses used by the army.
When he visited New York with Desmond Tutu in the 1980s, a crowd of American conservative Christians yelled at Bishop Dinis and accused him of being a sell-out for working in a Marxist country. "f you were a Christian you would get out of that Marxist country!" they cried out.
But by staying on and remaining true to the church’s mission, Bishop Dinis won huge respect from the government which went on to modify its Marxist policies, abandoning draconian collective state farms and the one party Marxist-Leninist state in favour of multi-party democracy and elections in 1992.
Bishop Dinis was awarded an All Africa Council of Churches Peace Prize for helping to negotiate peace and reconciliation between Frelimo and Renamo
He is now a leading campaigner against the spread of malaria which claims around a million lives a year, 90 percent of them in Africa.
Before he died two years ago, Canon John Paul, a retired Anglican missionary and author of a book about Anglican life in pre-independence Mozambique "Memoirs of a Revolution" (Penguin, 1975) told me- "After Independence, the government was so hostile to the Catholic and Anglican Churches. Now they are supporting us fully. Isn’t that wonderful?"
Bishop Denis, like millions of Christians around the world, is praying that the peace that eventually came to strife-torn Mozambique will quickly descend upon Africa’s youngest state, oil-rich South Sudan.
Post published in: Africa News