We wanted to interview Fr. Joe Hayes - Rector of LHS, but he only had time for one question: what have been your assignments as a Jesuit in Zambia. Below, he shares his personal account, as well as more history on Jesuit Apostolates in the area.
I came to Zambia as a young Irish Jesuit
Priest in 1977. I cannot say I came as a missionary but as a Christian educator.
I believed in the power of education to transform a society that I believed had
been exploited for its resources for generations. Through education leaders
would own their own power and transform their own societies. As a young Africa
for Africans emerged the power of dedicated, educated professionals would wipe
away the horrors of apartheid, poverty and exploitation. Zambia and its
neighbor Tanzania were ruled by creative Presidents that blended Christianity
with impressive human values. Fifteen years of independence however manifested
economies in decline and an educational system that was bringing about very
limited transformation. Soon the tragedy of Hiv/Aids was to wipe out large
numbers of the generation that had gone through our educational institutions.
After 10 years working as an educator, I returned to University to study
relationship education and human development with a view to helping prepare
such courses to introduce into our schools. Five years ago I retired from work
in formal educational institutions to set up what I called a leadership
development centre for teachers working in the field. This idea came from
collaboration with a Jewish friend who donated her house for the purpose. We
both felt that, while teachers were in the forefront of transforming young
attitudes and values, many had to do so without much support and much time for
the level of reflection needed to work beyond their formal academic training.
This project continues as it explores ways to offer such supportive structures
and such compassionate challenge. My own presence within it was interrupted by
being invited to move to the Capitol City Lusaka to help develop an existing
school into a Jesuit Secondary School. I was glad to do so as this would be our
first Jesuit Secondary School in the Capitol City at a time when the emerging
middle classes seek to have their professional lives imbibed with Christian
values as they face the complicated cultural changes of our modern world. The
school has great potential to play its transforming role and its emergence is
particularly opportune as we are blessed with many young Zambian/Malawian
Jesuits who see a life as a Jesuit educator as a very important one to
transform their society for the Glory of God and to, hopefully, produce
graduates and develop collaborators who will be persons of compassion,
competence, and conscience.
Transforming the
World through Education.
The Society of Jesus (the Jesuits) was founded to co-operate
with Jesus of Nazareth whom they knew to be the Christ in celebrating and
mirroring God building the Kingdom. This commitment would be concretely shown in
their mission with Jesus, the Christ that all people would have life and have
it to the full. Such a mission in the context of Northern Rhodesia had to be
discerned and worked out against the background of a British Colonial
Government that was promoting what they called adaptive education. Adaptive
education was a system that made primary level education available to selected
Zambians. The selection was based on the judgment of the colonial power.
The Jesuits set up a network
of primary schools from Katondwe, through Kasisi to Chikuni. When Fr. Zabdyr left Chikuni in 1950 he, his Jesuit brothers
and their collaborators had left behind 48 primary schools. Fr. Moreau focused his educational thrust into
improving agricultural methods for the adult population. Jesuits like Fr.
Prokoph developed primary teacher training and broke through the colonial ceiling
to develop secondary education at Canisius College. This school would rank with
Munali Boys’ Government School and Chipembi Girls in preparing young men and
women to continue the movement towards self-determination. Munali and Canisius would be the only schools that
offered A- level education to Zambians aspiring towards higher education. Unlike
Munali, Canisius admitted girls into the sixth form. Central to the dream of
Fr. Prokoph for a liberated Zambia was his desire to improve girls’ education.
To break through the reluctance of parents to let their daughters access
education, he persuaded Bishop Chichester, Archbishop of Harare to loan him
some Sisters to model a way of expressing oneself as a woman other than through
becoming a wife and mother. This led to the formation of the Society we now
call the Handmaid Sisters. Their example helped to open doors to higher
education for girls. Jesuits have continued this commitment to girl’s education
through their work and through their particular support for F.A.W.E.Z.A., the
Forum for African Women Educators in Zambia.
As the Country moved through Independence the
Jesuits collaborated with the Government’s desire to offer education of the highest
level to its entire people. Bishop Corboy of Monze and Fr. Colm O’Riordon organized the Education section of the
Catholic Secretariat. This became the educational administrative wing of the
Zambia Episcopal Conference. Many religious educational congregations were
invited to come to Zambia to open Educational Institutions. The lay missionary teachers’
scheme was devised by Colm O’ Riordon and approved and funded by government. The
scheme attracted teachers from abroad to
help staff the new secondary and third level
colleges until the local supply of staff proved adequate. Allied with the new Governments’ commitment to
have major educational institutions in all the Provinces of Zambia, the Jesuits
supported the Bishops to develop faith- inspired educational institutions in
most of the provinces. The dream of Canisius to transform society through
education inspired by Christian values expanded through providing Jesuits and their
collaborators as lecturers and chaplains in the emerging Government and aided third
level Institutions. Charles Lwanga Teacher Training College, Chalimbana Teacher
Training College, Evelyn Hone College, the University Training Hospital,
Nkrumah and Copperbelt Secondary Teacher Training Colleges all had Jesuit
support. Jesuits are proud of their long involvement with the National
University, the Copperbelt University, and the Catholic University from their
inception and through their up-building.
The Jesuit thrust to
transform society through education “that all may have life and have it to the
full” was not confined to formal educational institutions. From the time of Fr.
Moreau S.J. it included education to transform agricultural methods. Trade
schools were run in most parishes till they were replaced by vocational institutions. A training school in organic
farming developed at Kasisi. Developmental education inspired by the work of
Paulo Friere expanded outwards from Chikuni and Monze. The goal of developmental
education was to help communities become initiators of their own development.
The Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflection was founded to support the
promotion of faith and justice and to
remind all that such a responsibility must pervade all Christian lives. As the
government liberalized its concept of exercising power, Jesuits worked with
electronic media through collaborating with Z.N.B.C in educational television, worked in and with Radio Chingelo and radio
Yetsani and set up and are now running Loyola Productions and Chikuni Radio
Station. The Print media is also given importance through the Jesuit Centre for
Theological Reflection and Mukanzubo
Cultural Centre Publications, the writings of individual Jesuits, collaboration
with Challenge Magazine and the running of the now defunct Tresianum Press.
Jesuits like Fr. Michael J. Kelly developed the concept of a community school
and helped coordinate them, especially through Z.O.C.S (Zambia Open Community
Schools Secretariat). In Chikuni Jesuits
developed and run the Taonga
(Interactive Radio Institution) Schools. In Taonga schools radio is used to
reach those who would not otherwise receive a formal education. AID’s Education, AID’s management, AID’s care
and AID’s counselling training were
given by Jesuits through the Family Life Movement, Kara Counselling and the
work and research of Michael J. and Michael T. Kelly. All the above were and are initiatives to
touch people where they are and to celebrate God’s passion to liberate people
from all unhealthy constraints.
Morreau,
Zabdyr,Prokoph and their Jesuit and lay collaborators could be called the
pillars upon which the transforming educational impact of Chikuni and Canisius were
built. Frs.Torrend in Kasisi, Frs. Waligora
in Katondwe, Cardinal Adam Kozlowiecki and Frs. Vincent Cichecki in Lusaka can
be called the pillars of the transformation through Jesuit education in the
Central Province of Zambia. Fr.Torrend was
a languages specialist and alongside the Missionaries of Africa in the North
and East and the Capucians in the West developed the language tools needed to
transform oral languages into written ones. On the Jesuit front this inspiration would
continue through the work of Muganzubo Cultural Centre. Other initiatives were the
Kasisi Orphanage and schools which are now run by the Little Servants of Mary
Immaculate and their collaborators. The Kasisi Orphanage and schools, along
with those in Katondwe offered an educational base that has produced many
alumni who have continued to play an important role in the development of
Zambia. A minor seminary was built in Kabwe. This initiative brought Jesuits
from Oregon, U.S.A to join the educational enterprise. Two years ago the
Jesuits were invited to take over the ownership and management of Leopard’s
Hill Secondary School.
In 1992 the Zambian Province
expanded to become the Zambia/Malawi Province. Jesuits had earlier worked in
Malawi in Kachebere Major Seminary. Now the Jesuit presence increased as they
took responsibility for the management and staffing of Zomba Major Seminary.
They also collaborated in the expansion of family life education in Lilongwe,
accepted chaplaincies in many third level institutions there and helped the
Episcopal Conference set up radio stations. Third level distance education for
refugees was operated through the Jesuit Refugee Services. An institute was opened to train people in
ecology and the use of fuel-efficient stoves. In Blantyre a Jesuit doctor is
serving as a surgeon and helping train the medical staff at St. Luke’s
Hospital. In Kasungu the Jesuits are presently helping improve the local
primary educational system and collaborating with government in running social
services and aids care. In the formal educational sector, they are developing a
Jesuit primary school and a national co-educational secondary school. Kasungu
is a town surrounded by tobacco farms and its location makes it ideal to tap
into the creativity of the three major provinces in Malawi.
The greatest education transformation of the Jesuits in
Zambia and Malawi is that many young men are choosing to become Jesuits. They are thus transcending their families of
origin and the families they themselves could have originated and accepting to
express in their lives the dreams of the Family of God. These dreams, as
mentioned before, want all persons to know they are special and to share the
joy and fullness of life that God wants for each of us. Jesuits commit
themselves to the MAGIS (the more.) They and their collaborators will never
rest nor be satisfied as long as one person is still in chains in any part of
the world. (Joe Hayes)
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