Zaire: Hope Where There Is Chaos

In Zaire, even the poor are millionaires. But they are still poor. The hyperinflation rate means 5 million zaires amount to no more than $1 in U.S. currency.

The economy of this French-speaking Central African nation of 40 million people has collapsed. Unemployment is at 80 percent. Food prices are beyond the reach of many. The U.S. State Department estimates that 5.2 percent of the population is suffering from acute malnutrition. Hospitals are without medicines, and many expatriate doctors have had to leave because of the violence.

Despite local and international pressure, Mobutu Sese Seko, the country’s military ruler of 28 years, has refused to give up power.

Looting, rioting, and fighting are frequent. In February, at least 1,000 people were killed, including French ambassador Philippe Bernard, during a mutiny by soldiers. Ethnic and regional animosity is brewing. The country has 200 tribal groups and is divided into ten regions. By May, at least 150,000 Kasai people had been driven out of their homes in the mineral-rich Shaba province, which the Katanga people always have claimed for themselves.

A Christian land

Ironically, Zaire is predominantly Christian. About 90 percent of the population professes Christianity, with at least 40 percent being Catholic, including Mobutu. A 1972 state decree brought all Protestant churches under one umbrella, the Church of Christ in Zaire, known by its French acronym ECZ. ECZ is made up of more than 80 Protestant denominations; the biggest groups include the Disciples of Christ and Presbyterian churches.

The churches are caught up in the crisis. During the February unrest when infuriated soldiers ran amuck, ECZ’s theological school in Kinshasa suffered extensive damage. The seminary building and student and faculty residences were ransacked, and the library and classrooms were destroyed. One student was killed, others injured.

Life for the average church member is hard. “The people, especially in the urban areas, are suffering seriously due to lack of food and medicines,” says David Dyck, secretary for African Affairs for the Mennonite Central Committee. “Nobody has any money,” says Phillip Wood, a medical missionary in Zaire for 14 years and Canadian director for Worldwide Evangelization Crusade (WEC) International.

At the national level, the ECZ and the Catholic church have been in the forefront calling for change. They initiated a national conference in August 1991 in which churches, with other religious groups, appealed to delegates to “demonstrate a spirit of love, peace, and fraternity” and to “overcome sentiments of revenge, hatred, and division.”

But bickering between Mobutu’s supporters and the opposition gave the government opportunity to suspend the proceedings for “security reasons.”

Thousands of people marched through Kinshasa in February 1992 in a peaceful demonstration, demanding the reopening of the conference. Many were reportedly “clutching Bibles and rosaries.” But Mobutu’s troops opened fire, killing at least 30 people and wounding more than 100.

Mobutu’s information minister, Kitenge Yezu, blamed “radical Roman Catholic priests,” who he said “were totally responsible for what happened as they had been warned not to hold the march.”

The conference eventually reconvened and elected Etienne Tshisekedi, a Catholic, as prime minister of the transition government. For once it looked as if Mobutu’s era had ended. The international community, including Mobutu’s former allies, the United States, France, and Belgium, which in the past gave Mobutu loans and arms—and even sent their troops to help him crush rebels—recognized the transitional government and called upon Mobutu to surrender power to Tshisekedi.

But in April, Mobutu rebuffed the international community when he dismissed Tshisekedi’s government and appointed his own prime minister, Faustin Birindwa. Tshisekedi has refused to surrender power to Birindwa. “The president did not appoint me, and he cannot get rid of me.”

“The country now has two governments, two legislative authorities, two currencies, and two armies,” said a Western diplomat in Kinshasa.

“We are looking very carefully at a way to neutralize Mobutu without sparking a war,” says Tshisekedi. But some say Zaire remains a time bomb that could explode into a Liberia or a Somalia.

Church perseveres

Despite political and economic instability, reports indicate growth of the churches and endurance of believers.

Robert Fetherlin, regional director for Africa of the Christian and Missionary Alliance (CMA), says the church is doing well. “God enables his church to move.”

The CMA experience is echoed by other mission agencies operating in Zaire. “We have good reports. They are struggling on,” says Wood of WEC Canada.

“They are determined not to be discouraged by the circumstances,” says Dyck of the Mennonite churches.

The CMA, which has been in the country for more than 100 years, had to pull out its 25 staff members; since then, only 4 have returned. Fetherlin says the abrupt withdrawal of missionaries may turn out to be a blessing for the CMA-related churches. “I think it may work out well for the church,” he says. “They are standing on their feet.” And the church is keeping pressure on the government. In May, the Presbyterian Community of Zaire pledged to “disobey unjust laws” and asked for United Nations intervention in dealing with Mobutu’s human-rights record. A statement signed by the moderator and general secretary of the Presbyterian Community of Zaire said, “We denounce all of the maneuverings to perpetuate the dictatorship, especially the looting, arbitrary arrests, theft, and violations [of human rights].”

These may be hard days for the people of Zaire, but evangelical leaders on the continent say African Christians must not give in to pessimism, but rather confront their national challenges by faith and prayer. Tokunboh Adeyemo of the Nairobi-based Association of Evangelicals of Africa and Madagascar says, “The future of Africa is not in the hands of secular politicians, economists, developers or financial institutions … but in your hand as a woman or man of God and of prayer.”

By Isaac Phiri.

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