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Visit Report 2004

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Thoughts on a visit to Angola

[Source: Robert Ashdown, St Peter’s Fulham and Treasurer for MANNA]

These are my personal recollections of a short trip to the Diocese of Angola in autumn 2004.

More people are going to Angola. Last year it took six visits to the Angolan Embassy to get a visa. There was just one overworked lady in the Visa Office. This year there are two overworked ladies. The big difference is that now there are two queues – one for stray visitors like me, and a much longer one for Angolans returning home now it looks that the peace will hold. The passengers on the plane from Johannesburg to Luanda are not so hard faced either. There are even two small Brazilian children travelling with their parents. Last year at the airport I was met by Vivi from Immigration who took me through formalities. He kept near me through my whole visit. I concluded that he was probably released by the Government to keep an eye on me, and drew some comfort from his presence. This year he is not at the airport to meet me. I am on my own! Does this mean that the Government think I am harmless?

Once in Luanda there seems to be some improvement – last year I had to pay my hotel bill up front in cash, but this year they will take payment in cash when I leave. Angola is still a cash society. In the evening I watch some television. The “missing person” slots from last year have stopped. Now there are lots of public education slots on “Keep Luanda Clean” and various variations on “Drive Safely”. No one can be taking any notice. There is also the first Angolan soap opera, closely modelled on the aspiration lifestyle of Dallas in which all the ladies wear jewels, all the men wear dinner jackets, and everyone lives in luxury villas by the sea.

There seems to be more “oomph” in the air. New buildings are springing up everywhere, including the first block of flats to be built since the Portuguese left. There are more cars and bigger jams. Petrol costs 12p a litre and the city is full of old cars that look as if they have been stolen in Europe and have then been driven across the Sahara via Nigeria to lead a new life in a new city. The Diocese’s old car finally fell to bits, and now it has two very old cars that would be condemned out of hand in an MOT. When we drive around the city Bishop André keeps his eyes closed, I hope he is praying that we shall arrive safely. I would like to shut my eyes and do the same but am too terrified and want to keep my eyes open for whichever car seems certain to hit us. Cars everywhere, but almost no bicycles or motorbikes. I ask why and am told “too dangerous”.

Much is the same. The United Nations reports that 230 new cases of leprosy were discovered in just the one province of Huambo in September, and when I meet Bishop André he is very concerned about his wife Janeta who has had malaria and typhoid simultaneously in the last fortnight. The rainy season is coming and with it sickness and death as broken sewers overflow, non-existent sewers flood, and shanty town houses collapse and kill their owners. Last year I visited a month earlier and wondered what it would be like when it rained. This year I saw. Thick foul smelling slippery yellow mud everywhere. When it rains the mosquitoes come out to play. On my last night I kill 18 and am bitten twice. Does this count as a draw?

On my first full day I visit the parish of St Augustine (of Hippo), Viana which is linked through ALMA with All Saints’ Church, Fulham, and whose school is linked with All Saints’ Primary School where my daughter is in year 2. The welcome is warm and heartfelt with wonderful singing.

I am going to tell the story of Viana in detail not because it is unique in any way, but because it describes how the Anglican Church is spreading across both Angola and Mozambique, new congregation by new congregation. Viana is a shanty town five miles to the north of Luanda. Originally it was just fields next to a big military base. As the civil war went on and on for 41 years, refugees from the north of Angola came to settle in these fields to be close to the relative security of the military base. Twenty thousand people now live in the area, most of them very poor as they lost everything when then left their original homes. Because the area grew rapidly, and was not in the city centre, infrastructure is poor, with little in the way of health facilities, schools, street lighting, running water or sanitation.

The church was started in 1985 by a layman Virgilio Mvumbi from the Province of Uige who was visiting Luanda and who came to visit the refugees in the fields. He started a small congregation. First it met in the house of one of the members and then, when the congregation became too big to fit in the house, they met under a tree. The new congregation was officially recognised by the Church in 1986. Next they saved up and bought a plot of land, and then started to build their own church, most of it with their own labour. You could not compare it in size or grandeur with Canterbury Cathedral, though it is probably not very different in size to the first church that the other St Augustine first built in Canterbury. Virgilio Mvumbi continued to visit every few months to teach and preach until he died in 1990. Another layman, João Ferreira led the congregation from 1989 until 1991, and then in 1992 Deacon Kiaku Mbanzila Mvumbi, son of Virgilio, took over responsibility for the congregation. It was at this time that this part of the Church in Angola was recognised as part of the Anglican Communion. On 11 August 1993 Bishop Dinis of Lebombo visited Viana, the parish was officially consecrated as St Augustine, and Deacon Kiaku was ordained priest, and has remained Priest in Charge since that date.

Since then the congregation has not stopped still. Two new congregations have been set up. One at Grafanil, 3 miles away, is led by a woman Elisa Luis Escovado Coria who is the wife of one of the Churchwardens. The other called Galileia 8 miles away is led by Albano Luciano. The parish has 500 members. It has its own officers and its own council. There is a Mothers’ Union which meets on Thursdays. It holds Bible Studies, family education workshops, cooking and nutrition workshops, and also makes clothes and runs small projects. They would like to expand this, but are constrained by lack of finance and materials. There is a Youth Group, which is particularly important because Angola is a very young country, and half the parish is under 15 years old. Not many live beyond 45 years old. There is a men’s guild of St Bernard Mizeki which organises Evangelism, Bible Studies, Christian and Family Education, Retreats and small projects. The Sunday School does normal Sunday School things, but is again constrained by lack of materials. There is an Evangelist Group which visits homes, hospitals and prisons; a social development and action group which is responsible for small development projects, and there is a school. All this in 19 years.

The original church building is now too small, so a new bigger one has been started, and the school continues to grow as well. It has 300 hundred pupils and 14 teachers working in two shifts, primary and secondary. Originally there were two classrooms. Now there are five, with plans to build two more. Not all the current classrooms have desks, and there is a huge shortage of materials. There is also no electricity, which means that the classroom cannot be used at night for a third shift, or for adult classes. There are no windows, so it gets cold and wet in the rainy season, and there are holes in the roof, so if you sit in the wrong part of the class you get wet when it rains. Many adults are illiterate, especially women. They are proud of their school and tell me that people come to live in Viana so that their children can go to it. I wondered how much desks cost. Mario dos Santos told me US$100 each. This is more than you would pay in the UK, and seemed expensive to me. I did not want to disbelieve him, but the next day I went for a stroll around Luanda, looking for a shop that sells school desks. I found one, asked the price and was told US$115 per desk. Everything like this has to be imported. After 41 years of war there are no working factories or workshops left. Importation means “high customs duties”. 

Also walking the streets I find the headquarters of the church that is called “MANA” here. It is a well-appointed villa in a rich street with big car in the driveway, and security guards on patrol. It is a far cry from where Bishop André lives. This is one of the new Pentecostal Churches that preaches the Gospel of Prosperity, promising all sorts of gifts from God to those who give generously to the pastor. Its web site www.igrejamana.com emphasises its special attractions for businessmen. Have a look. In both Angola and Mozambique on the other hand the Anglican Church is definitely the Church of the Poor.

At the end of the visit to Viana we exchange gifts, and have a question and answer session. They have said what they need so I ask what can they offer a link church in England in exchange. They say they can pray for their link parish, and that they can share experiences. They would welcome visits both ways and say that they would especially like women to visit them, as all the visitors to date from outside of Angola who have been to Viana (all three of us), have been men. They would also welcome the opportunity to offer hospitality in their homes. I also ask what is good in their lives and in Viana and am astonished at how contented they are. Music is good in their lives. They say that Viana is a good area and although it is poor it does not have many problems. It is not full, “like Luanda”. They feel that their community lives. Why are there so many different churches in Viana? They say it is because people were refugees from different parts of Angola, and that each group of refugees brought the local dominant church with them.

I repeat, this story of growth is not unique or unusual. Many congregations have a similar story to tell. Only the names will be different.

Back in Luanda Bishop André is worried about his wife, and finds his work overwhelming. In September he travelled most of the month, spending just three days at home. He will not be at home from 21 October until Christmas because he will again be travelling around the country, visiting old congregations, new congregations and doing hundreds of confirmations.

What problems does he want to share with us? The site of Christ the King in the centre of Luanda is a huge problem. It is a large area, about a hectare, given to the Anglican Church in Angola by the Lusitanian Church. The church, church offices, and the vestry where Bishop André lives are in one corner. The rest was taken over in the civil war by squatters who built a big refugee slum with no facilities at all. There are approximately 200 hundred families, or some 2,000 people living here. The Government will re-house them, so that the site can be developed for a proper Centre if, and only if, Bishop André can show that he has already raised the US$1,000,000 that it would cost to build the Centre. How or where can he raise US$1,000,000?

Then there is the church farmland in Uige Province. If properly managed this could help the church to become self sufficient, but how can he get proper training for people to manage this project when for the last 41 years everyone has been engaged in subsistence farming? There are bursaries for people to study in England, but what is taught at Wye has limited relevance for a tropical mountainous region. MANNA has provided funds to start a small agricultural project that now employs 15 people. Could we help with more? Could forestry be developed? The Church of Sweden is helping to set up two forestry schemes in Mozambique starting with 250,000 acres (some 20 miles by 20 miles). Angola has the best potential for forestry in Africa, and the farmland has standing timber. By happy coincidence I meet Dr Åsa Tham in Lichinga, in Niassa Diocese, ten days later. She has a Doctorate in Forestry, and runs the forestry projects of the Swedish Diocese of Våsteras in Mozambique. By even happier coincidence she is due to visit London in November for a meeting of ARC, the Alliance of Religions and Conservation, whose Patron is the Duke of Edinburgh. We meet again in London and talk more about Angola.

She thinks that there is definitely tree growing potential, probably more than in Mozambique, but the Swedish link is with Mozambique, not with Angola and so it would be unreasonable to expect them to support any project in Angola beyond any general advice, and possibly some help in setting up a nursery. She thinks that the land would be ideal for teak, say 250 acres, that would mature with high value in 18 years time, and that short term cash could be generated from 250 acres of eucalyptus that would mature in four to five years. A possible secondary crop would be sandalwood, which the experts tell me, is also increasingly valuable. This would help the Diocese become self-supporting. If the project went well, then it would serve as a pilot for a much bigger area that could attract World Bank finance, and the new traded carbon credit financing. Then the Diocese of Angola would not only be self-supporting, but could even start to support others. Where can Bishop André look for help with the start up costs of a nursery? Time is important here for as Åsa says, “a missed year in forestry is very expensive”.

Then he has to worry about the church’s four health centres, one in the north of Luanda, one in Lobito, and two in Uige. The one in Luanda is in good shape, and the one in Lobito continues to receive generous support from the family and friends of Bishop Graham Dow, one of MANNA’s Trustees. The Ministry sends trained nurses but the church has to pay salaries because the Ministry of Health declines to take responsibility. One health centre at Macuba in Uige needs complete reconstruction that will cost at least US$15,000 but at least here UNICEF will help pay nurses’ salaries.

His new house has been started. It is in the south of the city in the suburb of Benfica, a few miles past the President’s new home on top of a hill that is protected by three separate walls. MANNA bought the land and paid for the planning permissions and designs. Bishop André took me to see progress. Two big cisterns, the boundary wall, a small guest annex, and the foundations of the main house have been built. There is space at the site for more buildings. Bishop André has no furniture so, if you visit Angola next year you will be able to stay with him, but will have to sleep and eat on the floor.

Last, but not least, I think that Bishop André and the church in Angola still feel isolated and unknown by the world wide Anglican Communion. At a rough calculation I think that the number of people from outside Angola who have visited them in the last twelve years can be counted on my fingers and toes. Go and visit. It may not always be an easy country, yet your visit will mean so much to the church there.