Written in Italian and entitled “Giù le mani dall’Africa!”, the book, prefaced by Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, is a collection of speeches and homilies given by Pope Francis during his recent apostolic trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and South Sudan.
The Vatican Publishing Bookshop announced on Monday, May 22, the publication of the book “Giù le mani dall #Africa!” (Don’t touch Africa!), which condemns the continued exploitation of Africa by Western powers. “Get your hands off Africa! Stop smothering Africa: it is not a mine to exploit, nor a land to plunder. Let Africa be the protagonist of its own destiny,” Pope Francis said in his first speech in the DRC.
The book is a collection of speeches and homilies given by Pope Francis during his recent apostolic trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and South Sudan, from January 31 to February 5. The book also contains testimonies from those who met the Pope during his stay in the two countries. “A precious and important document, combining the prophetic voice of Francis with rich testimonies of suffering and faith,” says the The Vatican Publishing Bookshop. “It is a precious book because it combines the prophetic words of Francis with the voices of Congolese and South Sudanese women and men who reveal, with great courage and humility, their journey of suffering and faith, offering a rare testimony of man’s ability to forgive,” said the famous Italian media “L’Osservatore Romano”, published by the official Vatican information service.
The preface by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
The preface, meanwhile, is written by Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, who said that the book “brings me a little bit of hope for the Congo, and for the beloved, broken-hearted continent I call home,” according to the Vatican News website.
In her preface, the Africa Rivista website reports, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie calls the pope’s meeting with the people of Congo and South Sudan “a tribute to the primordial importance of ordinary human beings. “Here is a religious leader who is attentive to the smallest details of people’s suffering, to the weight and value of emotions and feelings. Here is a leader who sets an example, urging others not to lose their sense of wonder at the human encounter,” she writes.
The Congolese tragedy as seen by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
According to Vatican News, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie focuses on the Pope’s trip to the DRC, “a country whose resources have long been exploited, a country exhausted by looting and conflict, a country in desperate need of rebuilding”. The greatest tragedy of the DRC, she says, “is not the internal conflicts but the silence of the world,” which “testifies to the continued devaluation of African humanity by a world that greedily consumes African resources. In this context, the writer continues, Pope Francis’ visit to the DRC, and his powerful messages there, read like “a necessary rebuke” to rich nations.
For Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, the Pope’s message is not simply that the Congo – and, by extension, Africa – is important, but that it is important for one reason. Not for its resources, on which the global North depends, not for fear that the continent will once again become the site of Western proxy battles, as it was during the Cold War, but simply because of its people. “Africa matters because Africans matter,” she writes.
