Creative workshops in Angola restore the dignity of poor farmers
Author: Ophélie Schnoebelen, 14.02.2019.
I am a farmer, king of the land.
The whole village has gathered in the shade of a tree to listen to the young man reading poetry composed by the community.
I am a farmer, king of the land.
I am the one whom many despise, not understanding that in the end they depend on me, because without my work no one of the human race will survive.
The young man is full of dignity: holding his sheet of paper, he reads one sentence at a time. The old teacher repeats the same in the Chokwe language, with so many gestures that it almost looks like sign language. There is so much power and vitality in this language, even though I do not understand a word of it.
I have the patience and faith of the people of Israel, waiting for the seed to grow so as to eat its fruits tomorrow: vegetables, fruits, grains. I rise early in the morning and return in the afternoon with the mighty calling of ensuring the survival of humanity.
One of the young men, Chinganga Moisés, reads poetry composed by the whole community in the workshop.
Suddenly a gentle wind rises, as if nature were listening to us with kindness. I feel that the earth can breathe, and the gospel whispering in the leaves of the tree: the last shall be first, the humble shall be king.
To be here, in this remote Angolan village, which we reach after hours spent on red, dusty roads, is something deeply moving. To see these men and women standing and expressing their important role in this land. Despite their poor appearance, these words restore to them all their royalty.
Here, in Chinanga Moisés, and in about thirty other villages in this province, the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) supports communities’ needs for land, food, and security. At the root of this practical project to improve living conditions, and of all LWF projects, is the dignity inherent in every human being.
Today I have come to offer them a time of celebration, a moment to honor the gifts and talents that God has given to everyone, a moment to see their worth, individually and collectively. It is a powerful psychosocial support tool – an experience of the healing and transforming power of words.
What inspired them to compose this poetry? Just one phrase, which I read to them among many other examples: I am an insect with the courage of a lion.
A workshop with women in Mumanga
I am strong, because I bear the upheavals of life with great hope for a better future, because I am an admirable creation of God – a woman of faith.
The next day I am in a schoolroom with 15 women who have gathered for yet another workshop dedicated to self-esteem. That does not sound like anything grand, but it is a victory in itself: to draw these women away from the rest of the community, for just one hour. At one mother’s breast are two infants, but the older children were kindly led outside. They came back in through the windows. Finally, in order to have a quiet space, we decided to close the windows.
I invite them to speak about their importance to the community, their work, and their qualities. In the middle of the circle they laid down their produce: corn, cassava, tomatoes, various seeds, and handicrafts, a mortar with a bowl.
Each woman in turn stands up and speaks in the middle of the circle. They tell what they do: I rise at dawn, I cook food, I go to the fields, I pile up cassava… This they can easily recount, but when I ask about their character traits, an awkward silence sets in, with them looking on shyly. My question sounds completely foreign to them. Finally, I begin to name one quality for each woman and ask the others to do the same. Each woman receives these gifts of words, their eyes grow misty, they are moved.
The pastor’s wife receives: generosity, with a warm welcome and food for everyone who comes to lay down their sorrows in her home…
The congregation’s treasurer: honesty, attentiveness…
The old woman who cares for the children when the younger women are in the fields: a mother’s love, protection…
The midwives: gentleness of hands as they receive every child that is born in the village, peaceableness…
The women farmers: endurance, courage, diligence, nurturing, irreplaceability, patience…
From this harvest of qualities and compliments they will together develop this beautiful text in the Chokwe language, a true hymn to all these brave and often invisible rural women:
I am a rural woman, I am water for my family,
With my unnoticed work – I water the flowers of my home – and my community.
I am irreplaceable for the development of human life in all its dimensions.
I deserve the dignity of humanity.
Within the framework of the LWF food security project, the villagers were able to secure rights to their land and to create small gardens to feed their families.
Support for women is an integral aspect of all the LWF’s activity. In these rural communities the mindset has changed through patient cooperation: women take part in decision-making processes, hold positions on village development committees, legalize their land, and work as equals with men.
However, I have noticed that women mostly remain much quieter during meetings, and for them naming qualities is a much more difficult task than for men, who easily point to their importance to the community.
A men’s group in Mumanga
“Take the time to acknowledge, share, and praise your importance to the community”: that was the instruction I gave to some fifteen men who gathered in the small classroom.
I am surprised at the ease and dynamism with which they take on this task. A young man rises to his feet:
I am a blacksmith,
I am king of the wheel.
I am a maker of knives and machetes,
Without a knife no one can eat meat.
I am king of the fields,
If I do not make a machete,
The farmer cannot work.
The village blacksmith is the first to rise and describe his trade during the men’s workshop in Mumanga.
When everyone stands and names their functions, before my eyes are all the trades held by the villagers, wondrously complementing one another …
The traditional doctor appears as a solution and a healing substance…
The carpenter is the tool that turns boards into objects endowed with meaning…
The teacher is the one who transforms, without whom knowledge and inventions are not possible…
The young musician is the joy of celebrations…
The traditional leader is a source of resolving problems…
The honey gatherer and the gardener who grows tomatoes are described as vitamins and a source of strength for the villagers.
The participants inspire one another, the tailor naturally becomes a doctor of clothes, and the activist a doctor who halts diseases. The one who deals with the problems of male infertility becomes a king of children.
My colleague translates for me, word by word, sentence by sentence. While he writes like a faithful scribe, I look at the men standing and gathering their thoughts. I see pride in their eyes, and an awkward body language shows that such an exercise is unusual for them…
Among them is an old man, with a face deeply furrowed by life. Since the beginning of our meeting this morning he has persistently woven a large basket with a weave pattern that repeats.
With an honorable and dignified appearance, he rises and proclaims:
I am a maker of traditional mats;
That is how I survive.
I am a man of beauty.
I am the one who creates beauty in this village.
Silence descends and greets this truth, followed by applause from the group. Again a feeling of gratitude overcomes me: indeed, this old man, whom the modern canons of beauty would have rejected, reveals himself to himself and to his listeners as a “man of beauty”, a creator of beauty – both the beauty inherent in what he creates, and a beauty that can be seen only by the heart.
An elderly basket weaver in Mumanga describes the beauty of his craft.
One of the last testimonies moves me so deeply, perhaps because this man’s task is in a way close to mine and to all those who work to change attitudes. It is an activist who enlightens the inhabitants on questions of hygiene and on such trivial but necessary aspects as the building and upkeep of latrines, the installation and use of waste bins, the placing of pans on a table rather than on the ground…
I often realize that what I do is not much,
But in the end my work is very valuable,
I am a doctor who prevents diseases,
I am the fire in the village,
Like lightning I illuminate the village.
When my colleague translates this last sentence for me, I realize with joy that the man has used one of the few words I have learned in the Chokwe language: PWANGA, light.
This word reflects what so many villagers shared with me when discussing the gifts that the LWF brought them: empowerment and the knowledge of their rights. “We were in darkness and now we are in the light.” PWANGA.
The community of Mumanga stands proudly before the new school, for the building of which the Lutheran World Federation helped them gain support from local government representatives.
Source: Lutheran World Federation
All photographs: LWF/ O. Schnoebelen.