“As if it were today” | Tales from Muhanga 11
From the diary of Father Giovanni Piumatti during his time in Muhanga (North Kivu). Reflections still relevant today
Saturday in the village…African
It’s Saturday night again: the famous one and the normal one.
A picture made of various colors and many messages; always valid and true, everywhere. Everywhere there is the beautiful rhythm that many cultures have passed on to us, cultures that have their roots up high: a week of work, often strenuous, and then the day of rest, a day of celebration, deserved, expected and dreamed of.
Do those who have chosen or been forced to sell it for a fistful of money, this beautiful, rhythmic gift, realize what they have lost?
Does he realize what sad poverty he is heading for, or has he already fallen for it?
Those who have so organized today’s society, the city, the country…, do they realize the ‘diabolical gear they have built?
Here, in the courtyard before my eyes, the boys play ball, farther in the corner the merry-go-round resists the creaky, endless rotation, while over there on the street the ritual, almost invisible procession winds its way: a few young men with
the ubiquitous machete in hand and a log on their shoulders, overburdened mothers and mothers returning from the fields, … like the famous damsel; the others wander through the village.
Yes, that very atmosphere that Leopardi contemplated and beautifully painted.
Effortlessly, I am reminded of those Saturdays in Solere di Savigliano, when I was at my grandparents’.
It was not much different from what I see today; maybe just a little more fatigue here.
And I wonder: where is civilization today? Indeed, I seriously wonder: will the day come when those who today claim to be exporting democracy, and in the past believed to be exporting civilization will come and ask us to export this life to them? I believe so, it will come!
(Father John Piumatti, March 21, 2017)
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Source and image
- G. Piumatti, Muhanga. Parole e storie d’Africa, p. 428