"L'Africa non ha bisogno di voi, sia chiaro! È più il disturbo che l'aiuto che potrete dare!”: ascoltando queste parole ti ho conosciuto quindici anni fa, quando mi preparavo ad andare per la prima volta a Marsabit. Non mandavi a dire niente e per questo alcuni giovani si spaventarono e non partirono più.
Ma, frequentandoti di più, una volta che Marsabit era entrata nella mia vita, ti eri lasciato scoprire grande ascoltatore, qualità che più volte mi hai ripetuto di aver appreso durante la tua missione in Africa. E poi tanti racconti particolari di giornate, eventi, successi e fatiche con il tuo compagno fedele don Tablino, nella vostra terra di Maikona, tra i nomadi Gabbra, di cui avevate imparato lingua, cultura e tradizioni. Fotografie d'epoca sfogliate lentamente, a pochi intimi; racconti snocciolati piano piano come perle preziose, gli ultimi anche in occasione della nostra visita ad Alba il mese scorso.
Ti faceva piacere sentire le novità da Marsabit, anche se poi, quasi sempre concludevi con ragione: “L'Africa che abbiamo conosciuto noi non esiste più, voi vivete in un Marsabit diverso!”.
Quando domenica abbiamo passato la notizia della tua nascita al cielo ai cristiani di Marsabit, ci sono arrivate decine e decine di telefonate e messaggi, pieni di riconoscenza, affetto, ricordi e preghiera, come se non fossi mai andato via da loro, come se ti avessero sempre avuto vicino.
Grazie fr. Okola per la tua perseveranza nella ricerca del Bene. Grazie grande missionario, tu che dicevi: “A me l'Africa non manca, perchè io l'Africa ce l'ho dentro, io sono africano”. E ora che il tuo cuore vive senza limiti di spazio e di tempo, potrai finalmente assaporare tutto l'Amore e l'Affetto di Dio e nostro in piena consapevolezza e pienezza. Prega per noi e per l'Africa intera.
50 ANNI DI STORIA - 50 YEARS OG GOOD NEWS
Fr. Bartolomeo Venturino left Alba-
Italy on August 1958 by ship from Venice to Mombasa and then immediately he
started to teach in St. Paul Major Seminary in Nyeri. He studied canon law in
Rome and he dedicated his ministry in Alba diocese as a teacher, but when he
heard about the Encyclical “Fidei Donum”, asking for diocesan priests for
Africa, wrote by Pope Pius XII in 1957, he told himself: “This is for me!”. He
was addressed to Bishop Cavallera, in Italy in those months looking for new
human resources to help him in evangelizing Nyeri diocese and to create a local
clergy. Since Venturino arrived in Kenya, he started a prolific correspondence
with fr. Paolo Tablino, friend, priest and teacher from his same diocese, who
would join him in one year time. With him, he took his journey to the northern
part of Kenya, opening a new era for the Catholic Church in Marsabit. In 1966
Bishop Cavallera sent fr. Venturino to Maikona, at that time a very small
centre where the nomads stopped to water their animals. Venturino stayed there
3 years, building the houses for fathers and sisters, the church, the school
and the dispensary. After this period he asked the bishop to take a break: he
had a deep dream in his heart. Let us listening to the story from his own very
words (interviewed by Erika Grasso in 2011/2012):
“Bishop Cavallera at a certain
point gave me one year of break. So I went to a manyatta in Maikona, called
Kossicha Roba. They knew me because I had built a lot in Maikona and I told
them: My name is fr. Okola – because I limp -, you know me. I’d like to stay with
you, with my tent and my camels. He told me: Come and stay. Then we shall see.
I started on the mountain in front of Maikona, with my ten cammels, I was
following the men to the pasture. The children were coming to me, I was
teaching them something and then I had some medicines, like the one for the
camel’s thicks. For one full year I studied their language, taking notes and
talking to them and then I wrote two dictionaries. One day Bishop told me: Fr.
Tablino wants to come and join you. So we started to work and walk together.
With him, we went to all the Gabra to assure them powder milk, oil, maize for
years and years. So everybody wanted us. The church of Maikona was already full
of people because they understood that being a Catholic meant to be “insured”.
We brought many to schools. They called me fr. Okola for my way of walking or
fr. Galla, of camels because during drought, instead of giving them flour, I
preferred to give them camels and help them to remain nomads. Then we started
to preach the Gospel. We wanted to experiment a short of “nomadic mission”
between Gabra. We moved to Turbi: our idea was to spend long time with the
people, moving with them, visiting the Olla and starting the pastoral
activities. But before starting we had to sit down with the d’aabela of the
area. We told them: You all know us: we built for you the school and the
dispensary in Maikona and your children know us and the nuns. But now we would
like to tell you something more. We have a message from God and this is why we
came to this country. We’d like to go to your villages and pass this message.
Can you allow us to do this? One of the wazee stood up and told us: This is an
important issue, we cannot give you an answer before discussing among ourselves.
We will call you when we have decided. After half an hour, they call us back
and told us: We don’t have anything against your preaching in our villages. But
we want to tell you two things: first, we feel free to accept your message or
not; second, if some of us don’t want to accept your message, please don’t
consider them as enemies, denying for them your school and dispensary services.
So we walked, we were not
staying in the parish, we went where they were, we stayed with them and eat
with them. We loved their culture and we had never considered it superior or
inferior to ours, but we had always treated it with big respect. We tried to
translate and enculturate the Good news of the Gospel in this culture. We found
Gabra culture to be similar to the Old testament: it means that God prepared
them through their traditions so something new could be born and grow: Jesus.
This is the great news”.
