AEFJN (Africa Europe Faith & Justice Network) is celebrating its 25^th anniversary. The majority of Antennae –as are called the national groups of AEFJN- have put together a programme covering Europe and Africa and consisting of various activities such as round table discussions, film presentations, thanksgiving masses -all of which will culminate in Rome in November-, to celebrate the experience of grace in serving the Kingdom over these past 25 years.

Those missionaries who support AEFJN wanted this celebration to proclaim the renewal of their commitment to the people of Africa. The celebrations in Brussels, the seat of the executive secretariat attached to the European parliament, brought together from the 22^nd-25^th April the representatives of Antennae and gave them the chance to set out the ‘Action Plan’ for 2014-2018.

Work began with a round table discussion on the various expectations from Africa, with Aniedi Okure, the Nigerian director of AFJN in Washington; Antoine Berilengar from Chad, director of the Development Study Centre in N’djamena; Annie Girard, French, executive secretary of France  Antenna in Cameroon; Jean-Pierre Djibu, DRC, professor in Lumumbashi. In her welcoming address, Begoña Iñarra, Spanish, executive secretary of AEFJN in Brussels, underlined the innovations in this gathering: it wants to celebrate not only the successes and the difficulties of these years, but also the courage and intuition of those people who began this venture 25 years ago; and for the first time together were the representatives also of NGO partners -AFJN and VIVAT- and of Africa Antennae members.

From these 4 speakers all were able to listen to what Africa is waiting from the ‘action plan’. Africa has changed over the last decade, and it is normal that the plan changes accordingly;  the situation today is complex and it is well to bear that in mind: some countries are living with war, others at peace; some countries though ‘abandoned’ by nature suddenly find themselves rich in raw materials, while others border on endemic weakness; Africa’s riches, the object of wild envy, are called to be a challenge and not as a missed opportunity, able to nourish its youth and its women, not its conflicts as so happens all too often. From the listen perspectives emerge new expectations.

These days there are new actors on the stage alongside the former colonial countries:  multi-national companies and governments of Brazil, Iran, China, India and South Africa, the so-called BRIC countries, of which it must be remembered, that might instil fear but also can be sources of hope if instead the road of armed conflict and insurgency it is accepted to go down the road of sincere relations based on legality, equality and consistency. One can no longer accept  the policy of double standards according to the country or of hidden agendas which only come to light once the war is finished, such as in Libya, where those who shot Kaddafi are now running the trade. Finally, the demographic increase confers on Africa’s youth untold riches but poses at the same time an educational challenge for their future in the world of work.

Let us thus return to a thorny problem: money that the rich countries pour into poor governments is often a curse. It engenders corruption and dependence; instead of fostering micro-finance and co-operatives, or of financing water provision and sanitation, it aids and abets palace coups and rebel groups. What is needed is to link education with real life and faith to the training for justice and peace, so that good governance springs forth, rooted deeply in the culture of each country; people become aware of their rights and their responsibilities; and thereby local community autonomy is empowered. That is where the change in mentality of Africans too is needed, with regard to financial management, to the common good and to civic responsibility.

The representatives of Antennae, under the leadership of Donna Collins, worked afterward through the topics so far received, and through both the positive and the negative experiences, in order to identify which issues were to become the major lines of the new Plan.

The method chosen was to have a brainstorming session which would lead to setting out 2 or 3 priorities that could be brought before the Brussels secretariat as starting points. As a result there was a storm of analyses, suggestions, projects, hopes and fears with the concomitant mixture of (1) land grabbing with its multiple cultural, legal, economic and ethical issues and its implications all relating with water, minerals, deforestation, food security, bio-fuels, climate change and the survival of small farmers; (2) commerce made more difficult by the problems of free trade in which equal shares are feigned by the richer trade partners so as to impose their own interests and in which are found jumbled arms, land, tax evasion and tax havens; (3) declassified and out of date medicines; contracts drawn up with no heed to social implications; government corruption and financial arrangements set by the IMF and World Bank; European politics and their African equivalents. 

Donna Collins has found herself trying to manage a “Niagara” overflowing out of control through the thinnest funnel of proposed binding guidelines: faith dimension, environmental impact, capacity building and networking of grassroots especially African. Thus the conclusion was that the work must continue: on a rough draft prepared by Donna, everyone involved will present their ideas and suggestions in order to reach a common proposal to form an Action Plan  to be presented to the Executive Committee in Rome.

To everyone’s joy, right in the middle of all this work, the 24^th was the day to celebrate. It began with a solemn Eucharist, headed by Wolfgang Schönecke since long time a member of AEFJN from the German Antenna, accompanied by Aniedi Okure from Nigeria and Joseph Akono from Ghana. In an atmosphere of joy where they got again together former collaborators and members of AEFJN as well as missionaries that had shared their love and commitment to Africa, and in the presence of the Papal Nuncio at the EU, the program arrived at the main “dish”:  two panels on “The future challenges for Africa-EU relations.”

The first panel touched on “How Africans subsist when threatened by economic expansion and globalisation. What challenges are there for Europe?” Those on the panel included Begoña Iñarra (AEFJN), Thierry Joseph Amougou, a journalist,  Annie Girard (AEFJN from Cameroon) and Antoine Berilengar (Director of CEFOD, Chad). What was very moving for all the participants was the short film about the ‘socio-ecological’ effects resulting from bad agricultural policies in Cameroon and the summary of difficulties and results that CEFOD in Chad is collating.

The second panel centred on “African farmers and farm workers under threat from commercial politics and the rush for natural resources. What should Europe’s response be?”  Panellists included Wolfgang Schönecke (AEFJN-Germany); Mark Maes (11.11.11); Leonardo Mizzi (General Director for Agriculture and Rural Development for the EU). After very rewarding presentations by the three panellists on the reality facing Africa concerning land grabbing, free trade and European policy towards goods there followed a free and frank heated debate between the public and the first two panellists with Agriculture Director General Mizzi. The debate cast in a clear light that if, on the one side, Africans recognise their heavy responsibilities in the continent’s current sad situation, on the other side, Europe is still unable to accept its own responsibilities: corruption involves both corruptors and those corrupted; bi-lateral trade always has hidden agendas often not admitted; above all, investments give the impression of being merely a means to impose economic and social readjustments and monocultures to export in favour of the donor nations.

The last half-day was devoted to a sharing of ideas. The outcome were that in the next few years not only North-South but most of South-South networking should be promoted; more space should be given to the laity for them to provide their special expertise that missionary commitment can not bring along;  to act so that our Antennae are rejuvenated by reaching out to the new generation; to reinforce the links between the secretariat in Brussels, the executive committee in Rome and the contacts persons who should become the effective collaborators; but above all to promote a capacity building of acting on social issues for our grassroots basis in Europe and in Africa. And to learn how to “relate” life, experiences and the suffering of Africa, that, what is encouraging, are able to open hearts and eyes of those with responsibility in the EU.

Indeed, while the future of Africa is certainly in the hands of Africans who wish to reinforce their capacity to act, since at stake there is their life, it is also undeniable that our responsibility concerns those Europeans and especially young Europeans who have the task and the right to be formed and informed so as to face their future by having the awareness of what is happening in the world.

Africa, on the whole respected by global economic and multinational giants, thanks to its young population and inexhaustible resources, would cease to be part of the problem, and become part of the solution, in a world that longs to further the cause of justice and to increase hope in the hearts of its people.

Best wishes for the 25^th anniversary to AEFJN and all the best for the future.