‘Hands Off Africa’- New Book Pope Francis
In her preface, Adichie focuses in particular on the Pope’s trip to the DRC, “a country whose resources have long been exploited, a country exhausted by pillage and conflict, a country desperate to be made whole again.”
The greatest tragedy of the situation, she says, is “not the internecine conflicts but the silence of the world”, which “speaks to the continued devaluing of African humanity by a world that nevertheless eagerly consumes African resources.” In this context, she says, Pope Francis’ visit to the DRC, and his “potent” messages there, read as “a necessary rebuke” to wealthy nations.
“His message”, she continues, “is not merely that Congo – and, by extension, Africa – matters but that it matters for one reason only. Not for its resources, which the global North depends on, not for fear that the continent could become again the scene of Western proxy battles as happened during the Cold War, but simply because of the people. Africa matters because Africans matter.”
Source: Vatican News
