In the remote Kenyan region of Turkana, next to its capital, Lodwar, the desert and widespread environmental poverty have come to offer an unusual and privileged space for living the contemplative Augustinian Recollect charism. We will first approach the region where the nuns live; then we will learn something about the local Church that has welcomed them and the monastery, its history and current affairs; and finally we will enter the most intimate of one of the contemplative vocations that go on mission with their sole presence in this remote African region.
Nakwamekwi, the village where the Augustinian Recollects monastery is located, is just four kilometers from the diocesan headquarters and St. Augustine’s Catholic Cathedral in Lodwar. It therefore belongs to the metropolitan area of the largest city in northwestern Kenya and the capital of the Turkana region.
Lodwar is 477 meters above sea level and has just under 50,000 inhabitants. Only 14% of the Turkana population is urban. The city was founded in 1933 by a merchant as a rest and replacement area for stables and mules on the routes that crossed the deserts to the north. A gas station and commercial stalls were added to the first business, population was attracted and then health care services and even a prison arrived, creating the current structure of the city.
Starting in the 1960s, missionaries from various Christian confessions have been building missions, schools, clinics and a network of interconnected posts. The Catholic Church, despite being a religious minority in the region and arriving somewhat later than Adventists and other religious denominations, was a pioneer in educational and health infrastructures: today 60% of the facilities dedicated to health are created and managed by the Catholic Church.
The same happens with the educational facilities, given that Education was an important means for the Evangelization of the area, given that literacy was considered essential to be able to take the doctrine everywhere, as well as for the training of catechists and translators.
In that decade of the 60s there were also attempts, albeit unsuccessful, to set up fish canning projects by Norwegian and Italian investors. But because of its isolation, the region became a place to house political prisoners the British government wanted away from the centers of power. In fact, the first president of non-British Kenya, Jomo Kenyatta, spent two years under house arrest in Lodwar (1959-1961). This reputation as an isolated and disconnected place persists to this day.
The climate is desert and hot, with one of the highest average temperatures in the world: 29ºC; the maximums are between 34 and 36ºC, and the minimums between 22 and 24ºC. It has never dropped below 12.6ºC, the historical minimum recorded. In contrast, the average annual rainfall is only 186 millimeters and there are 3,600 hours of sunshine per year.
Lake Turkana is 65 kilometers from the Agustinas Recoletas convent, a closed hydrological system fed by the Omo, Turkwel and Kerio rivers and with evaporation as the main means of water loss. It is about 290 kilometers long by 32 wide and has an average depth of 30 meters; its deepest point is 109 meters. It has three volcanic islands, one of them still active and emitting steam.
It is the most alkaline of the lakes in the world and its water is drinkable but has a very unpleasant taste due to its salinity of 2.33 grams/liter; fresh water has less than 0.5 grams/liter, is brackish between 0.5 and 30 grams; the sea has between 30 and 50 grams per liter and above 50 grams it is already brine.
Since June 2018, Turkana is on the list of World Heritage in danger of disappearing. The construction of dams has reduced the supply of water to the lake in a double way: filling is prioritized over the natural course and a lot of stored water is used for irrigation, which does not return to the system. The latest has been the Gilgel Gibe III dam and the Kuraz sugar development project, both in Ethiopia. On the Kenyan side, the Turkwel River (which passes through Lodwar) is dammed at various points for electricity production.
Between 1975 and 1993 the lake lost ten meters in height. If it were to lose another ten, the salinity would increase to 3.4 grams/liter, unfeasible for human consumption and causing a great mortality of fish. The lake serves as a staging post for migratory waterfowl and is a breeding ground for crocodiles, hippopotamuses, and various snakes. It contains about 50 species of fish, 12 of them endemic.
Turkana is of primary importance for Paleontology and Anthropology, due to its fossils in Koobi Fora or the appearance of some of the oldest human remains Australopithecus anamensis (4 million years old), the skeleton of the “boy from Turkana”, young 3.5-million-year-old Homo ergaster and the 1470 skull, a two-million-year-old Kenyanthropus platyops.
The population has different ethnic origins, reflecting important migrations over thousands of years: twelve languages are spoken, divided into three large subgroups. But the region was isolated for centuries until the 1970s with the arrival of missionaries and, in the last decade, energy and mining companies.
Successful prospecting for hydrocarbons and gold has been carried out, and there are optimal conditions for wind energy. In 2013, large underground water reserves were discovered by means of satellites and since 2014 the population of Lodwar already enjoys the water of these aquifers.
The increase in the population in 30 years was 600%: from 142,702 in 1979 to 855,399 in 2009, the latest available census, with a ratio of 92 women for every 100 men. Population density ranges from 29 people/km2 in the Kakuma area to one person/km2 in Kibish.
The most settled areas are along the Turkwel and Kerio rivers, which allow some irrigation. Also in these areas are the main markets and educational and health social infrastructures. The center and north have a worse standard of living, aggravated by the proximity of the borders with South Sudan and Ethiopia, very permeable and with high levels of insecurity..
80% of the population lives from livestock; 64% are pastors; around 8% are dedicated to basketry and charcoal and 2% to fishing in the lake. It is the last region in GDP (Gross Domestic Product) and HDI (Human Development Index) of Kenya. Illiteracy reaches 70% and infant mortality 159‰. 65% lack drinking water and there are no sanitation networks. Only 35% have electricity. 81% do not have their food needs covered; 74% have a high poverty rate, which for 62% reaches a severe level.
Malaria is endemic and the dust in suspension from the desert causes respiratory infections and eye and ear complications. Medical care is poor and insufficient. Regarding education, there are 169 primary schools and 13 secondary schools, with between 60 and 80 students per classroom.
In Lodwar there is a male polytechnic; in Kakuma a women’s center teaches handicrafts. Nakwamekwi, the village of the monastery, has important educational infrastructures and even the only home for deaf children in the entire region, San Lucas, which is run by the Diocese of Lodwar.
NEXT PAGE: 2. The Catholic Church in Lodwar
TABLE OF CONTENTS
- Introduction
- 1. Lodwar, the center of Turkana
- 2. The Catholic Church in Lodwar
- 3. Augustinian Recollects in Lodwar: a dream come true
- 4. Sister Irene: “I wanted to feel with the missionaries, suffer their difficulties, loneliness, hunger, conflicts and failures; celebrate their achievements, listen to them”