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.
The Diocese of Lodwar belongs to the ecclesiastical province of Kisumu and was separated from the Diocese of Eldoret first as a Prelature (1968) and later as a Diocese (1978).
Its territory coincides with the civil territorial division of Turkana County, of which Lodwar is the capital. 10% of the population is Catholic. They are 77,000 square kilometers (like Castilla-La Mancha in Spain, or Zacatecas in Mexico, or 1.5 times Costa Rica), of which 64,782 square kilometers are land and the rest are water (lake). At present, it slightly exceeds one million inhabitants.
The first Catholic missionaries arrived in the region on December 8, 1961. They were two missionaries from the Society of Saint Patrick of the Diocese of Eldoret, to which the entire Turkana region belonged. The first activities were linked to famines and food security projects, especially related to children. In fact, the famine of 1961 in Turkana propitiated that more definitive establishment of the Catholics.
AIM, a Protestant group based in Lokori, was already working in the region; and in the north of Turkana there was an American Quaker group, in Lokitaung, which caused some administrative problems with the arrival of the Catholics, as the authorities wanted to protect the previously established Protestant groups.
Those first two missionaries, Joe Murray and Ray Murtagh, had the task of distributing the aid collected from Kenyan Catholics to alleviate the Turkana famine. They created a refugee camp in Nadapal, near Lodwar. Due to the lack of water and the fact that it collapsed in a short time, with no possibility of widening, he moved it to Lorugum because it had better conditions, more land and more water availability; here also began to work with medical care.
Then came the Medical Missionaries of Mary (MMM), who were directly in charge of health care in the camp. They arrived in 1962, they were the Irish sisters Andrea Kelly, Bernadette Gilson and Champion Campbell, familiarly known by their initials: A, B and C.
At first the local authorities refused the Catholics even to build stable buildings in the camps, much less think of a more permanent settlement in Lorugum or Lodwar. Negotiations were arduous until the permits were obtained to establish themselves thinking not only of the distribution of famine aid, but of permanent missions, and health and educational services.
More Congregations and religious Orders were added, such as the Missionaries of the Holy Spirit. The help of the German Catholic NGO Misereor was essential to open the first schools. Turkana’s first educational system was, in fact, financed by the German Catholic Church, from 1962. Literacy in the region has for decades been organized and managed by the Catholic Church, to the point that missions and schools are identified as a single thing for the inhabitants of Turkana
The Diocese of Eldoret had become an almost ungovernable entity for a bishop due to its size and population. In 1968 it is divided into three: Diocese of Eldoret, Diocese of Nakuru and Prefecture Apostolic of Lodwar, entrusted to the Society of Saint Patrick (Kiltegan Missionary Society). Its first apostolic prefect was John Christopher Mahon, SPS (Killurine, Ireland, 1922 – Nairobi, Kenya, 2004), who would also be its first bishop with the conversion of the Prefecture into a Diocese in 1978.
Turkana already seemed like a promising mission area for self-development. At that time, when it separated from the Diocese of Eldoret, it had a complete Primary School in Lorugum, a dispensary and a craft center. Shortly thereafter the Catholic Church founded the first secondary school in the entire County in Lodwar, the foundation stone of which was laid in 1968 on top of a volcanic hill a mile east of the city.
The Catholic Church also had a certain political role due to its critical action against the colonial government, whose yoke in the region was especially heavy for three reasons: it promoted the isolation of the region, thus bringing many political dissidents to it; there was no special program against poverty; and, finally, the fiscal burden with very harsh taxes made an economic takeoff of families almost unsustainable.
In 1975 the Comboni Missionaries opened their first mission, in 1993 the Missionaries of Saint Paul the Apostle arrived, in 1996 the Irish Union of Ursulines, in 2011 the missionaries of the Foucauld Movement. There are also the Missionaries of Jesus Crucified, the Sisters of the Annunciation of Nazareth, the Sisters of Saint Joseph of Tarbes and the Sisters of the Assumption. The presence of consecrated life is extensive and even exceeds the presence of diocesan priests.
Today it has 27 parishes, eleven diocesan priests, 48 priests of missionary orders and congregations, 16 non-priest missionaries and 60 religious, 300 Catholic communities and around 600 basic ecclesial communities. Since 2011 the bishop is Dominic Kimengich, a Kenyan native of Kituro (1961).
It counts as a sister Diocese the Diocese of Kalamazoo (Michigan, United States), whose bishop, Paul K. Bradley, made a visit to Lodwar in October 2013, which left shocking images for the American delegation:
On the Jubilee of the 50 years of evangelization, in 2012, a Congress was held focused on the many conflicts that are currently being experienced between the Kenyan, Ugandan, South Sudanese and Ethiopian populations, as well as the disputed geographical area of the so-called Ilemi triangle. It ended with the following statement:
“We acknowledge in all humility that, despite our best efforts, we have not adequately represented the spiritual and pastoral dimensions that are so necessary for reconciliation and peace. However, we acknowledge the graces channeled through our ministry to the people of this region.
We resolve to establish an interdiocesan coordination team to promote peace activities among neighboring dioceses that have conflicting groups. We sincerely ask interested bishops to start this process as soon as possible.
We resolve to share our pastoral agents and the resources available to train our pastoral agents.
We resolve that the dioceses of the region will do everything in their power to achieve the total disarmament of the civilian population.
We recommend that the bishops, clergy and religious commit themselves to take the initiative and achieve the goals and objectives of this interdiocesan conference on peace and cross-border evangelization”.
The arrival of the Augustinian Recollects propitiated a more complete Church, since the contemplative vocation still had no references in the region. Hence, the foundation of the monastery in 2010 even had repercussions in the local media.
Just as in Nakwamekwi there is a greater presence of social services, especially educational ones, the Augustinian Recollects have added yet another, the Santa Rita de Casia hostelry, a space for rest, rest and operations center for missionaries from rural areas when they come to the diocesan headquarters.
Until now, when they came to Lodwar to run errands, manage pastoral or social projects or make purchases for the parishes they serve and for their own communities, they had nowhere to stay. The Santa Rita hostel is already a space that serves both for short missionary stays, as well as for longer stays of rest or spiritual retreat. With this, in addition, the sustainability of the contemplative monastery itself is supported.
This space was built thanks to the generosity of Bernard Tansey, a faithful Englishman very close to the Missionary Community of Saint Paul the Apostle, a Congregation that serves in the rural area of Turkana with its communities of Nariokotome, Todonyang, Lobur and Kokuselei.
A Mexican Comboni missionary described the parish of Nakwamekwi, next to which the Augustinian Recollect nuns live:
“I am happy to work with these welcoming people and participate with them on their journey towards Jesus Christ through comprehensive development, although sometimes I am also helpless when I cannot help them solve problems caused by hunger, injustice or the negligence of others who take advantage of their ignorance and poverty.
At the community level, we sometimes cooperate with some international organizations in development projects for these towns, such as digging wells, building classrooms, providing scholarships for students, paying teachers’ salaries, or supporting a center for deaf boys and girls. People also contribute their grain of sand for these works.
Nakwamekwi has 30,000 inhabitants, of whom 4,400 are Catholic. At least once a month we visit each rural community to celebrate the Eucharist and review the activities. In each chapel there is a catechist who organizes the catechumenate, acts as a preschool teacher and presides over the celebration of the Word in the Turkana language every Sunday.
They are the right arm of the missionaries, since they have been trained to be catechists; they have received the solemn sending of the bishop after a year of preparation in the Pastoral Center and two years of service to their community.
The Turkana people are monotheistic, they believe in a single God whom they call Akuj; It has great religiosity, openness towards others and preserves biblical texts in the Turkana language.
These values remind me of an indelible experience. One day I went to visit a chapel; people did not arrive at the agreed time, and I began to get nervous. After an hour and a half of waiting, only ten people had arrived. I told the catechist that people were late, and he replied:
“Father, you came for them, right? You must wait for them.
He gave me a good lesson in what patience means and being with them.”
NEXT PAGE: 3. Augustinian Recollects in Lodwar: a dream come true
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”