Chiedza Vol 10 No 2 The Legacy of African: From Centre to Margins

Abstract

This year, 2007, marks the centenary anniversary of the birth of Pedro Arrupe. the 28th Superior General of the Society of Jesus. As it is from imposing figure in the Society's history that our college takes its name from, Chiedza thought it appropriate to dedicate its December edition of this year to the legacy of Arrupe. From a very early age, Pedro Arrupe was deeply affected by the plight of the poor and the marginalized. This deep commitment to the suffering and oppressed was starkly apparent in his inspired and visionary governance of Society as Superior General. During his tenure he steered the Society into making a solid option for the poor and set the agenda of social justice as the "priority of priorities". He challenged people to humanize the world, to live more simply, and to do away with luxuries and dismantle unjust social structures. Such a radical approach was not welcomed by many, especially those whose power was propped up by such unjust social structures. Arrupe's devotion to the struggle for faith and justice saw him shifting the focus of the Society and the Church from a stifled preoccupation with itself and its centres of power to the concern for the marginalized and oppressed. His generalate saw the creation of JRS in response to the plight of millions of refugees worldwide. Arrupe was also a man of his time, demonstrated by the way he fully embraced the demands of Vatican II to open the Church up to the modem world and make the faith relevant to the lives of ordinary people. Arrupe's legacy is definitely one of moving from the centre to the margins. A number of our contributors have dealt explicitly with this legacy, most notably Charles Chilufya, who looks at the call of Jesuits today to continue Arrupe's dream in the continued struggle for faith and justice in our world. Augustine Ekeno also examines what Arrupe has to teach a world that has become increasingly consumerist and satiated in unnecessary luxuries. Other conttibutions, while not dealing with Arrupes' legacy explicitly, focus on themes that would certainly have been close to his heart, such as Haang'andu's analysis of conditional aid to Africa from the developed world that fails to respect and promote the agency and autonomy of Africans in shaping their own destiny. Ibe Oguh takes a critical look at the human rights discourse, with particular focus on the right to development, while Stephen Buckland attempts an overhaul of anthropology, with a view to freeing it from its traditionally condescending orientation to the study of"the other." Lastly. Nii Addy examines how a group usually to be found on the margins of society, whom he identifies as transnationals, can give us refreshing insights into new methodologies both for development and evangelisation. In short all our contributions aim at pushing back the boundaries of human thought and knowledge in the true spirit of Arrupe's humanism. We are happy to be joined in our task of "lighting Africa" by three new Board members: Tapiwa Mustinze, Xavier Murambiwa and Richard Bwalya, we welcome them and hope they ·will enrich our efforts to enlighten and inform through this journal. lam also pleased to inform our readership that our email address(to be found on the front page), which has been long defunct, is now fully operational, so we look forward to bearing from you, please send in your comments, responses to the articles, and your own contributions. In the meantime, enjoy this issue.

Isaac Fernandes S .J.