“God loves us all equally. He will not help Burundi more than he helps other countries […] God helps those who help themselves”, economist Léonce Ndikumana reminds Christians, during a conference-debate on the role of natural resources in the economic financing of Burundi organized by the Bank of the Republic of Burundi, Friday 19
“God loves us all equally. He will not help Burundi more than he helps other countries […] God helps those who help themselves”the economist Léonce Ndikumana reminds Christians, during a conference-debate on the role of natural resources in the economic financing of Burundi organized by the Bank of the Republic of Burundi, Friday, August 19.
The self-proclamation of a privileged relationship with God short-circuits the urgent work of diagnosing the dying Burundi patient through consultation to bring out clear-cut options on which to debate and arbitrate. To refuse to leave room for the opposing opinion is to cut off the wings of the intelligence which only unfold in doubt and shaken certainties.
This variant of the “chosen people” revisits the past in the maquis over and over once more in order to glorify it. President Ndayishimiye joined, Thursday, July 28, members of the Cndd-Fdd party in Ngozi in the ecumenical prayer of thanksgiving. Today’s theme: “Members of the Cndd-Fdd party, be careful not to forget what the Lord has done to us in the past. » The Head of State gave his testimony: “During the struggle, God stayed with us. It is time to give thanks to God, who has guided us throughout the battlefield.” The time of “divine revelation” takes precedence over the political time which presses the pause button when the hour strikes to take stock with an uncompromising look at the present.
Contrary to the spiritual quest – to make believers grow and translate into works -, the quest for identity values bigotry – collective prayer as a prelude to the said conference-debate -, and relegates work to the background as a value and sine qua condition. not development. We turn to “Ejo ni heza” (Tomorrow will be better), the worst becoming the engine of hope.
All that matters is the expression of belonging to the tribe of believers and the comfort brought by mythological thought. The palme d’or goes to a student from a supposed high place of rigor of thought in the land of “milk and honey”. The spirit of the times has allowed itself to be encapsulated in this formula: “We are poor, but we believe in God.”
In a church in the town hall of Bujumbura, women, young and old, go to mass, container in hand, every morning to have their water blessed, hoping that a miracle will knock on their door to dislodge them from their homes. the misery that has taken over the place. This quest for identity is the symptom of an evil in constant progression: the culture of packaging. In this case, the religious rite becomes the essential, the personal effort, the insignificant.
As long as bigotry, a tool for numbing lucidity, has good press, Burundi will not arrive at its destination… only ideological drift and brutalization will land.
Guibert Mbonimpa
