Contact Us Sitemap Disclaimer font-size:    

• Arrival
• Opening Eucharist
• President's Address
• General Secretary’s Report
• Treasurer’s Report
• Keynote Address & Responses
• Mennonite Action
• Youth & Women
• Climate Change | Public Hearing
• Elections
• Illegitimate Debt | Public Hearing
• HIV & AIDS | Public Hearing
• Evening Get-Together
• Message & Resolutions
• Closing Eucharist & Departure
• Ecumenical Greetings
• Exhibition Space
• Questions Worth Pondering
• Voices from the Region
• Communio Garden
• LWI Assembly News
• Videos
• Video Streaming from the Plenary

Jeannette Ada from the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Cameroon offered an African perspective in her response to the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams' 22 July 2010 keynote address at the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) Eleventh Assembly, 20-27 July 2010, in Stuttgart, Germany. © LWF/Erick Coll

22.07.2010

Lament about Injustice in Africa

Delegate from Cameroon Denounces Human Trafficking

STUTTGART, Germany, 22 July 2010 – “The widespread injustice in [my country] Cameroon and in all of Africa is a scandal,” lamented delegate Mrs Jeanette Ada. She was responding to the keynote address of the Archbishop of Canterbury The Most Revd Dr Rowan Williams at the Eleventh Assembly of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) today. Ada called on churches to rethink their diaconal ministries and missionary mandates in order to work against the unjust distribution of resources and negative cultures that humiliate people.

She especially denounced human trafficking, which affects women and children in particular. For example, in the north of Cameroon, at the age of 12, young girls are forced to get married, in order to bring together two families. In some cases even unborn children are promised in marriage. Furthermore, children are subjected to large-scale trafficking and forced labor. They are stripped of their dignity and are humiliated.

Like Archbishop Williams, Ada understands that the term “bread” in “Give Us Today Our Daily Bread” refers not only to food. Rather, she sees “bread” as representing all needs that are not satisfied. In this sense she also counts the lost dignity of sold children as “bread.”

Referring to the rich resources in Cameroon and in Africa as a whole, Ada lamented that so many people suffer from hunger and thirst. One reason for this is that governors want to make only themselves rich, she said. Because of the unjust distribution of resources, many people are suffering. She called for intelligent stewardship of Cameroon’s resources, but the political will is still missing, she said.

The questions that concern the people of God should not be left to the politicians. “Rather, the churches should be aware of their responsibilities”, Ada said. In Africa, which is especially vulnerable to and affected by climate change, and where deserts are growing, “we Christians must work together in order to make use of the earth again,” she said. The communion of churches must not remain silent while large tracts of land are in the hands of companies or enterprises. Considering that Africa is so rich in resources, “it is a scandal to see so many people suffering from hunger,” lamented Ada.

(358 words)

• All the news