Introduction

                                                                               

Why do I want to write my biography?

 

For more than half a century, people in the West, in Europe and America, have known prosperity, never fought a war, never saw starvation or mass unemployment, never seen the extremes of human existence. They feel so comfortable that they seem to have turned their backs on grand visions. Many seem to live on the surface, unencumbered by memory and light on knowledge.

By putting my active life of the past century on paper and placing it against the experience of the entire 20^th century I hope to make a small contribution to regaining that vision which our generation possessed in the 1950s.

In my case that vision was of a missionary of the Catholic Church, someone who went out to make the world a better place to live in for the coming generations of humankind. This might sound very outdated, bombastic, or pompous but for many a young man or woman of that time this is very real and part of the mindset of most of the Christian churches of the West. I get the impression that this still belongs to the ideology of many young volunteers who belong to more secular groups of international assistance.

When I left The Netherlands, the country of my birth, in December 1958, I was not alone, but one of three thousand Dutchmen and women who worked all over the world with a similar vision. Other countries in Europe and America had similar numbers, if not more. Side by side, and at times in competition, with the Catholics were the many Protestant missionaries with the same motivation and a similar dedication. In many ways, and often unwillingly, they were still part of the ‘colonial’ effort of previous centuries; they might not have subscribed to the three Cs of David Livingstone, (Christianity, Civilization and Commerce), but most of them were convinced of the benefits of what they had to offer, in the same measure as the Non-Governmental Groups are.

The numbers of these missionaries from Western Europe have dwindled drastically. Of the twenty four of my group, ordained in 1958 to become White Fathers, most have died,  left or retired to their home country. Only three are still more or less active in Africa. In the near future ‘the last of the Mohawks’ will have gone to their ‘eternal hunting grounds’ with hardly any trace left on earth now.

That is the fear of my niece, Marja, the daughter of my younger brother. As someone living in Zambia who has a doctorate in African History, she is of the opinion that her uncle should get his autobiography in print before he joins his missionary brothers and sisters in ‘whatever comes next.’ She may be right. Someone will have to do it as a representative of all the thousands who dedicated their life to the great missionary effort of the last century.

 

I have been in Zambia on and off for almost half a century. I have known the Catholic Church before and after the Second Vatican Council. I lived with all its subsequent tensions. I did not ‘leave’ or sit on the ecclesiastical fence but held out in one way or another. During these years I experienced change of status, from being sent by the parish community as a hero to being regarded as a remnant of old colonial furniture.

Without self-pity or self-glorification and with as little criticism as possible, I would like to talk simply about the ups and downs, about the beauty and the tensions of those years.

The people of Zambia have taught me a great deal.  It seems to be the fashion to look down on the so called ‘Third World Countries’, especially those in Africa. “What good can come out of Africa besides raw materials, and safari parks” is the often-heard remark.

People who have been in those countries for longer than a few weeks, or even a couple of years, know better. They know that most of its people have to fight against tremendous odds in order to survive and to lead a decent life.

By writing about my life in Zambia I hope to contribute to a better understanding of, and a greater solidarity with, the countries in the ‘sunny South’. 

 

To give a broad picture I will first write about my own family background, my youth and year of preparation in the seminaries. The first 6 years in the Chinsali district of Northern Zambia proved to be formative and made a lasting impression on me. Then came Vatican II with all its ‘joys and hope’ but also with its subsequent ‘grief and anxieties’ of the people of our age. [1] The years that followed were very creative but also turbulent with a great deal of groping in the dark and learning by mistakes. Due to a number of circumstances the handing over of the establishment of the Catholic Church to a local ministry took longer than expected. For a long time the missionaries were left ‘holding the baby’. It was after the African Synod at the beginning of the 1990’s that a definite transfer took place.[2]

It is with this background that the story will be told. 

 

Father Hugo F. Hinfelaar, Ph.D

 

 

[1] Abbott, W. 1966, Gaudium et Spes, Constitution on the Church in the Modern World. Documents of Vatican II, p.199, Chapman,London.

[2] See, Hinfelaar. H.F. 2004, History of the Catholic Church in Zambia 1895-1995. Bookworld, Lusaka, Zambia.