Dancing for Life in Mwanza
"If you can walk, you can dance" the African proverb says, and despite their poverty the people of the Uba community dance for joy when Father Jim Eble arrives. You can help him build a rectory and meeting rooms to serve the poor in the slums and villages on the outskirts of Mwanza, Tanzania.
As soon as they see Maryknoll Father James Eble approach from a distance, the members of the Yuda Tade Christian community in Mwanza, Tanzania, begin to sing and clap their hands. Even the long shadows of the banana and pomegranate trees seem to join in the celebration, swaying gently in the late afternoon sun. Forty adults—and just as many children—have gathered on a hillside to welcome their pastor.
The sun is setting when Eble gets up to leave, but instead of saying goodbye, the entire community—erupting into a song of praise—accompanies him to his car parked a half mile away. En route, other children, unsure of what all the joyful commotion is about but happy to be a part of it, dance and clap their hands. The charismatic crowd—without even so much as a pause in their musical merrymaking—passes an open-air market, a mosque and an evangelical church before reaching the car.
"Now that is a real African experience," says Eble, getting into the car. "For me Africa is the dance, the dance of God, the dance of life. There's a natural joy and energy that comes with Africa. They're ready to smile even in the midst of their poverty."
Mabatini is the name of the Mwanza slum where Eble is pastor, a four-kilometer stretch of land on the eastern slope of a valley on Lake Victoria's southern shore. An unplanned settlement, Mabatini—which literally means "corrugated tin" because most of the dwellings are covered with metal roofs—is home to 60,000 people.
For the 51-year-old missioner and his pastoral team, Mabatini is fertile ground for evangelization. "The people have a thirst to learn more about their faith," says Natalie Kadio, Eble's exuberant pastoral assistant. "They want to change their life for the better." The role of the parish, says Eble, is to tap into this desire to change, to be transformative. "My hope is that in our journey together, we can become a school of transformation in Christ."
Obstacles on this road to transformation are many, including spousal infidelity, ethnic and religious conflict among Mabatini's evenly divided Catholic, Evangelical and Muslim communities and "Ushirikina," the use of curses and animal sacrifice in "solving" problems.
But no evil eye or communal squabbling will deter Eble and his team from sowing seeds of unity and trust, be it from the church pulpit or a wooden bench outside the mud and stone homes of the people. "Everyone says that Baba Padri (a term of endearment meaning 'Father Priest') is different from the other missionaries," says 68-year-old John Bosco Manji, a catechist for 40 years. "He visits us where we live. We're very pleased with his presence among us."
That's what building trust is all about, says the soft-spoken Eble—being present and forming relationships. "When you show in a real way—with your presence and accompaniment—that you are for the people, you become their 'Baba,' their father. It's a very powerful sense in their lives and in my own life too."
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