HOLINESS AMONG THE NOMADS

The Fullness and Sacredness of Life lived by some Missionary Martyrs as Path of Reconciliation and Peace

of Daniel Joseph Giolitti 

1. Experience: the Missionaries in Northern Kenya e Recent Violence

      After the independence of Kenya, in 1963, our Bishop Charles Cavallera, a holy active and contemplative missionary, was allowed by the Government to open missions in all parts of Marsabit and Samburu districts in Northern Kenya. With his Consolata Missionaries, he spent the first ten years of evangelisation in building mission centres with schools, dispensaries and water boreholes because these facilities were totally absent and because they were requested by the people. The Catechist Training Centre and the Diocesan Seminary were started at Maralal. In 1981, Bishop Ambrose Ravasi succeeded Bishop Cavallera, and the development of the diocese of Marsabit increased in term of mission centres, outstations and Diocesan Institutions (e.g. two hospitals, three secondary and two technical schools, two Pastoral Centres, Diocesan Offices and recently the Consolata Shrine-House of Prayer).However, in the early 1970’s Bishop Cavallera invited his missionaries for the direct evangelisation in the nomadic villages, by studying the local languages and culture of the people. In 2001, Bishop Virgilio Pante was consecrated Bishop of Maralal, a new diocese split from Marsabit. Here, because of the many conflicts and tensions among the tribes of Samburu, Turkana and Pokot, the process of reconciliation, justice and peace remains the first priority.

      A very good example of dedication and holiness, among the missionaries who worked and are still working in Northern Kenya, was Fr.Luigi Graiff (1921-1981). After having experienced the critical period of the Mau Mau movement of rebellion, he was sent to Marsabit Diocese. His confreres say that he was a hard working missionary, ‘tilling arid and rocky soils’. He was courageous up to ignore danger, however he loved life and enjoyed the fraternal community life. Under a ‘thick skin’ he concealed a loving heart. Fr.Graiff was an sensitive missionary, and he gave his life for Africa up to its very end. On the 11 Jan 1981, he was killed at Parkati (Tuum) by the Ngorokos bandits.

      Fr.Luigi Graiff with Fr.Michele Stallone (1921-1965) and Fr.Luigi Andeni (1935-1998) are the three Consolata Missionaries martyrs killed in Kenya, all of them worked among the nomads in the North.

      Personally, I feel privileged to work, for the time been, in these missions among the nomads in Northern Kenya. During my pastoral year of service in Wamba mission together with Fr.Pietro Tallone, Fr.Lino Gallina, Fr.Giuseppe Gorzegno and Fr.Matthew Odhiambo, I have seen the marvellous work done by our confreres, here and in many other missions together with the Consolata sisters. Now, I am living the mission ‘ad gentes’, especially by visiting the villages of the Samburu on my motorbike. To reach some outstations of the parish I have to travel even 80 kilometres from the centre through “adventurous” roads! Then on the occasion of my deaconate ordination, a very rich karamu (celebration) was organised with the participation of the whole community: the children, the youths and the Kina Mama (group of women) performed traditional dances and songs; the wazee (old people) imparted me their traditional blessings. I was also given the title of moran wa Mungu (warrior of God).

      Unfortunately to disturb the harmony of the communities, like in the past and now after the general election in Kenya, we are experiencing strong tensions and conflicts in whole country. We are living in a difficult moment never seen before – said an old missionary – where many people have lost their lives, their properties and their home. We urgently need reconciliation and peace. For this reason, this short reflection wants to be a small contribution to foster peace and reconciliation through the path of holiness.

2. Social-Cultural-Religious Values of  Samburu: Holiness as Fullness of Life

      During these past weeks following the general election on 27 December 2007, we have seen in Kenya the eruption of violence that caused the lost of almost 500 lives and displaced 300,000 people. The root causes of the conflicts had more to do with economic and political reality than it had to do with ethnicity, though all the three are linked in Kenya context. According to an editor of the United Nation, Kenya is one of the most unequal societies in the world: 10% of the country’s 35 million people control 42% of the nation’s wealth, leaving nearly half of the country’s population subsist below the poverty line.¹ Inequality tends to manifest itself ethnically and regionally, with some ethnic groups and regions, like the nomads in the Northern Kenya, benefiting less from public resources than others.

      Looking at the nomadic life, as archaeological and linguistic researches show, it has been a successful way of life in the Horn of Africa, that lasted for at least 3,000 years. Moreover, this life is fascinating and challenging, as a missionary said, because the nomads manage to survive in extreme environments (desert, droughts, famines and tensions) with minimal means. This is in high contrast with the lifestyle we see taking place in the modern global world, where people tend to settle in the most favourable areas, and at the same time seems to be creating more and more needs that can only be satisfied with more and more complex systems.²

      When I enter into one of their magnattas (village), at the centre I always notice the so-called kulal, a ‘sanctuary’ or the holy place. Normally a group of wazee prays there. One of them stands and, raises a stick toward the sky and pronounces a series of invocations. The others, sitting down, answer each invocation by closing rhythmically their hands and by saying Nkai as calling God himself. Around Christmas, I used this rich symbol to inculturate the event of incarnation that God has really come among the Samburu in Jesus.

      Looking at this situation, according to me, one of the best values in the Samburu nomadic culture that can explain the concept of holiness is the reality of life itself. For the Samburu tradition, we can say that a ‘holy life’ is a full and ‘sacred’ life, i.e., experienced in its totality and in its continuous awareness of God’s presence. God is called Nkai, which means rain, vital for life, survival and continuity. Nkai is the one who sends rain from the sky and by doing so, he nourishes and sustains life. Through the rain God blesses the earth, people and animals, and enables life to multiply itself in unlimited ways. So as part of an evening prayer they say:

  Nkai look at us with your happy face,

  Touch us with the black cloud of rain

  As the long rains.

  Nkai give us your water

  Nkai give us what is very much desired about the children

  And the livestock.

  Nkai do not make the land deserted

  Nkai give us some places where there is life.³ 

      According to Fr.Egidio Pedenzini, who has studied the cultural-anthropological aspects of the Samburu, their prayer is a vital manifestation of dialogue and of invitation to the co responsibility to live together. There is not a religious or holy moment separated from the rest of life, but moreover there is “an integral breath of the whole human being together with what surrounds him, God, animals and things.”⁴ The missionary says that the prayer for the Samburu is not only an oral expression, but also it involves the continuity of life. It is not a single strong moment of life (like often we tend to think), but a web of ordinary activities that embrace the daily normal life.

      We can say that the fundamental behaviour of the traditional Samburu or his “holiness” of life is different from a religious activity as we in the Western world are used to think. Even, in the Samburu vocabulary the word “religion” does not exist. Therefore a holy or right life accompanies the Samburu person in all aspects of his or her existence, not as a rite or liturgy, but as everyday and ordinary atmosphere of the human history.

      We might say that holiness in Samburu context can be seen as the fullness and sacredness of life. A life lived fully and shared with the community, with the respects of all the steps of the rites of passage is the fundamental value among them. Moreover, it is very interesting to know that for them, life is considered in its totality, much more of a unity than for Western people.

      However, as I have said, in the past and now recently, selfish political and tribal interests on land and power have overcome these traditional cultural values. Life is not anymore protected but destroyed. Therefore, as missionaries we need to propose the way of holiness for a true and deep reconciliation. We need, therefore, Christ who comes to fulfil the traditional values and brings the true live.

3. Theological Reflection⁵: “I thirst for God, the living God.” (Ps 42:2)

      For the Samburu, Nkai is the owner of life and is prayed in infinite occasions, like:

  Nkai, give us a life that has no end,

  That always continues.

  Nkai give as a life that proceed in peace

  [lit. blessed as the water flows in the river.]⁶ 

      In the Bible, the word ‘life’ indicates fullness, intensity, and totality. ‘Life’ is a global and primary symbol that shows everything which human being is looking for. Life is health, well-being, joy, peace, love, fear of God, communion with God.⁷ The Scripture, then, provides wonderful visions of the Living God as a source of life, by using rich symbols like the one of water. The Psalmist says:

   As a deer yearns for running streams, so I yearn for you, my God.

   I thirst for God, the living God; when shall I go to see the face of God? (Ps 42:1-2). 

      In the Old Testament, as the people wandering in the desert, God reveals himself as source of life (Gn 16:14; Ex 15:23; Dt 11:14; Ps 42:2. 143:6; Isa 8:6. 30:23. 41:17. 44:3. 55:1. 55:10-12. 58:11; Jer 2:13.17:13; Ez 47:1-12; Dn 3:74-87; Jl 4:17; Zc 14:5). The scene of the life-giving water of Ezekiel 47 is the strongest revitalization of the people and the land, which are the fruits of a new relationship with God. The fact that, in the text before the stream flows out over the desert, it passes by the altar of the temple is not coincidental. It symbolises God’s desire to communion in holiness with human beings. The prophet Jeremiah summaries it by calling Yahweh “the spring of living water” (Jer 2:13; 17:13).

      Jesus said, “I am the life” (Jn 14:6). With this he wants to present himself as the deep reality which the human being is looking for in order to realise himself. Also in the encounter with the Samaritan woman, Jesus owns the term “living water” referring to himself as the source of holy life. But the highest point of God’ s revelation as the fullness of life is the Jesus’ cry on the cross, “I am thirty” (Jn 19:28). Then the soldier “pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water” (Jn 19:34). As the pope Benedict XVI comments very well, “If one looks at history with a keen eye, one can see this river flowing through the ages from Jesus crucified […]; one can see that life, the real life flows from this spring of love that has given himself and continues to give himself.”⁸

      So, without Christ, life is not life at all. Of course it is possible to exist but not to live fully. And reconciliation becomes almost impossible. An existence close to egoism, selfishness, closes to itself, is not life. And it is against life. Instead, to live a holy, sacred life in the fullness of Christ is the path toward reconciliation, justice and peace.

4. Plan for Action: Martyrdom at the Service of Reconciliation, Justice & Peace

      As “rivers of living water” (Jn 7:38), the holy missionaries among the nomads must be first of all a ‘contemplative in action’ (RM 91): they have to “drink” from the source of Christ in order to quench the thirst of the people.

      In the Lineamenta of the Second Special Assembly for Africa of the Synod of Bishops it is written that the Christians have to devote themselves in prayer and in-deep reflection which, in turn, gives rise to initiatives to make further progress toward holiness, following the saintly example of the missionary martyrs.⁹

      Our founder, Bl.Joseph Allamano transmitted to us a holy missionary life and an excellent method of evangelization which includes proclamation and human promotion as integral components of it. This is how he speaks about the conditions for sanctity:

“This is what is required: to hunger and thirst for holiness, i.e., to desire it with the same intensity with which hungry people desire food and thirsty people desire a fountain of fresh water.”¹⁰ 

      Fr.Luigi Graiff (1921-1981), as I have said, is one of our confrers who has paid with martyrdom his vision of missionary holiness among the nomads. On January 11, 1981, he was killed by bandits in the desolate Tuum Mission, Samburu District, at the foot of the Nyiro Mountain, fondly referred to by the locals as the mountain of God. The surrounding area is hilly, rocky, dusty and sunny, with tremendous and permanent periods of drought. The only real oasis in this desert is Parakati Oasis School and it is the source of water that has brought life to the community. Just few months before the traumatic event, others missionaries witnessed that fear was visible on the face of the people, who were afraid of the attacks by the Ngorokos. Every hill and valley in the area was full of memories of the sad events.¹¹ On that day Fr.Graiff with a catechist and some altar boys after the celebration of the Sunday mass at Parakati went to Tuum’s community devastated by several raids, and with increasing tensions and ethnic conflicts in the area. Fr.Graiff was aware that his life was at risk, but he continued to go there in order to provide religious instructions, education, health care, supply of water and food. One time he explained, “First of all, I only do my duty, and in the second place, there are still school children and few old people who are not able to run away. If I do not bring them some flour, what shall they eat?” This is what we call holiness, a full life donated for he others. According to the catechist who survived and narrated the event, when the Land Rover of the missionary was twelve kilometres toward Tuum, a group of Ngorokos armed with spears and guns appeared. Having understood the situation, Fr.Graiff tried to put the vehicle in reverse gear, but the Ngorokos shoot at the car killing two altar boys. Graiff stopped the car and he got out of the vehicle saying, “We now can do nothing else but kneel down and pray.” The catechist managed to escape, but Fr.Graiff was executed and died on the spot.¹²

      Fr.Graiff’s life, like other martyrs, can be also well compared to another missionary martyr Bl.Charles de Foucauld (1858-1916). He also spent many years of his life among the nomads, the Tuaregs in the Sahara Desert. In order to help the local people during a time of drought and to protect them from raids, Charles built a hermitage and a small fort. He used to receive people from the surrounding area in cases of danger and to offer them simple glasses of water or cups of tea. But, one day he was murdered by a band of nomads. From his writing to a friend about his experience in the desert, place apparently without life, we read:

“One has to pass through the desert and sojourn there to receive the grace of God […], to leave space for God alone... It is a period through which every soul must necessarily pass that wishes to bear fruit... Intimate life with God, it is in solitude, in this life, alone with God alone... that God gives himself completely to the one who gives himself completely to Him. […].”¹³ 

      Finally, the life of Fr.Graiff, Bl.Foucauld, like the life of the Samburu, and of us missionaries can be understood only in the light of Jesus Christ. It is in him that we can live a holy life, a full and sacred life, putting aside our selfish interests. A life as it is for the traditional Samburu, that breathes the vital context of the human existence and for Christians, a life based on the fidelity to Jesus, the true Life.

      The idea behind a missionary holiness is to experience ourselves first and then bring people into a relationship with the Living God of Jesus Christ.

      Reconciliation is not an easy achievement at all. It required holiness, a deep and a full experience of Christ, and at times even martyrdom. Therefore, holiness and reconciliation have a profound connection in the mission: if the Church can contribute to Reconciliation, Justice & Peace, it will be a credible witness of the gospel. 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth, Vatican City 2007.

Maggioni B., Il Racconto di Giovanni, Assisi 2006.

Pedenzini E., The Samburu Traditional View of God, Allamano Pastoral Centre, Maralal 1996.

Ramponi G. – Pedenzini E., Così Pregano i Samburu, Consolata Fathers, Nairobi 1976.

Sales L., La Vita Spirituale del Servo di Dio Giuseppe Allamano, Torino 1962, English trans. The Spiritual Life of Joseph Allamano, Rome 1982.

Soldati G., “Kenya: Hanno Ucciso il Padre!”, Missioni Consolata, Torino 1-15 Marzo 1981.

Stoks H., in Mission ad Gentes – The Challenge for the Church in Kenya, “Apostolate with the Maasai,” Tangaza Occasional Papers n.21, Nairobi 2007.

Synod of Bishops, Lineamenta, The Church in Africa in Service to Reconciliation, Justice and Peace, Rome 2006.

Tablino P., Christianity among the Nomads, The Catholic church in Northern Kenya, Nairobi 2006.

Giolitti D., The God of Living Water, An Environment Study on the Drought and Conflicts among the Pastoralists in Kenya toward a Peaceful Solution, Long Essay in Tangaza College, Nairobi 2006.

Rasna Warah, “Kenyans are fighting inequality, not ethnicity”, in Daily Nation, Jan 14, 2008.