Signs of Faith in Africa

In life and death, two young Nigerians are "cheerful givers."

By Francis M. O'Connor, SJ

     God uses the stuff of our world and of our human experience to reach out to us, to get through to us, to change us, to save us: water, bread, wine, oil, human words, human gestures, symbols and sacraments that are an essential part of the Church’s life. The primary symbol is the humanity of Jesus, the most splendid of all God’s creatures.

      Two young Nigerian Jesuits I knew embodied the richness and power of the humanity of Jesus. They were novices when I was a member of the staff of the regional novitiate in Benin City, Nigeria a few years ago.

      One of the Nigerian novices is Victor Gbem who was from a small rural village and a member of the Tiv people. In July 2001, Victor, 27, was diagnosed with liver cancer. The doctors said he was terminally ill. When Victor heard this news, his response was: “I prayed that I would accept either a long life or a short life. Now my prayer has been answered.”

      The doctors’ advice was to keep Victor as comfortable as possible. Permission was requested and granted to let him pronounce his first vows early. Two months later, on September 8, 2001, he died.
Before he knew he was sick, Victor had shown me several photographs of himself taken on Good Friday back in his home village where for several years he played the role of Jesus in the village re-enactment of the Passion. In the pictures, he is shown carrying the cross as Jesus did.

      In the homily for his wake Mass following his death, I told Victor’s family and others who had come from his tribal village that in the second year of his novitiate, he also played the role of Christ during our annual Good Friday outdoor Stations of the Cross. Neighboring religious sisters and other villagers attended our re-enactment of the Passion each year. During the rehearsal for this Good Friday pageant, Victor asked that when he was lowered from the cross, other novices in the play should lay his body on the ground and cover him with a shroud; the rest of us would move on, leaving him lying on the ground covered by the shroud.

      That Good Friday was Victor’s second to last Passion re-enactment. His final Passion play was his own, from July to September when he lay dying in his bed at the novitiate in Benin City.

      The other Nigerian novice is Anthony (Tony) Konwea. In his early 20s, Tony was a member of the Igbo people and came from the sprawling, chaotic city of Lagos, the New York of Nigeria.

      Tony was scheduled to pronounce his first vows in July 2004. He was a vibrant, upbeat, smart young man and reminded me of “the cheerful giver” Paul speaks of. (2 Cor. 9:6-10)

      On July 8, 2004, the novices from Benin City arrived in Cape Coast City in Ghana, for their annual vacation. Fr. George Quickley, SJ, was the novice director at the time. The group would stay for 10 days at the Jesuit retreat center in Cape Coast, built on a beautiful bluff overlooking the Atlantic Ocean.

      After arriving at the center and getting unpacked that afternoon, Quickley took his young charges down to the ocean. Lifeguards were posted on the beach, but there were also some strong currents in the waters, perhaps unknown to the guards at the time.

      Since they were unable to swim, Tony Konwea and another Nigerian novice shared a small life preserver as they ventured out into the ocean. They soon encountered the underwater currents and became aware that they were in trouble, as were several other novices nearby. In a matter of seconds, sensing the extreme danger they were in, Tony realized that only one of them on that small life preserver would make it. Tony let go and was swept out into deeper dangerous waters and drowned. This account of what happened was given by his partner on the life preserver after being rescued by the lifeguards. Another Jesuit novice also drowned that afternoon.

      It took several days for the two bodies to be recovered and then shipped back to Nigeria for burial. Tony Konwea remained St. Paul’s “cheerful giver,” even at the end.

      In Africa, I am considered an elder because of my age. Elders there are usually held in high esteem by younger people. When you enter a room, people immediately offer you a seat. But in a reversal of that custom, I bow down before these two younger Jesuits, Victor Gbem and Anthony Konwea, to honor them. How could they not be basking in the glory of the Easter Christ!

      Victor Gbem and Tony Konwea, pray for us.

Francis O'Connor, SJ, works with the Ignatian Lay Volunteers in Baltimore, Md.
He spent three years working and ministering in Nigeria.