Lome, 29 November, 2019 / 1:52 am (ACI Africa).
As African countries continue working towards enhancing democracy in the 21st century, an African missionary priest has challenged politicians in the world’s second largest continent to integrate their political vocations with prophetism.
“Figures of African presidents like that of Julius Kambarage Nyerere of Tanzania, which remain today’s living testimonies of the fact that carrying and living the function of politics with prophetism in Africa is possible, must continue to stimulate this ardent desire in politicians in order for them to live their political vocation with prophetism,” Fr. Donald Zagore has said in a reflection sent to ACI Africa.
Terming the recent Solemnity of Christ the King as a reminder “of the need to live the reality of power in a prophetic dynamic,” the member of the Society of African Missions (SMA) decried the lack of a prophetic call among politicians saying, “If this call is constant in the African ecclesial world, it is far from being a reality in the African political universe.”
According to the Togo-based Ivorian religious missionary, the world’s second most populous continent desires to have native prophetic politicians who are “concerned with the need to preside over the destiny of their people in a spirit of simplicity, service, humility, respect and above all justice, truth and equity.”
“There is very little talk of prophetism in politics; it seems to have a notion that is exclusive to the religious world,” Fr. Zagore lamented and added, “the vocation of prophet must not be only an exclusive challenge for the religious man, but also a challenge for the politician.”
