The Denis Hurley Peace Institute of South Africa (DHPI), in cooperation with the Technical University of Würzburg-Schweinfurt (THWS), and other Catholic and civil society organisations is holding an international symposium in Nacala diocese, Nampula province, north of Mozambique.
The seven-day symposium under the theme “Working for a just, socially cohesive and conflict-resistant economic transformation to build lasting peace processes”, has brought together scholars, religious leaders, community members as well as internally displaced persons who fled from the conflict in neighbouring Cabo Delgado province.
According to the Director of the associate body of the Southern African Catholic Bishops Conference (SACBC), the focus of the DHPI’s second international symposium is on “decolonisation” as most African countries rich in natural resources are “subject to economic colonialism coupled with endless wars.”
In an interview with the SACBC communications office on the sidelines of the international symposium, Johan Viljoen referred to Pope Francis’s remarks on economic colonialism and foreign powers’ exploitation of African countries rich in natural resources.
He said, “I want to refer to the statement of the Holy Father that he made in Kinshasa during his visit there earlier this year when he spoke about the new colonialism that is affecting the whole of Africa. That is the situation that we find in various countries where wealthy nations and industrialized countries occupy Africa to ravage its resources and export it to enrich themselves, leaving the people behind with nothing.”
“It’s often being referred to as the new scramble for Africa and when Pope Francis was in Kinshasa, he referred to it as the new colonialism,” he added.
Viljoen went on to say the focus of the Symposium is “appropriate” for Nacala, the capital city of Nampula province, Mozambique “because this is one of the countries most affected,” in recent years.
“And of course, this cannot be done without the collaboration of local, corrupt, politically connected elites. So that’s the whole network and in that sense, it seems as if very little has changed. The land, the resources, everything is being sold to multinational corporations in collaboration with connected political elites,” said Viljoen during the Thursday, August 4 interview.
According to Viljoen, the DHPI’s second international symposium is part of a series of four summer schools held in collaboration with the Scalabrinian Center for Migratory Studies (CSEM). Other partner organisations of the second international symposium are the International Child Development Program of Mozambique (ICDP), the Catholic University of Mozambique (UCM), and the International Social Work Section (ISA) of the German Association for Social Work (DGSA).
The August 1-7 symposium underway at the Diocese of Nacala Chancery, a predominantly Muslim city, has also seen the participation of members from the Muslim community and other Christian denominations making it an ecumenical event.
The DHPI director told the SACBC communications office that he is quite happy with the symposium as it gave Mozambicans an “opportunity to speak out and share their experiences” in the country’s northern provinces of Nampula and Cabo Delgado.
