Comboni, Missionary Who Became A Slave For Africans

By Denis Ocwich
Saint Daniel Comboni is one man whose legacy cuts a swathe throughout the modern world. Over 120 years since he died at the frontline of African evangelism, he has remained a household name to the Christian community in Africa.
You wonder why a young man could leave his home in Italy and sail across turbulent waters through the Sahara desert to the “dark continent of mystery.” But when Comboni chose to come to Africa in mid-19th century, he had a conviction to lay one of the pillars of today’s Catholic Church.
“It was not easy to find a white man humble enough to put himself at the service of blacks, because there was always this feeling of superiority,” writes Gabriel Zubeir, the Archbishop of Khartoum.
In his article “Comboni’s journey is not over yet,” published in Leadership, a Kampala Catholic magazine, Zubeir argues that most people do not fully understand the work of “this great missionary.”
“If today, we can send up our praise to God from our churches in Africa, it is because the Lord used Comboni to open the gates of salvation to us.”
At the centre of Comboni’s spiritual campaign was a “mystical event.” On September 15, 1864, while praying besides the tomb of Saint Peter in the Vatican, he suddenly realised that the evangelisation of Africa was possible. He then wrote for three days what he titled the “Plan for the Regeneration of Africa” and his slogan was “Save Africa through Africans.” At the end of his letters, he used to sign: “Daniel Comboni, slave of the Africans.”
On the occasion of Comboni’s beatification (when he was announced saint) in 1996, Pope John Paul II referred to him as “one of the greatest missionaries in the history of the Church.”
Seven years after proclaiming Comboni a martyr, the same Pope announced him a Saint (canonised) in the Vatican on October 5, 2003.
Bishop Comboni was born on March 15, 1831 to a humble family at Limone on Lake Garda (Brescia) in Italy. At the age of 12, he entered Fr. Mazza’s Institute for poor children in Verona.
He was ordained a priest in 1854, at the age of 23. With a Mazzian missionary expedition, he set out from Verona for Africa in 1857 with a small number of fellow missionaries.
They first reached a locality north of today’s Juba, Sudan, where they founded the mission station of Holy Cross. Unfortunately, most of the missionaries died of bad weather and diseases, forcing Comboni and a few others more, to retreat to Italy.
When, a few years later, the Mazza Institute had to give up the dream of a mission in Africa, Comboni started his own “Institute for the African Mission” in Verona in 1867, before founding the society of missionary sisters in 1872.
He also re-founded the Sudan mission with the blessing of Pope Pius IX, and encouraged Africans to join the mission.
He had brought back to Africa 15 former slaves who were freed and educated in Verona. These were to be the first catechists in his schools in Cairo, Egypt.
Comboni detested slave trade and challenged the views held by political powers in Europe.
In 1872, Pope Pius IX gave him the responsibility of the mission in Central Africa –– stretching from Sudan to Chad, the Central African Republic and East Africa, including the current Rwanda, Congo and Burundi. In Uganda, Comboni’s first missionaries settled at Omach on the eastern bank of the River Nile, before spreading to Moyo, Arua, Lira, Kitgum, Angal and other areas of the north.
Among the first to accept the cross were Daudi Okello and Jildo Irwa of Kitgum. The pair, who were later murdered at Paimol for their faith, have now joined the list of Ugandan Saints –– they were beatified by the Pope in 2002.
The first Ugandan to join the Comboni Missionaries was Fr. Justin Ogen from Nebbi Diocese who took his first vows in 1864. Today, there are many Comboni missionaries (including sisters) spread over 33 countries.
“Daniel Comboni was the first, in missionary history, to lay down the guidelines for an organic plan for the evangelisation of Africa,” says a website titled: “Daniel Comboni - Africa or Death.”
Comboni was 50 years old when he died on October 10, 1881, and was buried in Sudan.
“He had the intention of coming to Uganda but could not because of difficulties,” says Fr. Mariano Lubich, the Provincial Secretary of Comboni Missionaries, based at Mbuya in Kampala.
At an earlier assembly, Comboni had pledged: “I have left my heart among you... Day and night, sun and rain, will find me always ready to attend to your needs. Rich and poor, healthy and sick, young and elder, master and servant will have equal access to my heart.”
“The happiest of my days will be when I will be able to give my life for you,” he went on.
Comboni was a humble and generous man who cherished team work.
“He worked to uplift human dignity... And through his work, the Church is flourishing today,” acknowledges Brother Lawrence Okello of Gulu Catholic Archdiocese.
Okello cites many schools, health units and churches in the country as the fruits of Comboni. These include St. Joseph’s College Layibi, Ombaci and Comboni College, Lira.
There are also many seminaries, leprosy centres and babies homes run by the Comboni Missionaries, especially in northern Uganda.
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