Author: Jean Luc Enyegue, SJ, Director- JHIA

How can the Jesuit Historical Institute in Africa (JHIA) contribute positively to the development and capacity-building of Jesuit universities in Africa? The short answer: By sharing with these universities the very idea behind the creation of this Institute and making this idea their own. For JHIA is first and fore most an idea which, if properly deployed on the continent, has revolutionary potential for our universities.

Making Africans the Actors and Authors of their Own History 

In 2010, Father Adolfo Nicolás (1936-2020), then Superior General of the Society of Jesus (r. 2008-2016), decided to create the Jesuit Historical Institute in Africa (JHIA). Father General was aware of the demographicshifts within the Jesuit Order and Global Christianity. The number of vocations in Africa was increasing, in contrast to the regions of the world where, until now, most African Jesuits had received their university training. These same regions, notably Europe and North America, had historically been generous in terms of human and financial resources for African Jesuits. Indeed, it was their sons and daughters who undertook thesecond andthird evangelizations of Africa. The history of this evangelization is written, for the most part, by non-Africans, exactly at a time when public debate in Africa is dominated by a quest for identity in relation to its colonial and missionary past. For Nicolás, it was therefore imperative for Africans themselves to be the actors and authors of their own history.

Since the 35th General Congregation that elected Father Nicolás, Africa had become an apostolic priority for the Universal Society. The demands both for the formation of Jesuits themselves and of a young African population thirsting for education made it imperative to develop universitiesin Africa. Over the past decade, such universities have beenestablished in most African provinces of the Society of Jesus.

Although it was created without any direct link to these young African Jesuit universities, the question is whether the Historical Institute can play a role, however small, in developing and strengthening the academiccapacities of these universities. The answer is yes!

Promoting Contextualized Research

Firstly, Fr. Nicolás intended to create a center for the collection and academic exploitation of resources, documents, archives, etc. on the Society of Jesus and the Church in Africa and elsewhere. His aim was to bring research into the history of the Church and the Society of Jesus in Africa closer to“the field.” This meant transforming Africa from an “object of research” to a “field of research” in which Africans themselves would be key players, particularly in writing their own history. Such research, on Africa and by Africans themselves, would be contextualized,inculturated, and wouldrespond effectively to the mission of the Society and the Church in Africa since the Second Vatican Council (1963-1965).

Produce, Collect, Conserve and, Yes! Exploit Africa

Of course! It’s outrageous for an African to talk about “exploiting” Africa. Shock over, let’s get back to reality. Every Jesuit university in Africa will, I hope, find an answer as to the direction research should take within it. But there is a certain genius in the very idea of a Historical Institute that can serve to develop thecapacities of our young university institutions. This is the power and wealth of the ARCHIVES. Developing them means exploiting Africa’s research potential to the full.

Let’sproceed by case study. Most of our universities have fine libraries which, although smaller in volume than those found elsewhere in the world, remain reference libraries in the countries where they are located. However, what makes a university institution strong is the quality of its research.This research is largely linked to the university’s capacity for innovation and the originality of its resources, in our case, its archival collections.

The debate about the return of colonial and missionary archives is raging today, and we don’t know how long it would last. Without necessarily counting on the return of these archives, Africa’s greatest resourceremains Africa itself. Our universities, too, must make the most of this immeasurable resource. They must document and archive Africa.

The colonial and missionary archives we would like to see returned to Africa were produced in Africa. These archives have gone. But Africaremains, with its multiplicity and complexity of cultural, political,religious and social phenomena.

Our young universities must therefore embrace the idea behind the creation of the Historical Institute to produce, collect and properly preserve the socio-cultural, political and religious facts taking place on the continent. They must then develop databases, train data analysts, and make such resources available to both African and non-African researchers.

The benefits would be twofold. Firstly, the reputation of our Jesuit universities in Africa would be established as repositories of data on Africa. Secondly, and this was Father Nicolás' intuition, they would bring research on Africa closer to the Africans themselves, and help increase their contribution to global research. For lack of resources, this African contribution is cruelly lacking in our humanity.

Visa-free Universities!

University studies, especially private ones, are expensive. Towrite a doctoral thesis, as I did, on the history of the Society of Jesus in Africa in the 19th and 20th centuries, Africans have to visit archives in Europe, across Africa, while, in my case, studying in the United States. Flight tickets are needed. Visas are expensive, and requests for them by Africans are increasingly rejected. To this must be added the cost of hospitality in Europe or the United States (Asia being marginal in inter-university cooperation with Africa). In the case of my doctoral research, we’re talking of about a budget of around $15,000, earmarked solely for research between Rome, Paris, Aix-en-Provence, Chad, Cameroon and so on.

The conclusion is that serious research on Africa remains a great luxury for Africans themselves, until these costs areconsiderably reduced. And this requires the creation of documentation and archive centers within our academic institutions, with a view to strengthening research on Africa by Africans themselves; and that non-African scholars of Africa can find the resources they need and that are unavailable to them elsewhere in our academic institutions.

If we take an institution like the Catholic University of Central Africa (UCAC), it groups together more than sixty dioceses, whose archives are often in a pitiful state, with no back-up to safeguard themin the event of fire, flood, earthquake, war, etc. Who can serve as a back-up for these dioceses, if not a university committed to the task, and experienced in the task of collecting, preserving and exploiting ecclesiastical documentary resources? The Society of Jesus has credibility, and worldwide experience necessary to become a leader in this field!

Remaining within the framework of the UCAC, the Institute and its partners would help, for example, to train archivists in each diocese, who would oversee archives down to parish level. And all diocesan archivists would form a network of archivists linked to a central archivelocated within one of our young universities, following a canonically approved protocol of preservation and access in the spirit of the Vatican’s secret archives’ protocol.

In short, by exploiting the multiplicity and complexity of African reality, our universities can become pioneering centers for data collection and analysis for Africa and the world. Production would be less costly, and the use of data would establish them as reference centers, indispensable for any study of a continent that Pope Benedict XVI has defined as the “spiritual lung of humanity”!