Vetso Koza & Kariuna Kamei Koza*
Africa? We wanted to accept this awe-inspiring challenge when we were asked to consider going to Burundi as missionaries. At the same time, we were apprehensive, knowing the violent history of the country. We had a lot of mixed feelings. But remembering our commitment to serve wherever He calls, we said “Yes” to Burundi. We were privileged to serve in a naturally beautiful country for two years, four & half months. It was a challenging Teaching Ministry, which has questioned our perspective on many aspects of life, and has given us further insights on doing Christian Mission.
We came to Burundi, Central East Africa, at a time when she and her people are rebuilding their lives from the terrible aftermath of ethnic war. Some call it “Systematic Genocide.” What the people experienced is so agonizing that it is difficult to even recount it again. Untold millions perished wherein unnumbered lives would never be recorded that they had ever existed as a Burundian. Millions were displaced both internally and externally that even at present, the country does not have a definite population statistics. Cruel and painful memories are still fresh in their beings although they are trying hard to forget the past and build a peaceful world for their kin and kith. People talk that peace has come but many are still unsure as to how long it would last.
Peace and a generation of children with shattered dreams would not come easily hand in hand. Looking at these voiceless children, their plight had been, and has been one of our greatest concerns in our mission experiences. Therefore, we would like to carry a small voice of these children to at least some few people through this reflection.
Child soldiers were one major phenomenon during the war. The Human Rights Watch Report published on April 19, 1999 brings into light that the Hutu Rebel Group recruited children who were under 15 years of age. And young Tutsi Armed Group was formed comprising of young people as tender as 12 to 25 years of age.
Now there is rejoicing and confidence that the war is over. One obvious sign is the rehabilitation programmes for children and the young, shouldered by several organizations. It is a great task. Many are benefiting. Unfortunately many more children and young people have no access to such opportunity for rehabilitation. They are left unaided to their destiny – alone in the streets for survival – some to steal, some to beg, some to labour for a paltry pay. Who is to be blamed?
When we think of Burundi, we always remember the little boys whom we refer, the ‘Little Shepherd Boy.’ These are children, but bear responsibilities almost as equal as that of an adult. Their age says they are small children. Their visage shows they have seen and experienced much more than what they should have. Not just what they should have, but what humanity should never have seen and experienced. They know lots what we never would know. A little ‘Shepherd Boy’ near our home is no different.
A boy of about ten years old daily tends his goats just behind our house when his other more fortunate friends go to school. His responsibility is to search for green pastures and see that the goats he tends are healthy and protected. He is a little boy who should be playing and socializing with friends as part of growing up, but was forced to jump past it.
Sometimes we saw him playing alone. Companionless. Forlorn in his own world! He would forget what is happening around him; even his precious goats which would stray into our garden. They would either trample or eat up what we have planted - little shoots or buds which we have been observing with pride and delight. He realizes his goats have broken free off the rope bound to small shrubs and has strayed into the muzungu’s, meaning the white men’s, garden again. Too late. He could do nothing about it. He could only run and reassemble his pets, taking note of either Kariuna or Vetso’s oya, oya, “no, no ….”
When it happens so frequently, it angers us and we feel like shouting him down seeing our loss. We say ‘our loss’ because we lived in a place where even daily necessities are so scarce. There were times when we wanted to eat a simple thing as tomatoes, but we don’t get when we want. Sometimes, we had to force off tears and content ourselves on even getting tomatoes, which were rotting away. But considering his tender age and deprived of where he should belong, we used to placate ourselves that our loss is not even an iota compared with the loss of this little shepherd boy.
Children who are supposed to be tomorrow’s leaders are put into the ghetto. They suffer the brunt of the violent crisis the most – from being left as orphans and defenseless to the extent of being kicked out of the house by their own parents because of various social and economic problems. Some of our students told us of happenings about some families where the father remarries after the death of his wife or having no information of her whereabouts in their flight for safety during the crisis. Reduced to abject poverty, the parents are left with no choice but to throw out the children of the former wife to fend for themselves.
PEACE is the banner, all sought for everywhere. But the dawn of peace means the end of their source of survival. They are abandoned. The only shelter they can claim as theirs’ are the open streets. The only place they find friendship where children with the same experience of being child soldiers or orphans who have only seen violence since their birth, conglomerate and plan on how they could survive. Stealing and begging are all they could think of. They had been denied of learning any virtuous living. They are children bearing the burden of imposed loneliness. They are starving to be children again, and to learn and play with the heart of innocence as children on the other parts of the world are. The future is ominous for these children.
Saidi NITUNGA is a 10 year old boy and Fitana NDUWIRANA, a 12 year old. Both had to surrender school because their parents could no longer afford, not only their schooling needs but even their most basic needs too. Now they fetch water or bake and sell ibaigner, buns, in others’ shop for their survival. They slog for their own least basic needs. Moreover they have to help and support the rest of the family members. Of the life they lead, obviously too incomprehensible for them, they lamented in their innocence, …because our parents don’t care for us, when asked what led them to such a fate.
The individual wealth of the world’s rich people can feed the whole population of a small nation like Burundi. On the other end of the pole, there are some whose whole passion in life is to own just some small animals like rabbits. Fitana NDUWIRANA had rabbits of his own but they all died. If I get money I can buy and rear some rabbits or some other small animals in order to support myself, he said. His world-view as of now is limited in this “some small animals.” This is his passion. This is his consolation.
The clothes the children wear are so filthy, frayed and ragged that it cannot be considered clothing. Many times Kariuna has said, Oh God! One can say that their clothes are picked up from rubbish dumps after rotting away for years and years! Even the beggars back in Delhi, Kolkota etc. would turn their noses up if offered such clothes!!
Old women and men, children, and sometimes youth come knocking at our door asking for food or money. On a good number of Sundays, as we approached the Church, children or old women used to gesture at us that they are hungry. One glance at them is explicitly evident that they are extremely poor and emaciated.
We hear frequently the pathetic happenings in these poor people’s lives. Many children have a pitiable morsel of food, only once a day. They go to sleep without enough. This is a better picture. Not to talk of having enough for the day, there are many who don’t even have a small sweet potato for the day. It’s heart rendering.
In such a context where the majority of the people are extremely poor, it is difficult to do evangelism. When they are emaciated and hungry, and yet, we don’t have the resources and means, what do we preach? We have often asked and interacted with our Pastoral School students - What do we do in such a context like Burundi? What kind of theology should the Church have?
Thomas NTIRAMPEBA, a 13 year old boy who has never been to school but earns and supports his family working for others has a big dream. I want to go to school. I want to become an intellectual, he lamented when asked what he wants to do and become in future.
A dream too big! The resources too limited to build this dream though. For now, having a heart of dreaming big is the only comfort an unprivileged child like him would get. Perhaps it is this dream for a better future that keeps a child going?
In a situation such as this, it is amazing to see the Baptist Union of Denmark (BUD), a small Baptist community of about 5,000 members, contributing immense mission work in Burundi since 1928. BUD has been sponsoring various mission projects. To name some: Bee keeping, goat rearing, free education to orphans, sending medicines and clothes, etc. And the need is never completely met because it is too great to count. It makes us ponder deeper and wider of our Naga churches’ Mission-Consciousness. Today, the Nagas, claiming almost cent percent Christianity are pushed to the edge for greater mission involvement practically.
*Vetso Koza and Kariuna Kamei Koza, the first missionary couple sent to Burundi, Central East Africa by Nagaland Missionary Movement (NMM), NBCC in January 2005 have returned home from field in May 2007. They taught in the Baptist Theological Institute and the Secondary School of Rubura, a remote place in the north. They were in the field for two years, four months and fourteen days. They were sent and sponsored through a mission partnership venture of Nagaland Missionary Movement, (NMM), NBCC, and Union of Baptist Churches in Burundi (UEBB) & Baptist Union of Denmark (BUD.
Courtesy: Nagaland Missionary Movement
