Father Moses Otii recalls the armed conflict that began in the Central African Republic in 2012, but also the hope and efforts of the population to achieve peace.
Born in Uganda in 1979, he entered the minor seminary at the age of 13. There he had his first contact with the Comboni missionaries who ran the seminary. From that moment on, he admits to having been attracted by the Comboni charism, especially by the motto “Save Africa with Africa”, which led him to join the Congregation. In 2006 he entered the novitiate, which he completed in Uganda. He continued his theological studies in Innsbruck, Austria.
After completing his formation, he thought about going to the mission to China, Egypt or Togo, but his first assignment was to the Central African Republic (CAR). He recalls: “I didn’t even know where this country was, even though I am African, and this ignorance raised many doubts in me, but then it opened me up to the unknown and I said: ‘OK, I have chosen this life as a missionary, I want to see what will happen’”.
He arrived in the country in 2012 and was assigned to Our Lady of Fatima parish in the capital, Bangui, just as the armed conflict between the government coalition and the Séléka rebels broke out. The conflict erupted after the rebels accused the government of President François Bozizé of failing to respect peace agreements signed in 2007 and 2011.
Due to the violence of the conflict, more than 6,000 Central Africans took refuge in the parish complex between 2013 and 2017. The conflict was presented as an inter-religious one between the armed groups Seleka (Muslims) and Anti-Balaka (Christians).
According to Father Moses, the conflict was mainly economic and political, but the armed groups wanted to use religion as a means to achieve their goals. Although he acknowledges that this narrative has succeeded in dividing communities, religious leaders have always tried to work together on a practical level.
One example is the imam near the parish with whom Father Moses worked. At diocesan and national level, Cardinal Dieudonné Nzapalainga worked with Imam Kobine Layama and Protestant pastor Philippe Sing-Na. “This helped us to work together and create a good climate. The arrival of the Pope in 2015 helped us concretely, as shown by his visit to the mosque. This aspect helped the country to find itself and to improve interreligious dialogue”.
During the ten years he worked in the CAR, Father Moses witnessed several attacks on the parish where he served. The saddest moment for him was on 1 May 2018, when militias attacked in the middle of a Eucharistic celebration attended by more than 3,000 people.
The missionary recalls the episode: “Imagine all those people singing and praying with joy. Then suddenly an armed group enters and commits a massacre. A priest was killed in the attack. As a priest, I felt bad. First, I wondered if I had made a mistake by allowing people to come to pray. And then I asked myself why God had allowed this to happen, how he could have allowed this to happen in the midst of this situation, and why he had not protected us.”
“The next day I did not ring the bells to stop people coming to pray. I was afraid of another attack. I felt very guilty. But even without ringing the bells, people came to pray. Seeing people praying despite the situation motivated me. I felt that they were helping me to grow in my faith.”
Speaking of Central African youth, he says that they are the ones who have the ability to change the country, for better or for worse. Although they can be manipulated, the missionary believes that young people can be a force for change in the country. The priest confirms that his perspective changed when he met a group of motivated young people who wanted to be personally involved in change.
According to Father Moses, it is important to work with the talents of the Central African youth, because not all of them want to take up arms and fight, but they want to change the country with the gifts and talents they have. The missionary says: “This positive aspect has made the projects we have today possible. Perhaps one of the best examples is Cédric Ouanekpone, a young man who has always given priority to work in his country and who is at the forefront of the most ambitious project developed in the parish: the Mama Ti Fatima medical complex, or the Fatima Martyrs Centre, which offers numerous training programmes for young people in photography, cinema and even robotics, and which is organised by Festipaix, a film festival for peace in which young people play a central role”.
For the missionary, hope comes from the desire of a community to overcome the horrors of war and rebuild a society capable of living in peace.
Father Moses concludes by saying that the Central African Republic became his promised land, “not in the sense that I had everything I needed, but rather in the sense that my missionary identity helped to shape me. The Central African Republic was the place where we had to work together, an apprenticeship from one to the other, and this was very important for me because I learned a lot from the people and from the experience. That’s why I say it’s my “promised land”.