The concept boma[1] has
come to be defined as an art that brings people together to seek sustainability
and human integral development. It is about the lifestyle as originally lived,
not yet exploited, or processed by European invasion and colonization. This
life was simple, humble and nothing was personally owned but communitarian.
This is where the ubuntu philosophy picks up its launching pad. “I am because you are and you are because I
am”. One defines himself through the other; where the other becomes a sort
of mirror. We can define boma as an
African school of community life, because everything that pertains to school
structure is culturally and traditionally treasured and passed on to generation
unto generation only that it’s orally transmitted and not written. Below is
mental imagery picture that capture what boma
outlook.
Boma is an investment entrusted to us by nature’s blessings. As the Kenyan
proverbs states, ‘treat the earth well;
it was not given to you by your parents; it was loaned to you by your children’.This
is the theme that Pope Francis advances in his encyclical letter:
In the meantime, we
come together to take charge of this home which has been entrusted to us,
knowing that all the good which exists here will be taken up into the heavenly
feast. In union with the creatures, we journey through this land seeking God,
for if the world has a beginning and if it has been created, we must enquire
who gave it this beginning, and who was its creator.[2]
Unfortunately this boma is not treated well; it’s in a very dilapidating state. The
earth as our boma is in a lamentation
state. Pope Francis is calling us to mind to wake up to the occasion and save
the Mother earth. The boma has become
a real heap of rubbish what in swahili we call takataka.[3] The environment is polluted and something has
to be done as far as keeping the common home clean and tidy. Man is has got
lost into the technological web and has forgotten to take a break off from his
computer, laptop, and cell phone.
This situation according to Pope Francis
should take another course and meaning. The rate in which the earth is being
degraded is so alarming the magnitude of exploitation, and violence inflicted
on the earth is worrying and calls for urgent redress. Therefore, the Pope
proposes that we ought to have establishment with a legal framework that sets
clear boundaries in ensuring total protection of the ecosystem which has become
indispensable, because the new world power of technology has swung in play with
its techno-economic paradigm that seems to be overwhelming not only politicians
but the who understanding of freedom and justice.[4]
The challenge
we all facing is that renewing and making things a new, restarting and
refreshingly sinking into a new experience with Jesus Christ the redeemer whom
we must emulate in saving our very own common planet earth, before it’s too
late to do so. Man has to start an introspective journey to find his compass
bearing of returning back home. Like the prodigal son, we have all fallen short
of in our acts of mission.
Man has to get
himself back into self-examination and metanoia.
He has to give correct response while seeking new tools for transforming the
structures of injustice by actively getting his hand dirty in the process of
removing filth from the common home.
Pope Francis is
calling upon us to build a strong a strong sense of common brotherhood of
co-exists with other living things in the universe. All these acts are geared
towards personal and communitarian conversion as far as relation and care of
creation is concerned.
[1] Boma is a Swahili word for a
homestead. Grass thatched huts made of mud, with a single door entrance, built
surrounding the kraal, forming a semi-cycle with one main entrance that has no gate.
Inside the bigger cycle of huts is another cycle that compromises of another
homestead of animals, protected by planted natural herbs and thorn shrubs to secure
the animals from escaping, hence picking up from AMECEA vision of Church as a
family of God.
[2] LS, n. 244.
[4] LS, n. 53.
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