Eulogising the Stillbirth to Cardinal While Paying Tribute to Archbishop Richard Kuia Baawobr (1959 to 2022)

 

Dealing with Expectations

From a cultural perspective, there are no public funeral or mourning rites when there is a stillbirth (dɔg-saŋ) following twenty-one weeks or more of pregnancy or when a child experiencing stunted growth (bi-gbããn) dies before the mother could have another child. In other words, one cannot grieve publicly and call on the ancestors by wailing ‘Oh My Father!’ (Sãã Woh-i!) or ‘Oh My Mother!’ (Ma Woh-i!) and we do not gather to sing dirges and praise songs accompanied by the xylophone and the calabash drums. We take it that the expectations of the parents to have a child who will grow to realise their dreams, take fully his or her position as an adult member of the society and achieve the great things that life destiny has assigned for him or her cannot be ritualised in funeral celebration. These must be internalised as a process to understand the situations leading to the stillbirth or the stunted growth in order to keep the fire of expectations and future dreams burning. The understanding will lead to coming to terms with actions needed to take to ensure, in the future, a successful delivery and good nourishment for the child to grow into maturity are provided. Eulogising the stillborn must be a private soul searching within family involving the use of religious language and ritual practices to communicate appropriately with the human soul and spirit that all the family members share. In this regard, a proper eulogy for Bishop Richard can only be done at two levels of thought that are interwoven. On one level, we must pay tribute to his glorious life of growing up as a Dagara child in rural northwest Ghana and through education and hard work, to become a selfless missionary who served many diverse communities throughout Africa and Europe and most notably as the superior general of the Missionaries of Africa. On a second level, we must diagnose and discover the elements that made this glorious life possible but also led to a stillbirth to being cardinal or prince of the universal church thus frustrating high hopes and genuine expectations.

Reconciliations

All media announcements on Bishop Richard contain information about his date and place of birth, schools and universities attended, his membership and career service with the Missionary Fathers of Africa and other career services as bishop of Wa. Yet, to fully appreciate the life energy which enabled him to reach that far one also has to delve into the family environment responsible for his childhood character. To fully remember Richard, we cannot by pass his constant search for reconciliation of peoples and societies to God and to their true selves even under stressful conditions of conflict and ailments including mental health. Thus, he is to write: (reconciliation allows people to experience (…) the reality of God’s love. It begins with the individuals reconciliation to God, but does not end there. It opens up new avenues of relationship that has been thought to be closed. (R. Baawobr 2013). Richard was a toddler and the only child of his parents at the time his father died. As a young woman the mother soon remarried and Richard grew up under the care of his maternal and paternal uncles and their varying family units. This involved constant movement of to and from, in and out. Under such circumstances he frequently intermingling with different environments, individuals and societies and developed the good habit of reconciliation which was to serve him so well. He was only twelve years when he entered St. Francis Xavier minor seminary in 1971. A boarding school where daily life began at 5:30 am with sports, manual cleaning, prayers and eucharistic sessions all before the beginning of lessons, then to be followed by breakfast. Throughout the six years of secondary school education students were constantly informed of the schools philosophy and main principles embedded in the school badge, namely “let your light shine”. During holidays, Richard would visit as many extended family members as possible, maternal and paternal, spread throughout Ghana to get support for his education and upkeep. In all these years he kept faith in God and developed a spiritual life through biblical studies which helped him reconciled himself to these intermittent openings and closures of encounters experienced within society and between individuals.

Tribute to a Missionary and Biblical Scholar

Indeed, Biblical studies was to be his main academic focus, not just as an intellectual endeavour but as part of his pastoral and priestly way of life. In other words, he did not just study the bible for his own understanding and spirituality, but he also proceeded to share his insights with ordinary people both intellectually and practically. It is not possible within this limited space to fully recount this life of sharing and the impact it has had on so many throughout the world. I am sure many are recounting these already in their communities in diverse forms: orally, written and in social media. I will therefore devote this limited space to conclude by listing his significant publications that are available globally. They indicate how far his writings have become the fulcrum and the axes upon which many small and family Christian communities were formed especially in Eastern and Central Africa where he did most of his pastoral work, and prior to his election as deputy superior general of the Missionaries of Africa and subsequently as bishop of Wa. Of late and as a bishop, Richard has redefined the biblical message as nourishment and healing for mental disabilities and initiated projects to bring this group into his pastoral care.

Publications

Baawobr, R. K. (2009). Bible study and sharing series God's word for Christian communities: Nairobi: Paulines Publications Africa.

Baawobr, R. K. (2010). God's word for Christian communities: Nairobi: Paulines Publications Africa.

Baawobr, R. K. (2010). Paul's Call for Reconciliation and its Relevance for the Church with Particular Reference to Africa: Studia missionalia, 59, 179-212.

Baawobr, R. K. (2011). God's word for Christian communities. Nairobi: Paulines Publications Africa

Baawobr, R. K. (2012). Change and Its Effect on Mission and Church Relationship: A Roman Catholic Perspective: . International Review of Mission, 101.2 393-403.

Baawobr, R. K. (2012). El futuro de la misión y de la Iglesia Spiritus: revista de Misionología, 53(209), : 66-76.

Baawobr, R. K. (2013). Biblical reflections on the call and challenge of modern-day missions. Harrisonburg, Virginia Eastern Mennonite University Podcast.

Baawobr, R. K. (2013). God's Word for Christian Communities: Guidelines for Facilitators. Nairobi: Pauline Publications Africa.

Baawobr, R. K. (2013). Paul’s Call for Reconciliation and its Relevance for the Church with Particular Reference to Africa. In A. B. Tengan (Ed.), Christianity and Cultural History in Northern Ghana: A Portrait of Cardinal Peter Poreku Dery (1918-2008) (pp. 107-136). Brussels: Peter Lang.

Baawobr, R. K. (2014). Missionary Institutes in the wake of the Second Vatican Council: The case of the Missionaries of Africa. International journal for the Study of the Christian Church 14.4, 403-418.

Baawobr, R. K. (2017). La espiritualidad de las Sociedades Misioneras de Vida Apostólica. Misiones extranjeras, 278, 429-437.

Baawobr, R. K. (2017). ‘Reconciling Religion and Culture to African Politics.’ In A. B. Tengan (Ed.), Religion, Culture, Society and Integral Human Development in Northern Ghana: Proceedings of Cardinal Poreku Dery Third Colloquium (pp. 27-47). Accra: Sub-Saharan Publishers.

Baawobr, R. K. (2018). ‘Dialogue and the Proclamation of Truth.’ In A. C. Mayer (Ed.), The Letter and the Spirit: On the Forgotten Documents of Vatican II (Bibliotheca Ephemeridum Theologicarum Lovaniensium) (pp. 61-78.). Leuven: Peeters Publishers.

 

Alexis B. Tengan

Zaventem 17th Deceomber 2022