by Sr. Genevieve van Waesberghe, MMM                                Ireland                              26.11.2025

The Missionaries of Africa (M. Afr.) -or ‘White Fathers’ as they are often called because of their long white north African Gandura (robe)- just celebrated the 200th birthday of their founder, Cardinal Lavigerie.

As MMMs missioned to Tanzania, we owe much to them: they taught us Swahili and introduced us to the people’s local culture. This enabled us to work more closely and efficiently with the people.

Personally, If I am an MMM, I owe it to a White Father who, in 1952, admired the MMM sisters who started Kabanga Hospital (Srs. Gemma Breslin, Sybil Magan and Margaret Garnett.) He saw them as free, unafraid, creatively responding to different medical needs and situations. Knowing my interest in medical missionary work, he gave me Mother Mary’s address and said: “with MMM, you will be FREE!” I took a chance, went to Ireland, met Mother Mary, joined MMM which I never regretted despite many challenges.

Later working in Namanyere Hospital – Sumbawanga Diocese (formerly Karema) – we held monthly clinics in Kipili, on the shores of Lake Tanganyika.  Patients came from afar, rowing their canoes.  Alfonsi Kakokere was our dedicated Medical Assistant, who, as I learned later, trained with a certain Dr Adrien Atiman in Karema (see below).

In 1974, while in Kipili, I received an emergency call. I had to go to Karema. It was a 100 kms’ journey, north of Kipili, with a small motor canoe.  Karema had been a Belgian military base. Then, in 1884, the White Fathers arrived from North-West Africa with 500 ‘redeemed’ slaves. They established a village there. Karema became the main mission in what was known as the Apostolic Vicariate of Tanganyika.
I cannot forget my visit to Karema. I was introduced to a very old woman, the last of the slaves. She lived in a hut on the compound. In 1884, she surely was a baby (or a very young child!).

It is also in Karema and nearby that the extraordinary and saintly Adrien Atiman lived . Born in Mali, he was taken as a slave and later ‘freed by the White Fathers’ who brought him to Algiers. He converted, became a catechist. Lavigerie, seeing his talents, sent him to the Malta Institute to train as a doctor. In 1888, Atiman joined a White Father caravan to Zanzibar and across Tanganyika and arrived in Karema in 1889 where he worked for 67 years as a Catechist and a skilled Doctor until his death in 1956.

I am grateful to God for having known the Missionaries of Africa in Tanzania. Their history and humble prophetic presence in a changing Africa continues to be inspiring and challenging.