In Chad, the difficult establishment of the Catholic Church in Muslim lands

Daylight is slowly fading behind the Guéra mountains. After two weeks spent in Nigeria meeting a vibrant Catholic Church, we set our sights on this region in central Chad with a large Muslim majority. Like its Nigerian and Cameroonian neighbors, the Chadian Catholic Church is facing competition from evangelical Christians. And, like its neighbors, the youngest on the African continent is seeing its development hindered in regions where Islam dominates.

Although the country has almost as many Christians as Muslims, it is no exception to the rule in this part of Africa: demographics favor the growth of Islam. In everyday life, these two worlds seem to live side by side without really coexisting: the North with Muslim peoples, the South with the faithful of Christ. N’Djamena, the capital, gives off the same impression of de facto segregation, with its denominational neighborhoods. A context that puts the Church against the wall: how can it manage to take root in lands that are sometimes openly hostile to it? How can it not lose ground in the face of this constant progression?

A region cited as an example

To leave for Guéra is also to witness one of the rare successful missionary enterprises in a region where Islam is the religion of 95% of the inhabitants. Here, conversions to Catholicism are generally well received. On the edge of the bush, behind her house in Mongo, Depe Erbyé sorts peanuts. As visitors approach, the fifty-year-old straightens up on her mat and begins to tell the story of her conversion, which occurred as a teenager, under the benevolent gaze of her mother, Amina.

“I was at school with auxiliary sisters who helped womenshe says. My family did not resist when I asked for baptism. And I married a Muslim! There were no mixed couples in our village. My husband accepted my only condition: that I keep my religion.” I had been warned before setting off: “You will see, in Guéra, it is only there that people live together.”

In Mongo, the day is punctuated by calls to prayer, which take place in the street as well as in the many mosques. Islam is omnipresent in public spaces. But the atmosphere is lighter than elsewhere, without the division between Muslim and Christian communities that is common in many West African and Sahelian countries. The region is even cited as an example by political authorities keen to maintain order.

Active dialogue to ease tensions

It was first by supporting the population and agriculture, by fighting against famines, that the Church made its mark in Guéra. Then, largely in the minority, it invested heavily in interreligious dialogue. At the apostolic vicariate of Mongo, six members of the “watch committee”, two Catholics, two Muslims and two Protestants, agree to discuss the links that unite them. “We are brothers”asks Imam Zaccharia Chaïbo Mohammad, president of the local section of the Council for Islamic Affairs. Tall, with a carmine chechia screwed onto his head, the man joins his hands to give the image of an inseparable family.

“Muslims enter churches for funerals, we invite Christians to the mosque for breaking the fast.”

His words are greeted with approving clicks of the tongue. The inhabitants of Guéra readily form a united front to promote their singularity. “Muslims enter churches for funerals, we invite Christians to the mosque for breaking the fast”adds Aboubacar Ibrahim Daoud, deputy imam of the Great Mosque of Mongo.

Within these walls, no theological dialogue – ” a waste of time “some say. The committee, on the other hand, develops awareness-raising activities in villages and schools, intervenes in families in the event of conflict, and mobilizes women to get their messages of peace across.

The secret to avoiding persecution? The absence of ethnic rivalries, which agitate the rest of the country, suggests Thomas Alkaali. He himself embodies this diversity. “My wife is a Muslim, my older brother is currently on hajj and my younger brother is a priest! External quarrels do not affect the locals,” explains this Catholic involved in many ecclesiastical structures. Elsewhere, these disputes are coming to light, fueled by the movement of Christian officials to the north or Muslim traders to southern cities.

Individual quarrels

But even in Mongo and its surroundings, peace remains fragile. 80 km away, in the town of Bitkine, 200 young people are gathered for an end-of-year mass under the shade of two majestic trees. The Kemkogi Catholic youth movement welcomes children of all religious backgrounds. Those from Muslim families did not stay for the celebration, the first limit to the much-vaunted tolerance.

After the last songs and dances, some parishioners gather to frankly express their concerns. “You have to be firm in your faith to remain a Christian.sighs a catechist, Catherine Kadidja. Muslims are constantly trying to convert us, until they understand that we will not give in.” Facing her, Rolande Allaramadji gets carried away: “A friend of my daughter, a Muslim, wanted to participate in Catholic activities. Her mother agreed, but we had to hide it from her father, otherwise he would have beaten her up, or even sent her away from home!”

“My mother denied our family ties”

Back in Mongo, I go to a basic ecclesial community, the weekly meeting where lay people, by neighborhood, meet to share the Gospel and some reflections. To protect themselves from a light rain, a handful of the faithful have settled in a room where the grain is stored.

“You have to be firm in your faith to remain a Christian. Muslims are constantly trying to convert us, until they understand that we will not waver.”

Samson Khatir, 19, hardly dares to express painful memories out loud. Converted to Catholicism in October 2022, the young man entered the faith by following in the footsteps of his older brother. But the death of his protector, a year later, marks a turning point. “My mother denied our family ties, my father wanted to deprive me of my inheritance, he explains, containing his emotion. I ran away from home when they wanted to send me to a Koranic school.” After six months, tensions eased, “when I told them I was going to die a Christian”he specifies.

Fight against radicalism

In recent decades, cohabitation has also been put to the test by the emergence of a Salafist movement. While it remains a minority in Guéra, it is clearly visible in the capital, where the abaya and the full black veil have appeared, replacing traditional clothing. “Islam becomes the cultural reference, French researcher Cécile Petitdemange, a specialist in Chadian Islam, explained to me in a café in the capital. Many young people are leaving the Islam of their parents to return to something more literal, closer to the text.”

In Mongo, the surge in “Wahhabis”, designated as such because they are suspected of receiving funding from the Gulf countries, even if, in some localities, imams trained in Sudan are developing a harsh discourse towards Christians. “They convince parents to place their children in their Koranic schools,” regrets a director of Catholic education, a sign that some achievements are wavering. Many Christians still deplore the increasingly frequent conversions of women after their marriage, particularly under pressure from the new family.

Openness and equality

The monitoring committee has taken up this problem. “In rare cases, some imams forbid Muslims from eating with Christians”illustrates Imam Aboubacar Ibrahim Daoud, citing the case of a nearby village. But all its members want to be reassuring: “People are used to living together, they reject these new imams, who generally do not stay long.”

The region remains untouched by the conflicts that are shaking many African countries. The Bishop of Mongo, Mgr Philippe Abbo Chen, sees in the situation of the continent the urgency of ” bear witness “ of what is experienced in his native region. Thus, the monitoring committee is exporting itself outside Guéra to calm conflicts, and is toying with the idea of ​​transmitting its know-how abroad: “These initiatives can bring a lot,” says Bishop Abbo Chen, convinced that Africa can learn from the local situation.

“African priests have been confronted with diversity for a long time. They must be a bridge between cultures”he persists. According to him, the issue lies in the transmission of the values ​​of Catholicism, “beyond mass and confessions”which he himself received from the missionaries: “We must work to improve the lives of people, regardless of their religion, so that this spirit of openness and equality continues.”