“The world is going bad, situation is getting bad,” sang Sophia George.  No doubt this song will divide Zambia into two groups of people.  The pessimists and the optimists.  The first group will applaud the song and run through the endless list of problems bedevilling Zambia such as crime, AIDS, prostitution, seasonal food shortages, child defilement, the debilitating external debt, hypocrisy of leaders, unemployment, corruption, work stoppages, poverty, etc.  To this group the situation is getting worse and worse. 

But the other group may think that while there is untold agony, there is still room for things to get better, we have only to increase our efforts.  This group may list many positive things about Zambia like absence of armed conflict, abundant natural and human resources, tribal and religious tolerance, the growing democratic culture, and the empowering of the emerging private sector of the economy.  It is hard to reconcile these groups.

This division of human beings into two opposed camps is not peculiar to Zambia but is universal and as old as human history.  The Jesuit scientist-theologian, Pierre Teilhard  de Chardinm, had this to say about it: “It is a pleasant and dramatic spectacle, that of mankind divided to its very depths into two irrevocably opposed camps -- one looking towards the horizon and proclaiming with all its new-found faith ‘we are moving,’ and the other without shifting its position, obstinately maintaining, ‘nothing changes.  We are not moving at all.’”

Here we are.  One group of human beings optimistic about the future of the world and the other group despairingly holding that the world is slowly and subtly degenerating into a hell-hole of misery.

CHARACTER OF THE WORLD

One great writer who profoundly depicted the mood of hopelessness about the future of humankind is George Orwell.  In his novel, 1984, Orwell depicts a world which is becoming more primitive than ever, and the only progress achieved is that towards more pain.

 This is the world in which there is unlimited use of torture and brainwashing; the world where the wheels of industry rub incessantly but the wealth of the world does not increase; the world where mountains of goods are produced but the majority still die of want.  This is the world where human beings can simultaneously hold two contradicting beliefs in their minds and still accept both of them.  This is the world where power is wielded as an end in itself, where family life and healthy emotional  life  are  obliterated.  “If you want a picture of the future,” says O’Brien, a character in the novel, “imagine a boot stamping on a human face – forever.”

Imagine a boot stamping on your face forever!  Unbearable.  But Orwell warns that this is the kind of life that is slowly becoming characteristic of the human world.  Of course his critics have a ready made list of positive things about the contemporary world: the increase in the amount of knowledge about the universe, decrease in despotic political structures, the increase in average life expectancy, the efficiency and convenience of computer and communications technology, the magic of modern medicine, and all the numerous blessings of science and technology.

If the question remains, “Is the world becoming a better place to live in?” then the answers given may not be conclusive.  Each camp can easily unleash enough evidence in support of its arguments.  Perhaps the question should somewhat be altered and read, “Is there anyone who enjoys living in misery?”

I am sure there is no one who enjoys living in misery.  There is no one who takes pain as an end in itself.  The Greek Philosopher, Aristotle, during his day demonstrated that all human actions are ordained towards happy ends.  All human beings hunger for unfailing health, a better economy, harmonious relationships and generally a long life.  To wish for a better world does not mean feigning that there are no problems today.  Indeed it is the problems and injustices of today that must be used as building blocks for a better world.  “The dehumanisation resulting from an unjust order,” remarks Paulo Freire, “is not cause for despair but for hope, leading to the incessant pursuit of the humanity which is denied by injustice.”  Today’s swords must be tomorrow’s plough shares.

THE PROTEST OF CHRIST

During his day, Jesus the carpenter of Nazareth looked around and saw the misery that gobbled the world of his day.  He refused to believe that that was the best world for human beings to live in.   He closed his carpentry shop and went to proclaim the bursting open of a new era of emancipation (Luke 4 18-19).  His life and misery demonstrated that human life can and must be enhanced, that human beings are not created to live in perpetual destitution.

Jesus lived all his life protesting the oppression of the world.  It is those who wanted the world to remain immobile, those who profited from the injustices of the day, who liquidated Jesus so that any possible transformation of the world may be arrested.  Jesus’ death, therefore, is a condemnation of the structures and situations that manufacture and spew human agony. 

Jesus’ efforts at transforming the world did not end in despair.  His efforts culminated into the resurrection (Acts 2:24).  It is the same Jesus the carpenter of Nazareth who is resurrected and offers himself as the goal for the evolving world (Colosians 1:15-20).  One of the Easter Mass prefaces puts this truth very beautifully:  “In him a new age has dawned, the long reign of sin is ended, the broken world has been removed, and man once again made whole…”

Jesus’ death and resurrection protest the agony of the world and offer hope that as long as we work, the world will slowly but steadily become transformed.  It is the dean of Black Theology, James Cowe, who gives an eloquent  interpretation of  the death and resurrection of Jesus.  According to him, “Jesus’ death is the revelation of the freedom of God, taking upon himself the totality of human oppression.  His resurrection is a disclosure that God is not defeated by oppression but transforms it into a possibility of freedom.”  With God, evil can never have the final say.

It is self-evident that there is excruciating human suffering in Zambia today and it is hard to inspire hope into the lives of those who  are   already   dehumanised.

Many have already abandoned the hope of ever tasting another dose of a humane life.  But thanks be to God, the vast majority of Zambians still believe in the resurrection of Jesus.  Therefore, even if problems around and ahead look insurmountable, belief in the resurrection means God can transform the impossible into the achievable.  Despair must give way to new hope and greater resolve to conquer the forces of evil.

In speaking about their life of despicable agony under Stalin, Nadezhda Mandelstam wrote a book and entitled it Hope Against Hope.  After the death of her husband in 1938 in a transit camp, she wrote another book and called it Hope Abandoned.  To believe in the resurrection is to hope against all hope, it is to refuse to abandon hope, it is to believe that Zambia and the rest of the human community will gently but surely trudge into a more human society.  To believe in the resurrection is to realise that the ideal human community is at the threshold of being born and we must all be midwives of that community.

O’Brien Kaaba
St Dominics Major Seminary
Lusaka