(The Nationalist, 22 September 2000)
Would you like a story? Who doesn’t? Especially a true story as this one is.
In Zambia, in Africa, about twenty years ago, in the south-west of the country there was warfare between South Africa and guerrillas fighting for the freedom of Namibia. Zambia was their battle-ground.
One day there came to the mission at Sioma two visitors, a Tanzanian priest called Paul, and a German priest called Martin. They spent the night there and intended continuing their journey the next day. But during the night there was fighting in the area they were going to, so the priest in charge of the mission advised them to stay on for another day or two. But they felt they had to go – it was about catching a plane, I think, or something equally foolish.
They travelled together along the road and all went well until they encountered a group of angry, and not very well-disciplined, South African soldiers, who were looking for revenge for the death of nine of their comrades in a rocket attack the night before. They stopped the two priests, ordered them to lie on the ground and held guns to their heads. On discovering that Paul was a Tanzanian they decided to kill him, because Tanzania supported the guerrillas. Their commanding officer tried to dissuade them but they ignored him. Martin spoke to them in German, a language like their native Afrikaans, and pointed out that it was hardly fair to kill a man because of the actions of guerrillas supported by his government. Eventually they calmed down and let them go, advising them to abandon their car and take refuge in the forest.
After walking for several hours the two priests came to the Zambezi River where some villagers ferried them to the other side in dugout canoes. Feeling safe there, they continued their journey south on foot. As they walked through the forest, they heard shouts from the trees, and, looking up, saw guerrillas pointing guns at them and ordering them to lie on the ground. The guerrillas announced their intention of killing Martin because he was white; they assumed he was a South Africa agent. Now the roles were reversed and it was Paul’s turn to save Martin. He spoke the guerrillas’ language and told them what had happened with the South African troops on the road. The guerrillas were greatly impressed by this and let both men go. They completed their journey in peace with plenty of time to reflect that ‘Brother helped by brother is a strong city.’