In Memory of Mzee Laurenti Magesa who died on 11 August 2022:
A Testimony.
Two Years have now passed since you left us, Mzee Laurenti Magesa. Unlike the quote from the Play Julius Caesar: “The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones”, no evil darkened your life, and I will never forget the good you did to and for me and to and for so many others. Your Spirit is alive and strong in our hearts, in our thoughts and in our words. Personally, I am thankful that you believed in me more than I believed in myself. I recall how you read and re-read my speech to the United Nations General Assembly in 2019. You gently but strongly advised me to be myself, to accept no pressure and not to say anything I did not believe.
When I first arrived at Hekima to teach, I sent you three of my course outlines and asked you if you thought I was demanding too much from my students. I knew I was approaching a seasoned and expert Professor. You wrote back and said: “Marcel, tell your students that at Hekima, they have not come for holidays. They should work and work hard.” You did not change anything in my course outlines. Further, I first got involved with the African Synodality Initiative (ASI) because at the time, you were very ill and unable to give your presentation. You suggested me to the Director of ASI, Fr. Agbonkhianmeghe A. Orobator, SJ, as someone who “will do it well.” I was in Lebanon for Tertianship at the time. As to how well I did it, I am not sure, but I do know the Synod on Synodality has had a tremendous impact on me and my vision of the Church.
Furthermore, when I accompanied you to Musoma after your “retirement” from Hekima University College, you pushed me to write my first book and you said: “Marcel, I command you to write down your story. It will touch many hearts.” I wrote my story and you wrote its preface while you were in the hospital in Dar es Salaam. You dictated that preface to our brother, Professor Magoti Evaristi who then sent it to me. This was in July 2022. Little did we know that you would leave us a month later on 11 August 2022.
The book was published under an inspired title that you whispered into my ear: Risen from the Ashes: Theology as Autobiography in Post-Genocide Rwanda (2022). It has touched many people. The first person to read it was Bishop Rodirgo Mejia and he immediately wrote a review for Hekima Review and persuaded me to launch the book on Capuchin TV. A man flew from Hawaii, United States to see me in Nairobi, Kenya after having read the book with your preface. This happened only three months after the book got published. The man said that he felt the book was almost too good to be true. He wanted to meet the author. In my office in Nairobi, the man said on January 8, 2023: “You wrote the book ‘le coeur à la main‘ and you are so sincere, and I could not imagine how someone who lived what you went through could rise to become a President of a College, a University. I simply wanted to meet you. You touched me profoundly.” There have been many other reviews. The book has brought some fine resources to the Society of Jesus. Yes, Mzee Magesa, your prophecy has been fulfilled. The book has touched many and my recent trip to Seattle and Chicago are but a few examples of the many who responded.
We have now created an Academic Chair for African Studies at Hekima, the first of its kind, which I hope will be named for you or other chairs will be under your name. Our Tarimo Student Commons is blessed to have your portrait on its walls.
Your desire to have theology in context continues to animate our studies at Hekima and as we grow with our new strategic plan 2024-2030, we will strengthen and expand our studies in Contextual Theology. Those interested will find inspiring your chapter, probably your last writing, in our Book, Reinventing Theology in Post-Genocide Rwanda: Challenges and Hopes, published by Georgetown University Press, 2023.
I lost a wonderful mentor at your departure from Hekima and at your entrance to heaven. Yet in the last two years in my positions of leadership at Hekima, I have felt your hand on my shoulder, tapping me and encouraging all of us to make our vision a reality. Yes, the memory of those who have gone before us is a reminder of their unfinished agenda which we now carry in our hands. The words of Henry David Thoreau, an American Philosopher of the nineteenth century remind me of you:
To be a philosopher is not merely to have subtle thoughts,
nor even to found a school but so to love wisdom as to live
according to its dictates, a life of simplicity, independence,
magnanimity and trust.
And so you did.
Pray for us Mzee Prof. Magesa and when our turn comes to meet our loving God, may we face Him without shame. May we make, as you did, a positive difference in the lives of those whom we encounter. In the evening of our lives, only love we gave to others will be important. Your last priestly words to me remain engraved in my heart: “It is important not to be a burden to yourself as a priest, doing things simply out of duty. This will eventually crush you. But even more important: try not to be a burden to others on account of your own discontent in life” (Hekima Review, no. 64, p. 150).
As I conclude these few words on your second anniversary in heaven, I recall these words from “A Psalm of Life” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow who wrote:
Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time.
As you travel in the land of our many African Ancestors, greetings to Benezet Bujo and Teresia Hinga who followed you recently. Pray that we here remain faithful on our journey in life until we see you again. Pray that we leave Hekima even better than we found it. We have planted a tree in your honor. All for the greater glory of God.
Marcel Uwineza, S.J.
HUC, Principal