Bomoanga, tra le stelle e la stoffa sofferente di una speranza | il manifesto
Catene di libertà. Per due anni rapito nel Sahel || Chains of Freedom. Kidnapped for two years in the Sahel (Emi, pp. 207, €14) is the intimate diary of a captivity in the desert where sun rhymes with thirst and sand exchanges kisses with loneliness. At the same time, it is the gripping chronicle of the kidnapping and imprisonment of a missionary, Pier Luigi Maccalli, and his companions in misfortune (Luca Tacchetto and Nicola Chiacchio). Maccalli spends 25 months in the desert prison where there are no walls or barbed wire, because the emptiness and the sun are enough to discourage any movement.
EVERYTHING BEGAN on 17 September 2018 in the small town of Bomoanga (about 150 km from Niamey - Niger) when a group of armed men burst into the mission and grabbed Father Gigi, who immediately realised that they did not speak his language, Gurmancé, they were peul (shepherds) and were not coupeurs de routes (street bandits) but mujaheddin. He is loaded onto a motorbike and taken north through internal tracks, paths, until he arrives at a first hideout on 5 October 2018 and is chained. He lives under the close surveillance of the men of Gsim (Support Group for Islam and Muslims, Nassaratu Islam wa Muslimins).
IN THE DESERT he waits every day for something that doesn't happen, he feels he has ended up in "an immense absurdity", he talks to God, but feels no response. The physical fatigue of living face down on the ground, the chains, the insults, the time that seems to pass uselessly, depress Maccalli and throw him into a situation of prostration, but "day after day, month after month," he says, "my heart is filled with so much sadness and bitterness. I hardly recognise myself in the mirror. I have always been a joyful, optimistic and positive person." A physical and spiritual isolation where all communication is interrupted. Even God seems absent. Time passed and Luigi thought of all he was losing, of pastoral commitments that had been cancelled, of programmes, of the mission school that should have started up again, of the training of teachers, of the cleaning of wells, of the pharmacy and then of the children to take to the hospital in Niamey, but time did not reverse. The silence becomes superhuman:
'what weighs most is the silence of God and with God is my greatest struggle: why have you forgotten me.' Then there are some facts of the "casualities" that make the trust grow, the stars, the setting sun, the words with the companions of imprisonment (
Tacchetto will arrive after 3 months and Chiacchio after 6) and then at a certain point the radio that puts them in connection with the world again.
THE PAGES proceed with a good rhythm where facts are intertwined with a deep confidential tone. "I understand that this imprisonment is a turning point in my life as a man and as a missionary". Between videos, negotiations, movements, changes of guards, the months pass by, we wait for the leader Abu Naser and with every visit there seems to be a turning point, but then everything seems to fade away.
The kidnappers are wrapped up in larger events, such as the coup d'état in Mali, the coronavirus, attacks by groups linked to Isis, and diplomatic tactics. Father Gigi is in an imprisonment of nonsense that brings tears to his face and heart: a river of lava flowing in his bowels and burning. He suffers, but at the same time he offers himself, he tries to be a gift. He prays, with a cloth he makes a small rosary that he recites every day, remembering his family, the poor, his mission, the church. And as Pope Francis said, 'we have supported you, but you have supported the church'.
He will be released on 8 October 2020 along with other prisoners including Mali's opposition leader (Soumaïla Cissé): two years to lose and find himself. "The hostile wind of fundamentalism has dispersed the sacred values of hospitality and respect for the elderly. In the nights, I saw my life again and relaunched my yes. The stars are an invitation to look far ahead and to set sail.
BBM
