City of Ubuntu - a story of encounters
What does a fulfilled human life consist of? How does the history of great institutions come about?
These and many other questions are very present in the minds of those who like to read biographies and history books. City of Ubuntu is a civil society organisation that is building its history before our eyes. This history is woven from journeys and encounters centred around a certain Jean de Dieu Tagne, the promoter of the project.
As it is a story, we will illustrate our explanations with some significant dates, places, people and actions.
2010 - Yaoundé, Cameroon
Abdoul, a street child, approaches Jean de Dieu and asks him for something to eat. Jean de Dieu decides to better understand the phenomenon of street children and begins researching the problem of educating street children in the city of Yaoundé in Cameroon.
During this research, he met Angèle Kengne, who was already working on the situation of children’s rights. This encounter led to the decision to involve other people and found an association. Angèle shares the idea with her husband, Alexis Ndzuenkeu, who is a judge, Jean de Dieu talks to Herrick Mouafo Djontu, an association leader at the university, and Patience Ombick, who is trained in business management. This is how the small team forms to write the statutes of an association.
2011 - Yaoundé, Cameroon
On April 11, the association for the promotion and protection of the right to education is founded under the name BLAS in Africa (Bring Light and Smile in Africa). The acronym BLAS was chosen to honor the memory of the Piarist priest Mariano Blas, whose meeting with Jean de Dieu in 2005 focused on the education situation in Cameroon.
BLAS in Africa is a civil society organization governed by Cameroonian legislation in the light of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international legal instruments. BLAS in Africa is inspired by the thoughts and charism of St. Joseph Calasanz, who in 1597, seeing the misery of children and youth in the streets of Rome, founded the first Christian elementary school in Europe to free these children from the slavery of ignorance and sin. For this reason, the Superior General of the Piarist Fathers recognized BLAS in Africa as a Piarist work.
2012 - Yaoundé, Cameroon
Jean de Dieu meets Dr. Narcisse Talla and Dr. Bernard Fotsing and invites them to join the BLAS team. Both are computer scientists. Their presence gives the budding project new strength. In the basement of the Piarist Fathers’ training house in Yaoundé, the small team meets several times a week in the evenings and works late into the night. In this climate of total dedication, various training courses on educational issues are prepared and offered to civil society actors. In the course of this, they have set up several programs for street children:
- the “Shared Bread” program, which aims to feed and care for street children
- the “Dopo Scuola” program in collaboration with The Grace Enna association, which offers school support to children from disadvantaged families
- the “BLAS-YEC” (Youth Empowerment Center) program to train young entrepreneurs
- the “Equation for Success” program to help young people with their school and academic orientation
Stéphane Lontsi joined the team in 2014 and holds the position of Secretary General.
2015 - UNESCO, Paris,
France
On June 3, Jean de Dieu, General Coordinator of BLAS in Africa, is invited to the UNESCO headquarters in Paris. The occasion is the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council’s Declaration on Christian Education, Gravissimus Educationis, and the 25th anniversary of Pope John Paul II’s document for Catholic universities, Ex Corde Ecclesiae. On this occasion, Jean de Dieu will give a lecture entitled: What is the contribution of the BLAS Association in Africa to the current challenges in education?
Several meetings will take place during the World Forum. The meeting with Christine Roche, President of the International Catholic Center for Cooperation with UNESCO, leads to the membership of BLAS in Africa in this international network of civil society associations.
2015 - Esztergom, Hungary
Throughout July, Jean de Dieu attends the General Chapter of the Piarist Fathers as a guest. He actively participates in the chapter’s discussions on the new challenges in the field of education.
Based on his experience at the World Education Forum, he presents the idea of introducing a Master’s degree in Education Law to the Chapter Assembly. The participants of the World Forum at UNESCO had been the first to receive the Incheon Declaration, which set out the education goals for 2030. After Jean de Dieu had recognized that the new challenges in the field of education concerned quality and that the means to overcome these challenges lay in leadership, lobbying and advocacy, he argued that the Piarist priests should take on a pioneering role in training in these areas. The idea met with the approval of the General Chapter.
2016 - Rome, Italy
On September 15, the Superior General of the Piarist Fathers, Fr. Pedro Aguado Cuesta, establishes the Institut Calasanz du Droit à l’Éducation (ICALDE) with the decree Prot.S.198.2016. The BLAS association in Africa is tasked with developing the training content. Academic supervision is provided by the Cristobal Colon University in Veracruz, Mexico, which belongs to the Piarist Fathers. The meetings with the Rector, Fr. José Manuel Asun and Jorge Campa, enabled ICALDE to establish good relations with the UCC.
ICALDE began under the leadership of Professor Pierre Étienne Kenfack and later Dr. Herrick Mouafo Djountu. The first ICALDE students defended their Master’s thesis in 2022.
ICALDE has faced funding issues from the outset. The Piarist Fathers provide the start-up funding, but it was not possible to finance the operating costs. In order to pay the teachers adequately, students would have to pay high tuition fees, which goes against our core value of educating people from poor backgrounds to meet the educational challenges of their communities. Therefore, ICALDE thought about engaging in income-generating activities to offer scholarships to poor and deserving students.
2019 - Tonga, Cameroon
A former ICALDE student establishes contact with the village chief of Sanki, who makes a 12-hectare plot of land available to us.
Thus, the idea of a new project is born.
2020 - Sanki, Cameroon
The agreement with the village of Sanki is finalized and the implementation of the project, called City of Ubuntu: City of True Humanity, begins.
Over time, it becomes clear that the mission in this village cannot be limited to agricultural production. We want to create a city of encounter, a place where everyone can express their talent and realize their dream.
The first project to be launched is the installation of 25 beehives with a double objective: an educational objective, where we learn from the bees how collective work can produce a result that goes beyond separate individual skills; and a socio-economic objective, where we make pure honey available to the population at a reasonable price.
2020 - Sanki, Cameroon
On April 8, Jean de Dieu visited the City of Ubuntu for the first time, accompanied by Stéphane Lontsi and Vivian and Regina, a family who had moved to Tonga from Buea. They are surprised by such heavy rain that they get very wet, as there was no shelter. Jean de Dieu promises to do everything possible to build a house on the site as soon as possible.
2021 - Sanki, Cameroon
Corn cultivation begins and Mr. Ousmanou is hired as the guardian of the City of Ubuntu. He is the first inhabitant of our city. His job is to protect the crops of the City of Ubuntu from monkeys and herds of cows that want to eat the maize and, above all, to ensure a human presence in the city.
2022 - Buea, Cameroon
On the recommendation of the Carmelite Sisters of Sasse, Chiambah Basil Fulmai is hired as project manager in City of Ubuntu. His job is to keep track of everything that is being done in City of Ubuntu and to send us regular reports on what is happening on the site. Before him, Jean Baptiste Poukam had followed the initial work with plants such as cassava, maize, ginger and others.
2022 - Sanki, Cameroon
The first house with three rooms is built in the City of Ubuntu. This house is the result of the generosity of Jean de Dieu’s friends in the parish of Maria Treu in Vienna on the occasion of his 15th anniversary as a priest.
2022 - Vienna, Austria
On May 1st, Barbara Tober calls Jean de Dieu to the hospital in his capacity as parish priest of Maria Treu because of an emergency. On this day, the first meeting between Jean de Dieu and Philipp Broinger, Barbara’s husband, takes place.
When he later talks to Philipp about the City of Ubuntu project, he is interested and discusses it with his colleague Herwig Ferch: Both are architects. Soon after, a meeting was organized between Jean de Dieu, Philipp and Herwig.
2022 - Sanki, Cameroon
From July 26 to August 6, Jean de Dieu, Angèle and Stéphane will host a group of 14 Austrian, 6 Cameroonian young people and one Mexican in Cameroon for an intercultural experience. During this encounter experience, the young people plant trees in the Ubuntu settlement and take part in cultural activities with other young people in Yaoundé, Tonga, Bafoussam, Buea and Kribi. Two members of this group, Bernadette Becsi and Veronika Pawel, are particularly interested in the project.
2022 - Vienna, Austria
From the beginning of September, the Ubuntu team in Vienna will be constituted with the following members: Jean de Dieu, Philipp, Barbara, Ilka, Martina, Herwig, Michael, Bernadette and Veronika. The team has set itself the task of founding an association called City of Ubuntu Austria in order to work at Austrian level in a similar way to the project in Cameroon.
2023 - Vienna, Austria
and Yaounde, Cameroon
On June 30, the work on drafting the statutes of City of Ubuntu Austria was completed and the documents submitted to the responsible ministry. We received valuable help with proofreading from two lawyers: Barbara Bauer and Peter Csoklich.
Almost at the same time, in July 2023, the paperwork to officialise “City of Ubuntu Cameroun” as association in Cameroon, is finalised.
The team is gradually consolidating and is open to accepting new members who want to share the Ubuntu dream of a harmonious coexistence of all people and with nature.
The journey continues and the encounters become more numerous. Jean de Dieu is now writing his doctoral thesis on the City of Ubuntu project in social ethics at Laval University in Quebec, Canada. Who knows what it will be about tomorrow?