Ghana

Kristo Buase,Techiman, OSB monks, December 2002

Founded by the English Province ofthe Subiaco Congregation

There have been manychanges in the community since our last letter. Br Bede, one of the founding members and the main force ingetting the project off the ground in the 1980's did not return from hisSabbatical but was advised by his doctors to remain in Britain for reasons ofhealth. Fr Luis Regalado was withus for two years as Novice Master, on loan from the monastery of Christ in theDesert in New Mexico. His presencehere was somewhat providential since our need for a second priest in thecommunity coincided with his need to leave the United States for at least ayear while the Immigration Authorities worked on his papers. We have a great deal to be thankful forfrom both of these monks and their contribution to the community.

We have two Solemn Professions toput on record: Br Basilio Zaa-Liebe is a veteran of monastic life having beeneleven years in a small Ghanaian community (run on Cistercian lines) whichclosed on the death of its superior in 1966. He has been with us since that date. Rather frustratingly,although he was on the very eve of making Final Profession when Fr Anthony Mensah-Browndied, he had to begin again as a novice when he came to us. We are delighted that he perseveredthrough all obstacles to fulfil his vocation as a monk. A trained mason, he is now in charge ofbuilding projects at the monastery and has been instrumental in catechising alarge number of villagers who now regularly attend our Sunday Mass. Although we do not have a parish wehave baptised over a hundred people since 2000, and blessed about a dozenmarriages. Most of these newlybaptised are migrant farmers coming down from their home area in theNorth. Brong Ahafo has richagricultural land and reliable rains.

The other newly professedis Br Patrick Obeng-Nketiah. He isa cousin of Br Gabiel's and from the same town (Sampa) on the border betweenGhana and Côte d'Ivoire. Wewere delighted that his mother, who is now in her 90's, was able to attendtogether with other family members.

Br Bartholomew Banzie,now the last of our founding group of monks, is in his third year of Theologyat the Major Seminary in Tamale. He is a nephew to Archbishop Gregory of Tamale who this year conferredon him the ministry of Acolyte. There are, I think, two more years before ordination. It will be very good to have ‘oneof our own’ as a priest in the community.

Br Gabriel Peh has recently takenover as Bursar and is trying to master the computer as a prelude to tacklingthe accounts. He is alsoGuestmaster and Vocations Director. We are now five in Solemn Vows: four Ghanaians and one Briton.

Building projects

Readers of PluscardenBenedictines may have been intrigued by Fr Martin's recent article on KB that talksof so many new buildings going up. What are we building? Infact many of these projects were unplanned but have been forced on us bycircumstances. On Christmas Eve2000, just before Midnight Mass, we were held at gunpoint by armed robbers whorelieved us of the contents of our safe for the second time in six months. It was obvious then that we would haveto do something about security. Infact, as the old saying goes, 'every cloud has a silver lining', and therobberies helped us to make a number of changes to improve our monasticenclosure without causing any offence to the local people, who valuehospitality highly. The newarrangements have given us a reception room and classroom (for the novices),and a fine new wall which, as an unforeseen by-product, has created a verypleasant walled garden among the rocks. We have been clearing this and planting it with flowering trees andshrubs. Since the security hasbeen tightened we have had only one serious incident and that was when a thiefstole our alsatian guard dog! Welater recovered him from Techiman where he had been sold for the equivalent of£7.

The Hermitage

The other main buildingproject is a hermitage, about 250m from the main buildings in a natural gap inthe rocks. Work began on this inMarch 2002 and the carpenters are now working on the roof. We have had a diocesan hermit, BrJoseph Asare, living with us since 1998 and the hermitage is intended forhim. He is now a BenedictineOblate but continues to wear the habit (& flowing beard!) of a FranciscanCapuchin.

The hermitage design isquite striking: three blocks (chapel, dining room and kitchen, and two cells)set around a small garden-cloister and nestling under some imposing rocks. Itis being built by local workers from the same red cement blocks we used tobuild the main monastery. Wecarved out some steps in the rock which now give access to a wonderfulviewpoint on top of a crag, and nearby is a small cave chapel which was clearedof sand to form our own Sacro Speco (the Holy Cave at Subiaco where St Benedictbegan monastic life 1,500 years ago). My last visit to this cave coincided with that of a very large blackcobra: even the dogs were a little put out to see it gliding through a narrowpassage we would have to use ourselves.

The architect of thehermitage is Professor H. Wellington of the University of Science andTechnology in Kumasi. We haveasked him to help us with a design for a monastery church. At present we are using a small roomwhich was intended as a parlour and which is functional but often noisy. It will probably take many years beforeour plans for a church are realised but the hermitage chapel will give us aquiet place for occasional use.

The hermitage will alsoserve as a memorial to two of our Founding Fathers who died last year: AbbotAlfred Spencer of Pluscarden, who guided us through the foundation of ourmonastery as Pro-Visitor of the English Province (+ 25th September 2001) andBishop James Kwadwo Owusu who was killed in a car accident on 28th December2001. Bishop Owusu had been deeplyimpressed by a visit to Dzogbegan Abbey in Togo in the 1970's and for aboutfifteen years he had been tirelessly urging contacts to arrange for a benedictinefoundation in his diocese. It wasbecause he refused to be discouraged that the English Province of the SubiacoCongregation finally agreed to make a joint foundation in 1989. We discovered after the funeral (whichlasted nine hours!) that the bishop had spoken of retiring to the monasteryafter stepping down. He was73. RIP.

Links with the African Province

It was also Bishop Owusuwho encouraged us to follow the lead of the Ghana Bishops' Conference and tryto break down the artificial barriers between Ghana and her French speakingneighbours. We are far from theother houses of the English Province but have three francophone monasteries ofour congregation within a 600km radius of Kristo Buase (Bouaké, Koubriand Dzogbegan). In fact theAfrican Province had already taken the initiative by asking if we could host aprovincial meeting of superiors in 2000 at Techiman, which was centrally placedfor three of them. Since then wehave been exchanging visits regularly and for the past two years Miss MonicaCowell has been coming to KB each January to give intensive English classes formonks from these houses. Anothercourse is planned for next year and now the Benedictine nuns are asking to beincluded. For the duration of thecourse our community more than doubles in size and many friendships have beenmade.

You have probably read in the papersof the ongoing fighting in Côte d'Ivoire. The two monasteries (monks and nuns) at Bouaké arecaught in the midst of it and for the past two months we have been wondering ifour next meeting with our brethren there would be as host to refugees. We are only some 60km from the borderbut so far the only effect on us has been a huge increase in the number ofheavy vehicles coming down from Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, land-lockedcountries on the fringe of the Sahara Desert. They are now importing goods through Ghana rather thanthrough Côte d'lvoire. One surprising development from this is that oursmall road out of Techiman, leading to the monastery, is now sign-posted'Burkina Faso'! We are still about 500km from the frontier.

The School

After the death of our firstSuperior, Fr Martin Symons, in 1993, his family and friends collected funds forthe building of a ‘Fr Martin Memorial School’ in the village. It was originally planned as a primaryschool but two kindergarten blocks were added in 1996 and soon after that theHeadmaster approached us to ask if we could add a three classroom block toserve as a junior secondary school (equivalent of English forms 1-3 ofsecondary school) so that local students could continue in the village throughto basic school certificate level. Through the arrival of a legacy from Mrs Barbara Simkin, an oblate ofPluscarden, we were able to complete that work in 2000. The Government supplies the staff andrunning costs.

The Farm and the Future

We try to earn our livingfrom a 408-acre farm. There is a system of agriculture called 'Permaculture'which I would one day like to adopt: it tries to inter-relate all the differentfarming projects and make full use of resources. Our main crop is cashew nuts (we are the second largestproducer in the region) but we are now beginning to diversify. A new chicken house has beenconstructed which we will use for one hundred layers (i.e. chickens for eggs)and a local veterinary assistant is advising us on sheep breeding. In the past year we have obtainedanother twelve beehives and have planted new fruit trees. We still have pigs but our alsatiansfinished off the ducks: these learnt too late the benefits of stability andenclosure.

The monks of Dzogbeganhave helped us to restart our jam industry and taught us new recipes. The carombella and lemon, inparticular, has been a great success. When finances permit we plan to build some workshops for jams and othersmall monastic industries.

Soon after Christmas welook forward to welcoming back Père Martin of Dzogbegan and Fr Martin ofPluscarden who will both be coming to join us for one year. Their arrival will allow me to go awayfor a while to try and shake off a bug that has been troubling me since March.

As they say in Ghana... AFRIHYIA PA!