Catholic Mission amongst the Somalis.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXI, Issue 4, 22 January 1903, Page 1

Catholic Mission amongst the Somalis.

The somewhat serious mishap sustained by the British force in Somaliland two or three months ago and the continuance of the disturbed conditions there have drawn attention to a region and people about which little hitherto has been brought before the public. It appears that the people are brave even to recklessness, and are so indifferent to pain that a recent traveller relates how they came in numbers to his camp, desiring as a treat to undergo minor operations, on the plea that they ' liked to feel steel.' It appears also that the Somalis are intensely susceptible to religious emotion, though at present their religious feeling is, for the most part, misplaced and misdirected. Colonel Swayne, commander of the British forces in Somaliland, writing some time ago, expressed himself as greatly impressed by the Dervish movement. ' Until I actually saw the Mullah's men fighting,' he writes, 'I had no

idea that a Somali could be so influenced by fanaticism. I am speaking- of the dervishes, the men who, following the example of the Suakin dervishes, have thrown over father and mother and their own tribe to follow the Mullah. They have passwords, wear a white turban ... and have sworn to throw up all worldly advantages. Of course a certain number even of these dervishes have joined the Mullah simply for the sake of loot, but there are, on the other hand, a considerable number who are pure fanatics.' * This fanaticism, which the British soldiers are fightingagainst with fire and sword, is being overcome in a more peaceful fashion by the Fathers of the Somali Coast mission. Although the circumstances are such as to prevent anything in the nature of a very rapid or striking progress, it is at least gratifying to know that in this out-of-the-way part of the world a Catholic mission is organised and on the spot, ready to take advantage of the full and free admission which will follow when the present troubles are arranged. Nor have the efforts of the missioners even up to the present been altogether without result. • Our work on the Somali Coast,' wrote Father Evangelist, the Superior, in « Illustrated Catholic Missions,' more than two years ago, ' has not been quite sterile. Charity has traced its way to the hearts of the people, and, little by little, open hostilities have subsided, and the prejudices, heaped for centuries in their minds, and kept alive by the religious chiefs, have calmed down. Now the missioners form part of the city, and the better kind of the Somalis come to them with confidence. It is true these favorable dispositions are not yet conversions, but they allow us to receive a number of boys who will be formed according to the Christian principles, and when grown up, if baptised, will become the best apostles of their countrymen. We have now 40 boys in our house; they have nearly all been presented to us by their parents, who leave to us the charge of their maintenance. Six years ago, the first time of my stay in Berbera, all the boys who had come to stay with us fled away after a stay of a fortnight, one month, or two months. One alone remained ; he is baptised, and I consider him as my eldest son.' Since the time of this failure better arrangements have been made, many boyt, have been baptised, and a number of others are now preparing for the great sacrament. A dictionary and grammar of the Somali language, published by the Fathers, gives further evidence of the vitality and activity of this distant mission.