Download as pdf or txt
Download as pdf or txt
You are on page 1of 53

The Pope, the Public, and International

Relations: Postsecular Transformations


Mariano P. Barbato
Visit to download the full and correct content document:
https://textbookfull.com/product/the-pope-the-public-and-international-relations-postse
cular-transformations-mariano-p-barbato/
More products digital (pdf, epub, mobi) instant
download maybe you interests ...

Biota Grow 2C gather 2C cook Loucas

https://textbookfull.com/product/biota-grow-2c-gather-2c-cook-
loucas/

Public relations the profession and the practice


Lattimore

https://textbookfull.com/product/public-relations-the-profession-
and-the-practice-lattimore/

International Public Relations and Public Diplomacy


Communication and Engagement 1st Edition Guy J. Golan

https://textbookfull.com/product/international-public-relations-
and-public-diplomacy-communication-and-engagement-1st-edition-
guy-j-golan/

The public relations firm First Edition Pritchard

https://textbookfull.com/product/the-public-relations-firm-first-
edition-pritchard/
Strategic planning for public relations Fourth Edition.
Edition Public Relations Ronald D. Smith

https://textbookfull.com/product/strategic-planning-for-public-
relations-fourth-edition-edition-public-relations-ronald-d-smith/

Persian Gulf 2018: India's Relations with the Region P.


R. Kumaraswamy

https://textbookfull.com/product/persian-gulf-2018-indias-
relations-with-the-region-p-r-kumaraswamy/

Public Opinion Transatlantic Relations and the Use of


Force 1st Edition Philip Everts

https://textbookfull.com/product/public-opinion-transatlantic-
relations-and-the-use-of-force-1st-edition-philip-everts/

Public Relations 1st Edition Laura Lee

https://textbookfull.com/product/public-relations-1st-edition-
laura-lee/

Public Relations Strategies and Tactics Dennis L.


Wilcox

https://textbookfull.com/product/public-relations-strategies-and-
tactics-dennis-l-wilcox/
CULTURE AND RELIGION IN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

The Pope, the Public,


and
International Relations
Postsecular Transformations

Edited by Mariano P. Barbato


Culture and Religion in International Relations

Series Editor
Yosef Lapid
Department of Government
New Mexico State University
Las Cruces, NM, USA
Looking at how religion and culture interact with and affect international
relations, this series deals with both theory and case studies.

More information about this series at


http://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/14946
Mariano P. Barbato
Editor

The Pope, the Public,


and International
Relations
Postsecular Transformations
Editor
Mariano P. Barbato
Center for Religion and Modernity
University of Münster
Münster, Germany

Culture and Religion in International Relations


ISBN 978-3-030-46106-5 ISBN 978-3-030-46107-2 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-46107-2

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer
Nature Switzerland AG 2020
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the
Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights
of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on
microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and
retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology
now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc.
in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such
names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for
general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and informa-
tion in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither
the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with
respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been
made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps
and institutional affiliations.

Cover credit: luminous/Alamy Stock Photo

This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature
Switzerland AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
Acknowledgments

The volume is the fruit of the efforts of many people who supported
and contributed to the project Legions of the Pope: A Case Study in Social
and Political Transformation. I can only mention a few but would like to
express my gratitude to all of them.
Most of the chapters started their life as conference papers presented at
the Popes on the Rise! Conference in March 2017, which was held at the
Roman Institute of the Görres Society at the Campo Santo Teutonico in
Rome, very close to the Vatican. I would like to thank in particular Prof.
Stefan Heid, Director of the Roman Institute, who was a wonderful host
and co-organizer. Many thanks to all the supporters and contributors who
turned the conference into an impressive event. I would like to mention
in particular my colleagues at the Center for Religion and Modernity of
the University of Munster who supported the project, the conference,
and the book. A special thanks goes to Johannes Löffler for his excellent
assistance.
The conference took place in the same week when, for the first time,
the heads of governments of the European Union met jointly with the
pontiff. This coincidence can be taken as a sign that the ongoing post-
secular transformations of the International and the Public are, indeed,
worth a longer and more focused look. I thank all the presenters at the
conference and those who joined later for their contributions.
Conference and project have been generously funded by the German
Research Foundation (426657443, 288978882). I am very thankful for

v
vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

this support. Many thanks also to the Palgrave editors Anca Pusca and
Katelyn Zingg and the series editors Fritz Kratochwil and Yosef Lapid
for including our manuscript in the Palgrave series Culture and Religion
in International Relations. Many people read and discussed the papers
on various occasions. Many thanks to all of them, in particular to the two
anonymous peer reviewers for their very supportive comments. Errors are,
of course, still mine.

Münster, Germany Mariano P. Barbato


January 2020
Praise for The Pope, the Public,
and International Relations

“‘The Papacy’ and ‘modernity’ are two terms that rarely intersect in
international relations, but it will be impossible to ignore the former’s
impact on the latter—and vice versa—after reading this fascinating book.
Through multiple forms of intertextual analysis, from a stroll through
Paris to the Pope’s Twitter feed to examinations of individual Popes
and the Papacy’s impact in radically different parts of the world, this
book reconfigures our conceptions of time and space to foreground the
dynamic nature of Papal politics in contemporary world politics.”
—Cecilia M. Lynch, Professor, University of California, Irvine, USA

“This is not the first IR work paying attention to the Holy See. None,
however, matches this volume, edited by one of the most promising
IR scholars of his generation, Marian Barbato. The volume is multidis-
ciplinary, not ‘monochrome,’ but very colorful with contributors from
many countries with the background not just in IR or political science
but, in the humanities, including among other a philosopher, an art
historian, scholar of religion, literary scholar. Barbato begins by taking
you for a walk through Paris, the city that rose during the long–and
for modern international relations pivotal–19th century to the capital of
secular nationalism showing the undeniable and enduring entanglements
of the public, religion, and world affairs.
The multidisciplinary tesserae the contributors put together into a
mosaic is an alternative to the foundational IR narrative excluding or

vii
viii PRAISE FOR THE POPE, THE PUBLIC, AND INTERNATIONAL …

playing down religion. You are invited to re-think Western history; you
are led to consider new perspectives on the global transformation. The
Holy See is a ‘hybrid actor’ on the world scene, merging religious and
political but also international and transnational elements. In the uncer-
tain fluid 21st century, with the use of media technology, there may be
others.”
—Vendulka Kubalkova, University of Miami, Florida, USA
Contents

1 The Holy See, Public Spheres and Postsecular


Transformations of International Relations:
An Introduction 1
Mariano P. Barbato

Part I Media Formats

2 Papal Diplomacy and the Rise of @pontifex 25


Chiara De Franco

3 The “Media Pope” as a Challenger of Socialism:


Pope John Paul II’s First Trip to Poland 45
Frank Bösch

4 “I Put No Stock in Consensus”: The Young Pope


and the Progressive/Conservative Cleavage in Filmic
Narrations of Papal Power 63
Melanie Barbato

ix
x CONTENTS

Part II Geopolitical Stages

5 The Holy See’s Vision of an Abrahamic Middle East:


Islam, Israel, and Oriental Churches 81
Mariano P. Barbato

6 Papal Presence in East and South Asia: China, India


and Beyond 97
Jörg Friedrichs

7 Thought and Pilgrimage: Polish Heritage


of St. John Paul II 119
Ryszard Zaj˛aczkowski

8 Spectacle and Power: Sites and Spaces of Papal Visits


in Spain 133
Rubén C. Lois González and Belén Castro-Fernández

Part III Global Transformation

9 Transatlantic Solidarities: Ultramontanism and Papal


Mobilization in Latin America 153
Francisco Javier Ramón Solans

10 Holy Alliance? The Establishment of Diplomatic


Relations Between the United States and the Holy See 171
Tassilo Wanner

11 The Holy See as Hybrid Actor: Religion


in International, Transnational, and World Society 189
Katharina McLarren and Bernhard Stahl

Index 203
Notes on Contributors

Mariano P. Barbato is Professor for Political Science at the Univer-


sity of Passau and Heisenberg Fellow of the German Research Founda-
tion at the Center for Religion and Modernity, University of Munster
(426657443, 288978882). His articles appeared in journals such as
Millennium, Review of International Politics, Journal of International
Relations and Development, and European Political Science Review. He co-
edited the Review of Faith and International Affairs special issue on the
Holy See and is author and editor of several books, including Pilgrimage,
Politics, and International Relations: Religious Semantics for World Politics
(New York: Palgrave, 2012).
Melanie Barbato holds a doctorate in Indology and Religious Studies
from LMU Munich. She is based at the University of Munster, where she
is researching the involvement of the Vatican and the World Council of
Churches in Hindu–Christian relations (DFG project 411280951). She
has co-edited the book Wege zum digitalen Papsttum: Der Vatikan im
Wandel medialer Öffentlichkeit (2018).
Frank Bösch is Director of the Leibniz-Center for Contemporary
History in Potsdam and Professor of European Twentieth Century
History at the University of Potsdam. He is author of several books,
including Media and Historical Change (2015), and Zeitenwende 1979
(2019).

xi
xii NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS

Belén Castro-Fernández is Lecturer in Didactics of Social Sciences and


Vice Dean of the Faculty of Education of the University of Santiago. She
earned a doctorate in Art History with a work on historicist restorations
on the Camino de Santiago and has published in various international
journals on the subject of contemporary pilgrimages.
Chiara De Franco is Associate Professor in International Relations and
Deputy Head of the Center for War Studies at the University of Southern
Denmark. She is the author of Media Power and the Transformation of
War (2012) and Warning about War: Conflict, Persuasion, and Foreign
Policy (2019).
Jörg Friedrichs (Dr. Phil., LMU Munich) is Associate Professor of Poli-
tics at the Department of International Development and Official Fellow
of St Cross College, University of Oxford. His latest book is on Hindu-
Muslim Relations: What Europe Might Learn from India (2018). He
has also worked on Muslim minorities and their relations with non-
Muslim majorities in China and England. His articles have appeared in
peer-reviewed journals such as International Organization, International
Theory, Third World Studies, and Philosophical Psychology.
Rubén C. Lois González is Professor of Geography at the University of
Santiago de Compostela (Spain) and Vice President of the International
Geographical Union (IGU/UGI). He has published a study on peregri-
nations and Cultural Geography in journals such as Tourism Geographies,
Tourism Management Perspectives, Culture and Religion, Mobilities and
Gender, and Place and Culture.
Katharina McLarren is currently the Deputy Director of the Franken-
Akademie in Bavaria. She previously worked as researcher and lecturer at
the University of Passau, focusing on religion in IR theories and FPA.
She holds a B.Sc. in International Relations from the London School
of Economics and an M.A. in Governance and Public Policy from the
University of Passau and is pursuing her Ph.D. in International Relations.
Francisco Javier Ramón Solans is Juan de la Cierva Researcher at the
University of Zaragoza, Spain. He has a Ph.D. in history from the Univer-
sity of Zaragoza and the University of Paris 8, and has been a research
fellow in France, the United States, and Germany. He has published
several articles in peer-reviewed journals such as Annales HSS, Annales
Historiques de la Révolution Française, Politics, Religion & Ideology,
NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS xiii

Hispania, and Ayer. He is the author of La Virgen del Pilar dice… Usos
políticos y nacionales de un culto mariano en la España contemporánea
(2014) and he has co-edited with Roberto Di Stefano, Marian Devotions,
Political Mobilization, and Nationalism in Europe and America (2016).
Bernhard Stahl (Ph.D) is Professor of International Politics and
currently Dean of Studies of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at the
University of Passau. From 2009 to 2011 he was Senior Lecturer in
an M.A. program for Palestinian, Israeli, and Jordanian students at the
University of Düsseldorf. His research areas cover European foreign policy
(German, French, and EU in particular), identity theory, and comparative
regionalism. Recent publications examine domestic legitimation of mili-
tary intervention and identity-related problems in the accession process as
well as the phenomenon of “silencing” of mass atrocities.
Tassilo Wanner is the VP Global Public & Regulatory Affairs of Lilium,
the global technology leader in the newly evolving air taxi industry.
Prior to joining Lilium, he served as a senior manager at the strategy
consultancy McKinsey & Company, where he focused on client projects
in the areas of strategy, organization, and change management. Tassilo
Wanner had started his professional career in different political planning
and strategic communication roles for the parliamentary leadership in the
German Bundestag as well as for the German Federal Minister of the Inte-
rior in Berlin. He studied at LMU Munich and Georgetown University,
and earned a doctorate in political science and modern history.
Ryszard Zaj˛aczkowski is a literary scholar and philosopher from the
John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin. In the years 1997–1999, he
was a lecturer at the Catholic University of Eichstätt and a scholarship
holder at the American universities of Yale (2005) and Harvard (2011),
as well as at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies (2015). He is the author
of five monographs as well as many articles devoted to nineteenth- and
twentieth-century literature, editor, contributing editor of the book series
The Literary Dimension of Culture, publicist, and translator of more than
a hundred books.
List of Figures

Fig. 2.1 @HolySeePress’ most retweeted users (Source Author’s


own creation) 34
Fig. 2.2 @HolySeePress’ most used hashtags (Source Author’s own
creation) 35
Fig. 2.3 Users most mentioned by @pontifex (Source Author’s own
creation) 35
Fig. 2.4 @pontifex’s most used hashtags (Source Author’s own
creation) 36

xv
CHAPTER 1

The Holy See, Public Spheres and Postsecular


Transformations of International Relations:
An Introduction

Mariano P. Barbato

Scholars usually conceptualize international relations as being dominated


by secular and sovereign nation states that contain an internal public
sphere with specific arrangements for religious communities and indi-
vidual believers, too.1 In doing so, they reflect, maybe too uncritically,
the political project of state building first in the Western, and later in the
post-colonial, world. The state project seemed to replace the old networks
of towns and empires, sometimes chaotic, certainly full of nooks and cran-
nies, that grew not only around the market place or the palace, but also
around the temples, churches, synagogues, and mosques. Instead, like the
grid plan of urban planning, a new international checkerboard was imag-
ined which allowed only nation states, albeit differentiated in power, to
act and play.

M. P. Barbato (B)
Center for Religion and Modernity, University of Münster, Münster, Germany
e-mail: mariano@barbato.de

© The Author(s) 2020 1


M. P. Barbato (ed.), The Pope, the Public, and International
Relations, Culture and Religion in International Relations,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-46107-2_1
2 M. P. BARBATO

It is safe to say that, from the European Reformation onwards, the rise
of the states increasingly pushed the Holy See from the center of medieval
politics to the fringes of the state system. Usually, this displacement of the
papacy from politics and publics is applauded as a progressive step, even
from within the Roman Church. Given the dark side of the entanglement
of the papacy with politics, this perspective has its points. However, the
story could also be told in a different way.
The modern grid plan of politics could be understood as a reaction to
the astonishing rise of the papal actor in the public sphere, which managed
to institutionalize the revolutionary impulse of the so-called Axial Age2 to
free spiritual intellectuals from the domination of warrior lords. From this
perspective, the papacy played a key role in establishing an institutionally
protected public space, beyond kin, tribe, and nation.
It is perhaps risky to call Jürgen Habermas as a witness for this thesis,
as he is still willing to stress the merits of later secularization processes.3
However, his seminal history of philosophy, in which the “papal revolu-
tion”4 of the eleventh century echoes the axial revolution, opens up the
possibility of thinking in this direction.5
A new space emerged when priests, prophets and philosophers no
longer restricted their role to that of a critical counselor to the prince
or a disputing scholar among scholars, but instead started to understand
themselves as facilitators in their own right for the poor and illiterate
masses. In this new re-telling of the story, the pope and his clergy can be
seen as pioneering a full-scale operation to reach out to the masses.6 The
point is not to frame the pope as a liberation theologian who leads the
crowd in the uprising against the oppressor. Instead, a case could be made
that the pope’s claim to independence and supremacy based on theolog-
ical doctrine and canon law secured and enlarged the space of rules and
deliberation beyond the arbitrariness of the noble warrior.7
The papal reforms inspired by Cluny and culminating in the papal revo-
lution of 1075 focused on three points. A precondition was the presence
of institutionalized intellectuals, an independent elite of celibate clerics
who had not bought their ministry for the sake of the sinecure, but had
been chosen to fulfil the mission. The main issue was papal supremacy
over the emperor, which stripped all secular rule—for king and princes
cannot claim what the emperor does not have—of direct religious legit-
imacy. In effect, the juridical system of canon law, with the pope as last
resort, absorbed the Cluniac inspired Peace and Truce Movement to end
noble feud.8
1 THE HOLY SEE, PUBLIC SPHERES AND POSTSECULAR … 3

The papacy was not able to pacify Europe by creating a public space
of deliberation and law, but Habermas seems to see papal efforts in that
direction as being successful.9 He seems to acknowledge the pope as a
forerunner and comrade for those who argue today for a cosmopolitan
public sphere. Such a perspective might answer the question of why
the papacy managed to survive and flourish under the conditions of an
increasingly open, transnational, and global public sphere: the papacy is
flourishing in a re-cultivated habitat.
This re-thinking of Western history provides an alternative to the well-
established narrative of the structural transformation of the public, also
endorsed by Habermas.10 The established narrative tells the formation of
the nation state as a secular enterprise that was enabled by a structural
transformation of the public sphere. According to this version, the reli-
gious representation of legitimate power was replaced, incrementally and
with revolutionary ruptures, by discursive debates and their recourse to
reason. National identity, not religious belonging, was created and backed
by mass mobilization.11
This narrative has long been accepted almost universally. While the
emergence of a global market, transnational migrant communities, and
cosmopolitan circles of communication occurred simultaneously with the
construction of the nation state, which was never the only actor, it took
some time for the Westphalian Myth and the Hobbesian image of the
Leviathan to lose some of their persuasive power. Now, however, in a
world in which the twitter messages of politicians are partly replacing
the international channels of diplomacy, and in which religious extremists
can recruit foreign fighters globally for an instant nation-building project
based on a fusion of archaic cruelty and hypermodern communication,12
there is an enormous and still growing body of literature discussing the
overlaps and mergers of the public and the international.13
The public and political power of religion within these transformations
is often understood as a reactionary force, an unpleasant but limited reac-
tion to progress, in which the power of identity stands up against the
network society.14 While this picture has its points, it is certainly biased
and insufficient. Even the Islamic State was part of the network society,
and the Holy See offers its own vision of universal progress.15 Despite
hostile ruptures and partisan contestations, religion in general and the
Holy See in particular have always been part of the transformations of the
public and of international relations. The Holy See is not returning from
exile, where the papacy has supposedly been since the Peace of Westphalia.
4 M. P. BARBATO

The rise of the pope in public16 is not necessarily part of a “neo-mediaeval


form of universal political order”,17 as the papacy does not belong to
the European medieval period alone. While the Holy See certainly had
its ups and downs on the diplomatic level and in public opinion, and the
particulars were always subject to change, modernity also saw the constant
entanglement of the Holy See, the public, and the international. This
might be illustrated by a walk through the city that became the capital
of secular nationalism during the long—and, for modern international
relations, pivotal—nineteenth century.18

A Walk with the Pope Through Paris


Paris is the capital of the French Revolution. It is certainly not known
for its devotion to the pope. Looking in the streets and squares of
Paris for historical and recent papal traces might therefore make a good
starting point for understanding how the public, religion, and world
affairs are entangled. As secularization theory has told us, religious relicts
from a distant past are reshaped or become an object of museification
in a modernizing world. However, in the twenty-first century, entangle-
ments of public, politics, international relations, and religion are still alive.
Walking through Paris on a spring day at the end of the second decade
of the twenty-first century, a little like Walter Benjamin a hundred years
before, but discovering papal traces in the midst of global modernity, can
be a diverting experience with unexpected discoveries.
When the Cathedral of Notre Dame succumbed to flames on the
Monday of Passion Week in 2019, world leaders and an affected global
public looked through the dramatically untiled roof at the sculpture of
the pietà. While Christianity in France and Western Europe is in decline,
Christian cultural codes are still entangled with politics and publics. These
entanglements can trigger high emotions today as they did 200 years ago,
when, only decades after the iconoclastic storm of the French Revolu-
tion, Victor Hugo mobilized the French public for the derelict building
with his novel Notre Dame de Paris . But it is not Notre Dame alone
that can tell the story of the entanglements of religion, the public, and
international relations.
The vast and open square in front of the cathedral does not date back
to the same time as the masterpiece of medieval art itself, which was
built by the religious and political elites of European feudalism and their
craftsmen and artists. The star architect and urban planner of Napoleon
1 THE HOLY SEE, PUBLIC SPHERES AND POSTSECULAR … 5

III, Baron Haussmann, who created with his boulevards, view axes and
squares the modern image of Paris, had to tear down a whole quarter
to construct this place as the modern center of Paris and France. This
new center was created in front of the cathedral that saw feudal funerals
and masses but also the vandalism of the French Revolution and the cult
of reason, mockingly worshiping a prostitute on the altar, as well as the
coronation of Napoleon Bonaparte as emperor, in which Pope Pius VI
served only as an extra in the play. To testify the prominence and impor-
tance of the place, it was chosen as the location for the kilomètre zero,
the reference point of all distance indications to Paris of the revolutionary
metric system, which replaced previous units of measurements in conti-
nental Europe. All distance markers in France showing the way to Paris
point in the direction of this square.
Despite public disputes and discussions, the socialist (and gay) mayor
of Paris, Bertrand Delanoë, managed to mobilize a majority in the city
assembly in 2006 to rename the square after Pope John Paul II.19 The
center of Paris and France has since then been called “Place de Jean
Paul II”. Less than a decade later, the Polish Mission of Paris asked
permission to erect a statue of John Paul II, hands folded in prayer, which
had been created and donated by the Russian artist Zurab Tsereteli to
honor the man who had helped liberate millions of people from Commu-
nist rule.20 A public dispute arose over a suitable location for the statue,
and the plan also met resistance from the city administration. Finally, the
new, but still socialist, mayor, Anne Hidalgo, allowed the statue to be
placed in the small park between Notre Dame and the river Seine. The
park was also already named after a pope: John XXIII.21
Shortly before the erection of the papal statue in Paris, these two popes
were canonized in Rome on the same day by their successor, Pope Francis.
An international crowd of more than a million people celebrated the sanc-
tification and filled the streets and bridges from St. Peter’s, where world
leaders and diplomats gathered, to Castel Sant’Angelo and beyond, while
the event was broadcast and transmitted by mass and social media to a
global audience. John Paul II’s funeral saw even more people and heads
of states in Rome, with estimates ranging from two to four million people.
The illustrious list of attendees included 17 kings, queens and princes,
three crown princes, 57 heads of state, 28 heads of government, twelve
foreign ministers, a total of 157 national delegations, 14 delegations from
international organizations, and 14 emissaries from other religions.22
6 M. P. BARBATO

But back to the flaneur in Paris and the statue of John Paul II there.
The pedestal of the papal statue deserves a closer look. The pope’s name
and dates on the front as well as the famous quote from his first papal
address about fearlessness and openness to God on the back might be
expected, but the quotes on the left and right side of the pedestal sound
more like a political program. Taken from the 2003 New Year address
to the Diplomatic Corps accredited to the Holy See during the build-
up to the Iraq invasion that had been opposed by the pope, the quote,
there in French, and here in the official English translation, says: “‘NO
TO WAR’! War is not always inevitable. It is always a defeat for human-
ity”.23 The other quote is the motto of the annual peace message of
January 2002, months after 9/11 and shortly after the initially successful
campaign of the invasion of Afghanistan: “No Peace Without Justice–No
Justice Without Forgiveness”.24
Across the river Seine, a short walking distance from the statue, the
flaneur can reach the Collège des Bernardins, where John Paul II’s
successor, Pope Benedict XVI, gave an address in 2008 to representa-
tives from the “world of culture”, including the minister of culture and
two former French presidents, in which he claimed that the search and
longing for God was the foundation of culture, and applied the rules of
Biblical exegesis to public discourse:

With the word of Spirit and of freedom, a further horizon opens up, but
at the same time a clear limit is placed upon arbitrariness and subjectivity,
which unequivocally binds both the individual and the community and
brings about a new, higher obligation than that of the letter: namely,
the obligation of insight and love. This tension between obligation and
freedom, which extends far beyond the literary problem of scriptural
exegesis, has also determined the thinking and acting of monasticism and
has deeply marked Western culture. This tension presents itself anew as
a challenge for our own generation as we face two poles: on the one
hand, subjective arbitrariness, and on the other, fundamentalist fanati-
cism. It would be a disaster if today’s European culture could only
conceive freedom as absence of obligation, which would inevitably play
into the hands of fanaticism and arbitrariness. Absence of obligation and
arbitrariness do not signify freedom, but its destruction.25

The long papal program of obliging rulers to adopt a public discourse of


faith and reason in order to secure a spiritually embedded freedom against
arbitrary and fanatical decision-making is still in effect.
1 THE HOLY SEE, PUBLIC SPHERES AND POSTSECULAR … 7

Past and current entanglements of popes and politics seemed to be


concentrated on the Ile de France and across the river Seine. An eques-
trian statue of Charlemagne, the Frankish king who was coronated by
Pope Leo III in 800 as the first Germanic emperor, thereby laying the
foundations of the alliance and tensions between popes, emperors, and
French kings for the European Middle Ages, was placed in front of the
Notre Dame in 1882. After its presentation at the World Exhibition in
1878, alongside the head of New York’s Lady Liberty, the statue also
caused some heated discussions before it was placed in front of the cathe-
dral, where it has remained ever since. The emperor and the pope cannot
see each other. John Paul II looks towards the river and Charlemagne
is riding in the opposite direction, towards the former city palace of the
French kings. But, for the flaneur, it is only a two-minute walk, and one
that links the history of popes and emperors.
Heading in the same direction as the emperor, the next landmark
to the right is Saint Chapelle. Saint Louis, the medieval model king,
commissioned the building in 1244 to harbor his most precious invest-
ments, the passion relics of Christ, which he had purchased from the Latin
prince of Constantinople to pay his Venetian debts. Like most of France’s
prominent relicts, they were destroyed by the revolutionaries—with the
exception of the rescued crown of thorns. Today, Saint Chapelle is a
museum, presenting the stained-glass beauty of its windows, at least one
third original and the other post-revolutionary renovations of the nine-
teenth century, and the statue of its builder with chopped-off hands—an
example of a religious monarchy transformed into a secular republic.
Crossing the bridge over the river, the picture changes again. The
flaneur reaches the spectacular Fontaine St. Michel, created in 1860 as
part of Baron Haussmann’s reconstruction of Paris to mark the beginning
of a new boulevard. The Archangel Michael, commander of the heav-
enly host and patron saint of empire and church,26 has defeated Lucifer
and now greets Charlemagne and the pope across the river. A decade
after the construction of the Fontaine St. Michel, Leo XIII, a pope under
political pressure from various sides, sought for ways to mobilize worldly
and other-worldly supporters, and decreed that a prayer be made to the
Archangel after mass. Its martial timbre made it popular: “St. Michael,
the Archangel, defend us in battle!” Masses of pilgrims from Europe but
also the Americas flocked, then as today, to Rome in support of the public
and political role of the popes.
8 M. P. BARBATO

Going down the lively Boul’Mich, the flaneur walks through the
Quartier Latin, the quarter of the Latin-speaking scholars who gathered
here from all over medieval Europe, among them many great historical
figures, including St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Ignatius of Loyola. After a
short walk, the flaneur passes the National Museum of the Middle Ages,
housed in the former residence of the abbots of Cluny, who were prob-
ably the most powerful abbots of the European medieval period. The next
impressive building is La Sorbonne, or more precisely its chapel façade.
The impact that the theologians of the previous Collège de Sorbonne
had on Christian thinking was so great that the name became synony-
mous for all scholars at the University of Paris. The name survived all
revolutions and transformations as a brand for higher education. On the
lively square in front of the university stands a small statue of Auguste
Comte, who founded sociology as a substitute for theology and who had
in vain asked the papacy to join forces in establishing a new religion for
modernity. Nothing on the square reminds us today either of the medieval
scholars or the Marxist students and their occupation of the university in
the unrests of May 1968. The third and last building that the interested
flaneur cannot ignore is the Pantheon, the mausoleum for national heroes
of the French Republic, like Voltaire, Rousseau and Zola. It was originally
the church that housed the Patron Saint of Paris, Saint Genevieve. The
legendary woman of the fifth century managed to defend Paris against the
Huns by inspiring the women to perpetual prayer. She remained popular
enough throughout the ages for a new and triumphant church for her
remains to have been erected only decades before the French Revolu-
tion. Her decline was steep, however. The revolutionaries destroyed her
relicts, at least partly, and smelted her sarcophagus before transforming
her church into a revolutionary shrine.
This walk down Boulevard Saint Michel confirms what secularization
theory tells us. The religious past of Western civilization was consumed
by the new enlightened spirit of Voltaire and Rousseau, whose bodies
replaced the relicts of the saints. Religion disentangled from politics left
the public square and faded away into the niches of the private life of
some. If we remember the encounters with emperors, angels, and popes
along the way, we know, however, that this is only part of the picture.
José Casanova showed in his seminal study how religious mobilization
defended its role in the public square.27 Casanova argued that, while there
has indeed been a separation of state and church on the political level,
religion is still alive and kicking on the public level. Why has the papacy
1 THE HOLY SEE, PUBLIC SPHERES AND POSTSECULAR … 9

been successful? Looking at Casanova’s levels, one can see that the pope
is indeed successful on the political and the public level, performing on
the diplomatic stage of international relations and of transnational public
spheres.28 If one looks at the numerous discussions inside the Catholic
Church, however, the pope is less successful on the private level. Not
too many Catholics, for instance, organize their sex lives around Saint
Paul VI’s encyclical Humanae vitae.29 Church attendance is in decline
and polls about private beliefs in Western countries are, from a Christian
point of view, devastating when self-declared Christians are not so sure
whether Jesus is the Son of God and rose from the dead, or whether
God created the universe. But why was the return of the archangel, the
emperor, and the pope possible? Why is the pope nevertheless successful
in public life and on the diplomatic level? How can the doctrinal faith of
the pope spill over onto the public discourse in Paris and in world society?
The city that masterminded revolutionary secularization might also add
some pieces to the puzzle of desecularization.30
One answer could be found in a less prominent street in a walking
distance of fifteen minutes, a few streets away from the Pantheon. The
flaneur might not resist taking a detour through the Jardin de Luxem-
bourg, where the Queens of France watch over the children playing
with their vintage toy boats. A more direct way leads over Saint Sulpice
at Rue Bonaparte, the seminar in which the revolutionary clerics Abbe
Sieyès and Talleyrand were educated. The street is called Rue du Bac
and its name stands for a Marian devotion in a backyard church of a
nunnery. There occurred the first post-revolutionary Marian apparition,
which was accepted by the pope as authentic and which was followed by
many other apparitions like at Lourdes and Fatima. Marian apparitions
with a public appeal, often entangled with political implications, if not
directly aiming at political ends, are a modern mass phenomenon.31 In
the apparitions of Rue du Bac, the Virgin revealed herself to a young
nun, thereby linking Marian apparitions experienced as part of a monastic
life to public apparitions experienced by lay seers. These lay seers, like
in Lourdes and Fatima, were usually children or young people with little
or no religious education in remote areas, which then became sites of
mass pilgrimage due to the messages spread by the seers on behalf of
the Virgin. Usually, these apparitions were initially suppressed by political
authority, then accepted by the local clergy, and finally granted authen-
ticity by the pope who is the final authority within the Catholic universe
who can decide whether the Virgin Mary had actually appeared or not.
10 M. P. BARBATO

In order to reach the pope, the apparition must have already attracted
massive public interest. The apparition need not necessarily require the
seer to have a saintly life, either before or after the apparition, but many of
the seers have indeed been canonized. Examples are Catharine Labouré,
the nun of Rue du Bac, and, most recently, Jacinta and Francisco Marto,
the children of Fatima, who were canonized by Pope Francis in 2017.
Decisive, however, is the backing by the masses, which shows not only
their curiosity, but also that they have been publicly, and sometimes polit-
ically, influenced by the messages of the apparitions. The preconditions
for an acceptable apparition are that nothing must be stated in the appari-
tion message that stands against doctrinal norms, and that public miracles
must have been witnessed. Beyond that, being in tune with the theolog-
ical and political agenda of the pope is certainly an advantage. Bernadette
Soubirous’ visions in Lourdes were approved after she could introduce
the beautiful lady of her apparition to the local pastor as the Immacu-
late Conception. That traditional but contested title of the Virgin Mary,
which at the time had just been granted dogmatic status by the pope,
had already been associated with the apparition of Rue du Bac. Before
the pope backs the apparitions, the apparitions back the pope. The masses
who were interested in the apparition looked at the pope and expected
his consent. Events, mobilizations, and the expectations of the masses,
like those related to Marian apparitions, maintained the pope as a figure
of public discourse.
The apparition in Rue du Bac never reached the public uncontrolled.
The nun told her confessor and later her superior of her experiences in
1830. She remained anonymous and dedicated her life to serving the
poor until her death at an old age. What nevertheless made this the first
modern apparition was the message that the public was told in a very
specific way. The Virgin Mary not only consoled the nun, but asked her
to distribute the image of the apparition imprinted on a medal. Billions
of these medals showing the Virgin Mary have since been made in gold,
silver and copper (and later in various other metals) and distributed across
the world. The immediate and enormous success of the medal was caused
by the Virgin Mary’s healing powers in the midst of the cholera epidemic
of 1832, which soon gave the medal the name by which it became
famous: Médaille Miraculeuse. Not medicine, science, or human agency
attracted the hopes of the masses, but a miraculous medal. Monastery and
Médaille became a hotspot of anti-secularism. Pope Gregory XVI as well
1 THE HOLY SEE, PUBLIC SPHERES AND POSTSECULAR … 11

as his successor Pius IX supported the production and distribution of the


medal.32
Materializing and reproducing a vision on a medal on such a scale was
only possible due to the industrial revolution that had reached France.
France, and in particular Paris, was stripped during the revolution of
its saintly relicts to which people had previously gone to pray for mira-
cles, and was in dire need of new religious objects with a miraculous
impact. The Virgin Mary and the industrial revolution gave back what
the Jacobins and the political revolution had taken away. Two generations
before Max Weber wrote about the disenchantment of the world, the re-
enchantment had already begun. The analytical frame “material religion”
has been established to understand religion not only as doctrine, ideas,
and faith, but also as a praxis that constitutes itself through spaces and
objects.33 Such a perspective can help us understand how religion can
flourish in the public of an industrialized and capitalist society that might
have reservations towards arguments based on doctrinal faith in public
discourse. Religion and the popes have also survived and flourished as
part of the consumer culture.
A ritual praxis that constitutes a belonging to a transnational commu-
nity, beyond the obligations of the nation state, depends on an infras-
tructure that allows the pressing of medals but also pilgrimages to shrines
and sacred sites. Technological capitalism offered the infrastructure for
a leisure industry that impacted on religious and public life: “Protestants
went on trains to the seaside, Catholics to light a candle in a holy place”.34
The reverse side of the Médaille Miraculeuse shows an M for Mary, a
cross, and two hearts. The Sacred Hearts of Jesus Christ and the Immac-
ulate Heart of Mary have a long history. The modern story again began
with an apparition to a young French nun, Margaret Mary Alacoque, in
Paray-le-Monial in 1673. The innovative message of the visionary Christ
was to promote the veneration of the Sacred Heart as a devotional praxis
for the masses. It took two centuries to become a widespread social
and political phenomenon that not only distributed its image, but also
impacted on the public and political formation of Catholics in modern
Europe.35 The modern papal “ralliement” from the kings to the people
originated here.
An hour’s walk away from Rue du Bac is the most impressive church
devoted to the Sacred Heart, which is on Montmartre, the sacred hill of
Paris. It is where Paris’ first bishop, Saint Denis, was martyred. Ignatius of
Loyola and his scholar friends built their pre-Jesuit community there. It
12 M. P. BARBATO

has been famous since the nineteenth century for its artists and nightlife,
but also for the church: Sacré Cœur.36
The construction of the church was decreed by the French national
assembly of the Third Republic on 24 July 1873. The story of Sacré
Cœur can serve as a kind of prism or ideal type to show the entangle-
ments of the Holy See, the public, and the international sphere. In 1870,
the regular and irregular Italian troops had reduced the Papal States to
its Roman core. The final conquest to turn Rome into the capital of the
new Italian state was only prevented by a transnational legion of Catholic
volunteers37 and, crucially, by French troops. After the outbreak of the
Franco-Prussian War, the French troops were relocated to the German
front. Pius IX did not use his remaining troops but surrendered after
a symbolic show of resistance to demonstrate that Rome was taken by
force. In 1870, the Papal States ceased to exist. In the following year,
the French Empire was defeated, too, and Paris saw the uprising and
short reign of the Commune. Due to the French withdrawal from Rome,
these two defeats were constructed and memorized as one, which boosted
the Catholic revival in France in favor of the papal “prisoner in the Vati-
can”.38 The incoming bishop of Paris (his predecessor had been executed
by the communards) launched the idea of a church of repentance for
Paris. Public opinion supported the decision of the national assembly
to build the church as a symbol of the national vow that the revival
of France should also be a Catholic revival based on an alliance with
the papacy. The Catholic revival was shipwrecked by the Dreyfus affair
and, finally, in 1905, by the law on the separation of church and state,
which established laicism as state doctrine. The construction of the Sacré
Cœur continued despite growing resistance, and was completed in 1919.
A perpetual adoration of the Holy Eucharist has been held at the shrine
since 1885. In 1899, in preparation for the papal Holy Year of 1900 (the
popes celebrate a regular Holy Year every 25 years to remember the incar-
nation and to grant a special indulgence), Pope Leo XIII consecrated the
whole human race to the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ. Leo XIII was
the pope who started modern Catholic social doctrine with his encyclical
Rerum Novarum (1891). He also developed the mass mobilization for
the public role of the papacy that had been initiated by his predecessor,
Pius IX. The altarpiece of Sacré Cœur shows Leo XIII donating the whole
globe to the Lord. A walk through the interior of the church, while in the
center the adoration continues, passes various papal traces, among them
1 THE HOLY SEE, PUBLIC SPHERES AND POSTSECULAR … 13

relicts of Saint John Paul II and a mock gate, a remnant of the Extraor-
dinary Holy Year of Mercy, decreed by Pope Francis for 2015/2016,
symbolizing the mercy of God. The gate is decorated with a newer version
of the Sacred Heart iconography, an image inspired by the Polish nun
Faustyna Kowalska and promoted by John Paul II, which quickly gained
the status of a global but also contested icon. Apart from its alleged clas-
sification as kitsch, opinion on the image is also divided because it links
the mercy of God with a strong call for individual and public repentance
and threats of punishment.
John Paul II visited Paris twice. First, in 1980 to meet various political
representatives and diverse groups in society. Notre Dame, Rue du Bac,
and Sacré Cœur were key sites of his public encounter with the masses.
The second visit was for the 12th World Youth Day in 1997, a festival of
Catholic youth and friends initiated under the pontificate of John Paul II
to mobilize young people and turn whole cities into a public stage for
prayer, celebration, and papal preaching. Despite expectations that such a
format would not work in a secularized city like Paris, 1.2 million young
pilgrims gathered at the final mass in the field of the Longchamps race-
course, famous for its horse races but also the site of the 14 July military
parade from 1880 to 1914 and the biggest public square in Paris. Public
mass mobilization continues to maintain the pope’s public profile.
Within the context of social and political change, mass mobilizations
have continued to provide a public landscape in which the pope can
appear and raise his public voice. That social mass base, which manifested
itself even in the capital of the secular revolution, was strong enough
to keep the pope, in the juridical garments of the Holy See, in the
game of the society of states, too. The contributions in this volume will
add examples from various interdisciplinary perspectives to illustrate this
thesis. Before offering its empirical cases, the book should integrate at
least briefly the Parisian panorama of the flaneur (or was she a pilgrim?)
into a conceptual framework.

The Force of a Postsecular Public,


the Pope, and International Relations
Pierre Bourdieu differentiates four forms of accumulative and partially
fungible capital: economic, cultural, social, and, last but certainly not
least, symbolic capital, which is constituted by prestige and recognition.39
Those who lack one form of capital need more of the other to survive and
14 M. P. BARBATO

flourish in the struggles for public dominance. As Bourdieu points out,


the economic capital of the church, which is still an entrepreneur running
schools, charitable institutions, and bureaucracies, cannot be neglected.
The vandalism of the French Revolution, in addition to the expropriation
of economic capital, understood, however, that culture is also a form of
capital relevant to public and political power. The renovation of cultural
heritage and the industrial production and distribution of sacred objects
constructed and reconstructed a public sphere in which religion is still
alive, even if faith is declining as a constant factor of political, public,
and private life. Based on objectified cultural capital like buildings, art,
and squares, but also smaller objects that the masses can possess individu-
ally like icons and medals, a religious habitus can survive, not necessarily
as a comprehensive doctrine but in fragments, still important enough
to inform a political and public practice and its social struggles. Grace
Davie speaks of “vicarious religion” in order to link the disengaged Chris-
tian population with the cultural heritage and the practicing minority.40
In an urban landscape with cultural places and gatherings, social capital,
which, in Robert D. Putnam’s terms, is sometimes bonding, sometimes
bridging,41 is still available for religious people and their networks. Obvi-
ously, the pope is not only accepted within these networks, but is also
able, as pontiff, to invest his social capital to help these networks flourish.
Defending, regaining, and accumulating cultural and social capital helps
the pope to maintain his public profile.
The pope is able to mobilize the masses not necessarily for all Catholic
doctrines but for the idea of the papacy as such. Ideas, as Bourdieu under-
stood well, have to become an “idée-force”, an idea that is powerful
enough to mobilize forces. An idea can be formulated as an argument,
and the papacy is constantly involved in that business when the pope
addresses all kinds of public topics. However, an idea has to become an
“idée-force” to survive in the social struggles. Or, as Bourdieu formu-
lates it: “A truthful idea can only be countered by a refutation, whereas
an idée-force must be countered by another idée-force, which is capable
of mobilizing a counter force, a counter manifestation”.42 The papacy
was and is able to mobilize such a counter force, such a counter mani-
festation. The pope is able to mobilize pilgrims to come to St. Peter’s
Square, but also to flock to the streets and squares of Paris or gather in
Longchamp if he comes for a visit. Since 1964, when Paul VI restarted
papal international traveling, the pope has embarked on 169 international
journeys (until 2020: Paul VI, 9; John Paul II, 104; Benedict XVI, 24;
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
Abibu palasi pian.

— Herra, sanoi hän, — tämä mies ei tahdo tulla, sillä hän tottelee
ainoastaan eräitä jumalia, joita sinun armosi ei tunne.

Sanders näytti hampaitaan.

Mene hänen luokseen, sanoi hän pehmeästi, — ja tuo hänet, ja


ellei hän muutoin tule, niin lyö häntä pistimesi lappeella.

Abibu teki jäykästi kunniaa — neekerialiupseerien tapaan — ja


lähti, palaten mukanaan Ofalikari, jota hän kursailematta talutti
korvasta.

Nyt, sanoi Sanders miehelle, — puhumme hiukan, sinä ja minä.

Aurinko laski, kuu nousi valaen mustalle joelle kelmeää valoa,


mutta vielä jatkui keskustelua — sillä tämä oli todellakin paha
palaver.

Suuri nuotio oli viritetty keskelle kylän katua, ja sen ympärillä


istuivat kaikki kyläläiset Sandersin ja miehen tuijottaessa toisiaan
kasvoihin.

Silloin tällöin kutsuttiin joukosta joku mies tai nainen; kerran


Sanders lähetti viestin viiden mailin päässä olevaan kylään
hakemaan todistajia. He tulivat ja menivät todistettuaan Ofalikaria
vastaan.

Herra, eräänä yönä kokoonnuimme hänen käskystään, ja hän


uhrasi valkean vuohen, sanoi eräs todistaja.
Vannoimme valkean vuohen kuivatun sydämen kautta, että
teemme eräitä kauheita asioita, sanoi toinen.

— Hänen käskystään tanssimme kuolontanssin kylän laidassa, ja


tytöt tanssivat häätanssia toisessa, sitten hän tappoi erään orjan ja…

Sanders nyökkäsi vakavasti.

Ja hän sanoi, että Valkean Vuohen pojat eivät kuole, sanoi toinen.

Viimein Sanders nousi ja ojentautui.

— Olen kuullut tarpeeksi, sanoi hän ja nyökkäsi hausakersantille,


joka astui esiin ojentaen kiiltävät teräksiset käsiraudat. Toisen
kahleen hän kiinnitti miehen käteen ja talutti hänet laivalle.

»Zaire» pyörähti keskivirtaan ja aloitti vaivalloisen taipalen


lähetysasemalle.

Pahat uutiset kulkevat nopeammin kuin kahdeksan solmun laiva


kulkee vasten virtaa.

Sanders tapasi lähetyssaarnaajan odottamassa aamunkoitteessa


valkealla rantakaistaleella, ja lähetyssaarnaaja, jonka nimi oli
Haggin, oli kylmän kiivas, jollaisiksi pyhät miehet tulevat asiansa
oikeuden puolesta.

— Koko Englanti soi tästä raakuudesta, sanoi hän ja hänen


äänensä värisi. — Voi sitä päivää, jona englantilainen viranomainen
liittyy saatanan joukkoihin…

Hän sanoi muitakin epämiellyttäviä asioita.


— Jättäkää tuo, sanoi Sanders jyrkästi. — Tämä mies on ollut
hullun töissä.

Ja lyhyesti hän kuvasi tapahtumat.

— Se on valhe! sanoi lähetyssaarnaaja. Hän oli pitkä ja hoikka,


kuumeen kellastama, ja hänen kätensä vapisivat, kun hän ojensi ne
vastalauseeksi. — Hän on saanut paljon käännykkejä, hän on
taistellut sielujen puolesta…

— Kuulkaahan nyt, sanoi Sanders ja ojensi toista kohti vakavan


etusormen. — Minä tunnen tämän maan. Minä tunnen tämän kansan
— te ette. Vien teidän miehenne päämajaan, en siksi, että hän pelaa
vaarallista peliä, vaan siksi, että hän pitää öisin kokouksia ja
harjoittaa omituisia menoja, jotka eivät ole kirkonmenoja. Hän on
Valkean Vuohen poika, enkä minä salli maassani minkäänlaisia
salaseuroja.

Sanders ei nyt ollut, jos totta puhutaan, sellaisessa mielentilassa,


että olisi pannut arvoa lähetyssaarnaajain tunteille.

Hänen alueellaan oli levotonta — pahanlaatuisia levottomuuksia


oli sattunut. Pikkujoella oli murhattu mies, eikä kukaan tiennyt, kenen
käsi oli työn tehnyt. Hänen ruumiinsa, joka oli omituisesti leikelty,
ajelehti eräänä aamuna virran mukana, ja vakoojat toivat tiedon siitä
Sandersille. Sitten murhattiin toinen ja kolmas. Mies enemmän tai
vähemmän maassa, jossa kuollaan kyläkunnittain, ei merkitse
mitään, mutta nämä julmasti viileskellyt ruumiit kauhistuttivat
Sandersia.

Hän oli lähettänyt hakemaan päävakoojiansa.


— Menkää pohjoiseen murhapaikalle Ngombin rajoille ja tuokaa
minulle uutisia, sanoi hän.

Eräs oli lähettänyt tiedon tappopalaveristä — Sanders kiiruhti


pohjoiseen havaitakseen itse paikalla, että vaaran uhkaama mies oli
juuri se, jonka hän hartaimmin olisi toivottanut salpojen taakse.

Hän vei vankiaan päämajaan. Hän halusi tehdä lopun liikkeestä,


joka piankin voisi kehittyä mahdottomaksi hallita, sillä salaseurat
leviävät nopeasti.

Keskipäivällä hän tuli puunottopaikkaan, johon pysähtyi.

Hän kutsui päämiestänsä.

— Lobolo, sanoi hän, — pinoa puut minun nukkuessani ja muista


kaikki ne viisaat neuvot, jotka olen sinulle antanut.

— Herra, olen viisas sinun viisaudestasi, sanoi päämies, ja Abibun


asetettua verkkomaton kahden puun väliin Sanders kömpi siihen ja
nukkui heti.

Hänen nukkuessaan eräs puunpinoojista erkani joukosta ja hiipi


hänen lähelleen.

Sandersin makuupaikka oli hieman loitolla rannasta, jottei


sahauksen ja hakkauksen aiheuttama ääni ja raskaiden pölkkyjen
kolahtaminen teräskannelle häiritsisi häntä.

Äänettömästi mies liikkui, kunnes tuli nukkuvan komissaarin


viereen.

Hän tarttui lujemmin teräspuukkoonsa ja astui eteenpäin.


Silloin pitkä, voimakas käsi tarttui hänen kurkkuunsa ja kaatoi
hänet.
Käännettyään päätään hän näki Abibun tunteettomat kasvot.

— Lähdemme täältä, kuiskasi hausa, — muuten herramme herää


puheluumme.

Hän väänsi veitsen toisen kädestä ja seurasi häntä metsään.

— Tulit tappamaan Sandia? sanoi Abibu.

— Se on totta, sanoi mies, — sillä minulla on salainen ju-ju, joka


vaati sitä, koska Sandi on sitä loukannut. Ja jos minua vahingoitat,
niin Valkea Vuohi varmasti tappaa sinut, ruskea mies.

— Olen syönyt Sandin suolaa, sanoi Abibu, — ja minun eloni ja


kuoloni on kirjoitettu. Sinun kohtalosi taas on kurkussasi…

Sanders havaitsi herätessään Abibun kyykkivän maassa


riippumaton vieressä.

— Mikä on? kysyi hän.

— Ei mitään, sanoi mies, — katselin sinun nukkumistasi, sillä on


kirjoitettu: »Hän on hyvä palvelija, joka näkee herransa silmien
ollessa kiinni.»

Sanders kuuli vakavan äänensävyn, jolla sananlasku sanottiin;


aikoi jo kysyä, mutta sitten viisaasti hillitsi itsensä.

Hän meni rannalle. Miehet olivat lopettaneet työnsä ja puut olivat


suuressa, muodottomassa läjässä keulakannen syvennyksessä.
Pino oli sellainen, että 1) ruorimies ei nähnyt komentosillalta joelle,
2) lämmittäjät eivät saaneet mistään lähettyviltään polttoainetta, 3)
»Zaire» ei voinut liikkua matalammalla kuin kolmen sylen vedessä.

Pieni laiva oli keula alhaalla, ja sen perärattaan alalaita vain


hieman hipoi vettä.

Sanders seisoi rannalla kädet ristissä ja katseli päämiehensä työn


tuloksia. Sitten hänen katseensa kulki pitkin laivaa. Keskilaivalla oli
tukeva rautahäkki, jota kaksinkertainen katto suojasi auringolta.
Hänen katseensa viipyi siinä kauan, sillä se oli tyhjä ja Valkean
Vuohen jäsen oli mennyt matkoihinsa.

Sanders seisoi jonkin hetken mietteissään, astui sitten hitaasti


laivaan.

— Ole minun korvani ja silmäni, Abibu, sanoi hän arabiaksi, —


tutki, mihin Ofalikari on mennyt ja samoin häntä vartioineet miehet.
Vangitse heidät ja tuo minun eteeni.

Hän meni hyttiin ajatuksiinsa vaipuneena. Tämä oli vakavaa,


vaikkakin hän jätti päätelmien teon siksi, kun Abibu palaisi
vankeineen.

He saapuivat vartioituina, hieman peloissaan ja hieman


närkästyneinä.

— Herra, näillä miehillä on puolustuksensa, sanoi Abibu.

— Miksi annoitte vangin mennä? kysyi Sanders.

— Kävi niin, herra, sanoi vanhempi heistä, — että sinun


nukkuessasi tuli jumalamies, jonka näimme päivänkoitteessa. Ja hän
käski meitä jättämään vangin hänen huostaansa, ja kun hän oli
valkea mies, niin tottelimme häntä.

— Vain hallituksen valkeat miehet antavat sellaisia käskyjä, sanoi


Sanders, — sen vuoksi tuomitsen teidät syypäiksi hupsuuteen ja
pidätän teidät.

He eivät viisastuneet opettamisesta.

Hän lähetti hakemaan päämiestänsä.

— Lobolo, sanoi hän, — kymmenen vuotta olet ollut minun


päämieheni, ja minä olen ollut sinulle ystävällinen.

— Herra, olet ollut kuin isä, sanoi vanhus, ja hänen kätensä vapisi.

— Tuolla, sanoi Sanders osoittaen sormellaan, — on sinun maasi,


ja sinun kotikyläsi on aivan lähellä. Ota varastomieheltä palkkasi
äläkä enää koskaan tule luokseni.

— Herra, änkytti päämies, — jos puun pinoamisessa on vikaa…

— Sinä tiedät, että siinä on vikaa, sanoi Sanders. — Olet syönyt


minun leipääni ja nyt myit minut Valkealle Vuohelle.

Vanhus lankesi nyyhkyttäen hänen jalkainsa juureen.

— Herra isäntä, nyyhkytti hän, — tein sen pelosta, sillä eräs mies
sanoi minulle, että ellen pettäisi herraani, niin kuolisin, ja herra,
kuolema on vanhoille kauhistus, sillä heidän sydämensä elää siinä
alituisesti.

— Kuka mies se oli? kysyi Sanders.


— Eräs Kema-niminen, herra.

Sanders katsahti käskyläiseensä.

— Hae minulle Kema, sanoi hän, ja Abibu vaihtoi jalkaa.

— Herra, hän on kuollut, sillä sinun nukkuessasi hän tuli


tappamaan sinua. Ja minulla oli pieni palaver hänen kanssaan.

— Ja?

— Herra, näin hänet pahaksi mieheksi ja irroitin pään hänen


ruumiistaan veitsellä.

Sanders oli vaiti. Hän seisoi katsellen kantta, sitten hän kääntyi
mennäkseen hyttiinsä.

— Herra, sanoi odottava päämies, — miten minun käy?

Komissaari ojensi sormensa rantaa kohti, ja hartiat kumarassa


Lobolo jätti laivan, joka oli monta vuotta ollut hänen kotinsa.

Laivan kunnostaminen vei melkein koko tunnin

— Lähdemme lähetysasemalle, sanoi Sanders, vaikka hän ei


lainkaan epäillyt, mitä hän siellä tapaisi…

Lähetysasema paloi vielä, kun »Zaire» kääntyi joen mutkasta.


Lähetyssaarnaajan pahoinpidellyn ruumiin hän löysi suitsuavista
raunioista.

Ofalikarista ei näkynyt jälkeäkään.


Nigeriassa oli hajoitettu muuan salaseura, jonka murskaamiseen
oli vaadittu kolme rykmenttiä alkuasukasjalkaväkeä, patteri
vuoristotykkejä ja jonkin verran ihmishengen hukkaa.
»Englantilaisten voitto» ja »meidän aseittemme loistava menestys»
olivat antaneet saarten asukkaille melkoisen tyydytyksen, mutta
komissaari, joka oli antanut asian kehittyä niin pitkälle, oli mennyttä
miestä, sillä hallitukset eivät pidä siitä, että kansalliseläkkeisiin
varatut miljoonat, jotka tuovat heidän puolueelleen ääniä vaaleissa,
kulutetaan likaisissa pikkusodissa, joista ei ole mitään muuta tulosta
kuin vapaita paikkoja alkuasukasarmeijan riveissä.

Sanders sai päämajasta postikyyhkysen mukana sähkösanoman


kuvernööriltä.

Ilmoituksenne saatu ja lähetetty edelleen. Ministerit sähköttävät,


että selvittäkää juttu kaikin keinoin. Jumalan tähden olkaa valmis
käyttämään armeijan apua. Teille lähetetään pataljoona hausoja ja
kenttätykki. Tehkää parhaanne.

Aikaa ei ollut tuhlattavaksi. Koko maa oli kapinanhenkinen. Kaikki


oli käynyt silmänräpäyksessä. Lainkuuliaisesta ja myötämielisestä oli
joka kylä muuttunut yht'äkkiä Valkeiden Vuohien pesäpaikaksi.
Isisistä ilmoitettiin kauheita asioita, ngombilaiset olivat suurin joukoin
tanssineet Vuohen tanssin, akasavalaiset tappoivat kaksi Sandersin
vakoojaa ja lähettivät heidän päänsä Sandersille osoittaakseen
»vakavaa mieltään» — tulkitaksemme tämän sanoman
kirjaimellisesti.

Kosumkusussa oli naislähetyssaamaaja. Sanders ajatteli ensiksi


häntä.
Hän käänsi laivansa Hagginin savuavalta asemalta suoraan
Kosumkusuun.
Tyttöä huvitti salaseurojen nopea leveneminen, ja hän piti koko
juttua hyvin mielenkiintoisena.

Sanders ei kertonut asian siitä puolesta, joka ei ollut huvittava.

— Todellakin, hra Sanders, hymyili nti Glandynne, — olen täällä


aivan turvassa — toisen kerran kolmen kuukauden aikana koetatte
saada minut lähtemään suojaanne.

— Tällä kertaa te lähdette, sanoi Sanders tyvenesti. — Abibu on


tehnyt minun hytistäni ylellisen kamarin.

Mutta tyttö kamppaili vastaan, kunnes Sandersin kärsivällisyys


alkoi loppua.

— Mutta entä hra Haggin ja isä Wells? kysyi tyttö. — Ettehän te


huolehdi heisiäkään.

— En huolehdi Hagginista, sanoi Sanders, — koska hän on kuollut


— tulen juuri häntä hautaamasta.

— Kuollut!

— Murhattu, sanoi Sanders lyhyesti, — ja hänen asemansa on


poltettu. Jesuiittoja noutamaan olen lähettänyt vartion. He ehtivät
perille tai eivät ehdi. Huomenna käymme noutamassa heidät, jos
onni on myötäinen.

Tytön kasvot olivat kalvenneet.

— Minä tulen, sanoi hän, — en pelkää — niin, pelkään kyllä. Ja


minä tuotan teille niin paljon huolta — antakaa anteeksi.
Sanders sanoi jotain enemmän tai vähemmän johdonmukaista,
sillä hän ei ollut tottunut katuvaisiin naisiin.

Hän vei tytön heti pois, ja »Zaire» oli tuskin kadonnut


näkymättömiin, niin tytön pääopetuslapsi pani tulen lähetysaseman
huoneisiin.

Sanders pelasti jesuiitatkin. Hänen lähettämänsä retkikunta oli


saapunut ajoissa.

Hän vei vieraansa päämajaan ja lähti taas Yläjoelle odottamaan


tapahtumain kehitystä.

»Zairella» oli viisikymmentä miestä. Siihen kuului kansimiehiä, ja


heidän velvollisuutensa oli tuoda puita ja lastata laivaan ja laivasta
tavaroita sekä yleensä auttaa.

Hän meni puunottopaikalle Kalali-joelle uudistamaan


puuvarastoaan ja viisaasti kyllä otti puut päiväsaikaan.

Samana yönä kaikki hänen miehensä karkasivat, ja jäljelle jäi vain


kaksikymmentä hausaa. Joka, koneenkäyttäjä ja kongolaispoika,
joka oli hänen kokkinaan.

Tällainen oli hänen asemansa, kun hän viiletti myötä virtaa eräälle
Isisin joelle, jossa hän odotti saavansa uutisia.

Koko sille suurelle tulivuorelle, joka riehui hänen jalkainsa


juuressa, hän ei omistanut edes ulkonaista hämmentymisen
merkkiä. Liike olisi voitu tukahduttaa, jos Ofalikari olisi pantu kiinni,
mutta »saarnaaja» oli kadonnut, eikä kukaan tietänyt, missä hän oli.
Jostakin maan kolkasta hän ohjaili liikkeen toimintaa.
Sitten tuli hiljaisuus; äkkinäinen toiminnan keskeytyminen. Paha
juttu, niin paha kuin olla saattoi.

Sanders tarkasteli asemaansa eikä huomannut siinä mitään


hyvää; hän muisti komissaarin, joka hankki sodan Nigeriaan, ja
värisi, sillä hän rakasti maataan ja työtänsä.

Oli kaksi ankaraa sadepäivää ja niiden jälkeen kaksi paahtavan


kuumaa päivää — ja sitten Bosambo, päällikkö, jossa olivat yhtyneet
luonnonkansan ilkeys ja välinpitämättömyys kärsimyksiä kohtaan
sekä valkoihoisten tiedonjyvät, lähetti sanan Sandersille.

Kaksi nopeaa melojaa toi viestintuojaa, ja hän seisoi kanootissaan


ilmoittaen sanansa.

— Näin sanoi herramme Bosambo, huusi hän pysyen


kunnioittavan matkan päässä laivasta. — »Mene Sandin luo, mutta
älä mene hänen laivalleen henkesi uhalla. Sano Sandille: Valkea
Vuohi kuolee ja tämän maan asukkaat tulevat järkiinsä, ennen kuin
kuu on täysi.»

— Tule laivalle ja kerro tarkemmin, kutsui Sanders.

Mies pudisti päätään.

— Herra se on kielletty, sanoi hän, — sillä herramme on hyvin


varma asiasta, eikä minulla ole mitään kertomista, sillä me olemme
tietämättömiä miehiä, vain Bosambo on viisaampi kaikkia muita
miehiä, sinua lukuunottamatta.

Sanders ällistyi. Hän tunsi päällikön kyllin hyvin uskoakseen, ettei


hän ennustanut kevytmielisesti, mutta kuitenkin…
— Palatkaa päällikkönne luo ja sanokaa hänelle, että luotan
häneen, sanoi hän.

Sitten hän asettui Isisi- ja Kalali-joen haarautumaan odottamaan


Bosambon ihmetyötä.

Bosambo, Ochorin päällikkö, oli aikoinaan palvellut monta


jumalaa.
Joitakin niistä hän otti palvelukseensa satunnaisesti tai muutoin vain.
Hän ei rakastanut eikä pelännyt niitä. Bosambo ei rakastanut eikä
pelännyt ketään ihmistä paitsi Sandersia.

Valkeat Vuohet olisivat voineet panna Ochorin päällikön tikun


nenään, he olisivat voineet tehdä puolet ja enemmänkin kuin puolet
hänen kansastaan uskottomiksi, niin kuin olivat tehneetkin, mutta
Bosambo, joka tiesi, että heikot miehet, jotka saavat valtaa äkkiä,
heti julistavat riippumattomuuttaan ilmoittamalla olevansa uusia
isäntiä, suhtautui sellaisiin pikku huoliin kuin heimonsa
hallitsemiseen sangen kylmäverisesti.

Se oli hänelle koettelemusten ja häntä vihaaville kiihoituksen


aikaa.

Hänen pääkokkinsa valmisti eräänä aamuna kalaa. Bosambo söi


hiukan ja lähetti hakemaan kokkia, joka oli yksi hänen
sivuvaimoistaan.

— Nainen, sanoi Bosambo, — jos koetat myrkyttää minut, niin


poltan sinut elävältä, Iwan kautta!

Vaimo vaikeni kauhusta ja polvistui Bosambon eteen.


— Tällä kertaa, sanoi Bosambo, — en puhu synnistäsi Sandille,
joka on minun oman sisareni lapsi valkeasta isästä, sillä jos Sandi
saisi tietää tämän, niin hän panisi sinut kiehuvaan veteen, kunnes
silmäsi pullistuisivat kuin kalan. Mene nyt, nainen, ja valmista minulle
puhdasta ruokaa.

Muitakin murhayrityksiä tehtiin häntä vastaan. Kerran keihäs


vihelsi hänen korvansa ohi, kun hän oli yksin kävelemässä
metsässä. Bosambo kiljahti ja heittäytyi maahan, ja heittäjä tuli
hieman varomattomasti katsomaan, mitä oli saanut aikaan, ja
tarpeen vaatiessa päättämään työtänsä… Bosambo palasi
retkeltään yksin. Hän pysähtyi joen rantaan pesemään käsiään ja
pyyhkimään keihästään märällä hiekalla, ja tarina päättyi siihen,
mikäli se koski murhayrityksen tekijää.

Mutta seuran voima kasvoi kasvamistaan. Hänen


pääneuvonantajansa tapettiin aterialla, toinen hukutettiin, ja hänen
kansansa alkoi osoittaa levottomuuden oireita.

Ilma sähköistyi. Akasavalaiset olivat hylänneet kaikki entiset


tapansa, Valkea Vuohi oli vallalla. Päälliköt ja päämiehet noudattivat
miestensä sanaa tai itsekin liittyivät heihin juhlien öisin metsässä.
Päällikkö, joka oli aiheuttanut Ofalikarin vangitsemisen, sai sen
kohtalon, että Ofalikaria vastaan todistaneet miehet raahasivat hänet
keskelle kylän katua, jossa ensimmäisen piston hänelle antoi hänen
oma poikansa.

Tällaista tapahtui Sandersin odottaessa Isisin ja Katalin


haarautumassa, hausojen nukkuessa tykkien ääressä.

Bosambo näki lopun selvästi. Hän ei lainkaan pelännyt loppuansa.


— Huomenna, silmieni valo, sanoi hän päävaimolleen, — lähetän
sinut kanootissa Sandin luo — sillä Valkean Vuohen miehet tulevat
julkisesti — yksi joka heimosta, tapaamaan minua ja tanssimaan ja
uhraamaan.

Hänen vaimonsa oli kanolainen, pitkä, hoikka ja sopusuhtainen.

— Herra, sanoi hän koruttomasti, — lopuksi otat keihääsi ja tapat


minut, sillä tässä istun loppuun asti. Kun sinä kuolet, elämä on
minulle kuolema.

Bosambo kietoi vahvan kätensä hänen vyötäisilleen ja taputti


häntä päälaelle.

Seuraavana päivänä hän istui oikeutta, mutta vähän oli


oikeudenhakijoita. Muualla maassa oli väkevämpiä voimia; ja ne
olivat enemmän suosiossa.

Sillä hetkellä, kun hän nosti kätensä osoittaakseen, että palaver on


päättynyt, tuli mies juosten metsästä. Hän juoksi horjuen kuin
juopunut ja kädet eteen ojennettuina kuin tietä hakien.

Hän tuli kylän kadulle, ja hänen huohotuksensa kuului selvästi yli


puhelun.

Sitten äkkiä kimeä ääni huusi kauhun sanan ja ihmiset syöksyivät


majoihinsa — ja siihen oli syytä, sillä tämä lasisilmäinen kulkija oli
kuolemansairas ja hänen tautinsa oli vaarallista viidakkoruttoa, joka
hävittää kokonaisia alueita. Se on kulkutauti, joka ilmestyy kerran
parinkymmenen vuoden aikana, eikä siihen tunneta lääkettä eikä
parannustapaa.
Muita tauteja, unitautia, beri-beriä, malariaa sanotaan
kohteliaisuudesta mongotaudiksi — »Taudiksi Itseksi» — mutta vain
tällä salaperäisellä rutolla on oikeus siihen nimeen.

Mies kaatui maahan sen pienen kukkulan juurelle, jolla Bosambo


istui yksinään — päämiesten ja neuvonantajain paettua sairaan
miehen ilmestyessä.

Bosambo katsoi häneen miettivästi.

— Mitä voin tehdä sinulle, veljeni? kysyi hän.

— Pelasta minut, voivotti mies.

Bosambo oli vaiti. Hän oli neekeri, ja neekerin ajatuksenjuoksua


on vaikeata seurata. En voi sielullisesti sitä selittää. Vyyhti hänen
ympärillään tiukkeni, kuolema oli hänen edessään yhtä varmana kuin
se tuijotti kuoppasilmäisenä hänen edessään kiemurtelevaan
olentoon.

— Voin parantaa sinut, sanoi hän pehmeästi, — eräällä taialla.


Mene kylän toiseen päähän, jossa tapaat neljä uutta majaa ja joka
majassa kolme vuodetta. Makaa joka vuoteella ja mene sitten
metsään niin nopeasti kuin voit kävellä ja odota taikani vaikutusta.

Niin puhui Bosambo, ja hänen jaloissaan makaava mies, jonka


olalla jo oli kuoleman käsi, kuunteli innokkaasti.

— Herra, pitääkö muuta tehdä? kysyi hän vinkuvalla äänellä, joka


on taudille ominainen.

— Tämä sinun pitää myös tehdä: sinun pitää mennä näihin


majoihin salaa, ettei kukaan sinua näe, ja jokaisella vuoteella sinun
pitää maata niin pitkä aika kuin menee kalan kuolemiseen.

Sadoilta ovilta seurasivat katseet sairasta miestä tämän mennessä


metsään, ja kylän miehet sylkivät maahan hänen mentyään.

Siinä paikassa Bosambo lähetti viestinsä Sandersille ja odotti


kärsivällisesti Vuohen tulevia lähettejä.

Kymmenen aikaan sinä iltana, ennen kuin kuu oli noussut, he


saapuivat dramaattisesti. Yht’aikaa ilmestyi kaksitoista tulta
kahteentoista eri paikkaan kylän ympäristöön; sitten kukin valo
hitaasti läheni ja osoittautui soihduksi, jota mies kantoi.

He etenivät yhdenmukaisesti, kunnes tulivat yht'aikaa


kokouspaikalle tielle Bosambon majan eteen. He seisoivat
liekehtivässä puoliympyrässä päällikön edessä — eikä päällikkö ollut
lainkaan ällistynyt.

Sillä nämä lähetit olivat hyvin sekalaista seurakuntaa. Siinä oli


eräs ochorilainen päämies — Bosambo painoi hänet mieleensä
häpeällistä loppua varten — isisiläinen kalamies, ngombilainen
poppamies, kalalilainen metsästäjä, ja mikä oli tärkeintä, pitkä,
leveäharteinen eurooppalaispukuinen neekeri.

Tämä oli Ofalikari, entinen Sanan julistaja, nyttemmin aluetta


hävittävän kauhean järjestön päämies.

Heidän siinä seisoessaan eräs miehistä katkaisi hiljaisuuden


laululla.
Hän lauloi nenä-äänellä, ja toiset toimivat kuorona.

— Valkea Vuohi on hyvin vahva ja sen sarvet ovat kultaa.


— O ai! vastasi kuoro.

— Sen veri on punaista, ja se opettaa salaisia asioita.

— O ai!

— Kun sen elämä lähtee, niin sen sielu muuttuu jumalaksi.

— O ai!

— Voi niitä, jotka ovat Valkean Vuohen vapauden esteenä.

— O ai!

— Sillä sen terävät jalat viiltävät heitä luuhun asti, ja sen sarvet
pistävät heidät verille.

— O ai!

He lauloivat rumpu tahtia pärryttäen, ja kuoron nilkkarenkaat


helisivät, kun he hypähtivät huudahtaessaan: — O ai!

Kun he olivat lopettaneet, Ofalikari puhui.

— Bosambo, me tiedämme, että sinä olet viisas mies, tuttu


valkeitten miesten ja heidän jumalainsa kanssa, niin kuin minäkin,
sillä minä olin pyhän Sanan julistaja. Valkea Vuohi rakastaa sinua,
Bosambo, eikä tahdo sinua loukata. Sen vuoksi tulemme hakemaan
sinua suureen palaveriin huomenna, ja siihen haastetaan Sandi
konnantöistään. Hänet me poltamme hitaasti, sillä hän on paha
mies.

— Herra Vuohi, sanoi Bosambo, — tämä on iso asia, ja pyydän


teitä olemaan luonani yötä, että saan teiltä viisautta ja voimaa. Olen
rakentanut teille neljä uutta majaa, koska tiesin, että olitte tulossa;
majoittukaa niihin, ja, elämäni ja sydämeni kautta, kukaan elävä
mies ei voi teitä vahingoittaa.

— Kukaan kuollut ei voi, Bosambo, sanoi Ofalikari, ja kuului


valtava naurunpurskaus. Bosambo nauroi myöskin; hän nauroi
kauemmin ja kovemmin kuin toiset, nauroi niin, että Ofalikari oli
tyytyväinen.

— Menkää rauhassa, sanoi Bosambo, ja lähetit menivät


majoihinsa.

Aamun aikaisena hetkenä hän haetti Tomban, seuran salaisen


asiamiehen.

— Mene ylhäisten herrojen luo, käski hän, — sano heille, että


tulen tänä iltana kohtaamaan heitä siihen paikkaan, missä Isisi-joki ja
Suuri joki yhtyvät. Ja sano heille, että heidän on mentävä nopeasti,
sillä en tahdo nähdä heitä enää, muuten seikkailumme ei pääty hyvin
ja Sandi rankaisee minua.

Päivänkoitteessa hän marakatinnahkainen viitta harteillaan — sillä


aamu oli viileä — katseli miesten lähtöä. Jokainen meni eri taholle.

Hän pani merkille, että Tomba seurasi heitä näkymättömiin. Hän


odotti puoli tuntia, meni sitten majaansa ja riisuutui jättäen ylleen
vain vyötäisvaatteen, otti ison kilven käsivarrelleen ja käteen kilven
taakse nipun heittokeihäitä.

Häneen yhtyi viisikymmentä sotilasta, luotettavaa ja uskollista, ja


jokainen piti kädessään punottua sotakilpeään.
Ja ochorilaiset, pelkureita sydämestään, katselivat tätä pikku
joukkoa pelko mielessään.

He seisoivat vaiti, nämä voimalliset, vaiteliaat soturit, kunnes


yhdestä sanasta marssivat majoille, joissa Bosambon vieraat olivat
maanneet. Siinä he odottivat. Tomba saapui paikalle ja katseli
pelokkaasti aseistettua joukkoa.

— Tomba, virkkoi Bosambo lempeästi, — sanoitko hyvästit


Vuohen herroille?

— Tein sen, päällikkö, sanoi Tomba.

— Syleillen heitä, niin kuin Vuohien tapa on? kysyi Bosambo vielä
lempeämmin.

— Herra, sen tein.

Bosambo nyökkäsi.

— Mene tuohon majaan, oi Tomba, suuri Vuohi ja Vuohien


syleilijä.

Tomba epäröi ja käveli sitten hitaasti lähimpään majaan.

Ovella hän kääntyi puoliksi.

— Tappakaa! kuiskasi Bosambo ja heitti ensimmäisen keihään.

Kauhusta kiljuen mies kääntyi pakenemaan, mutta neljä keihästä


sattui häneen kämmenenleveyden alalle, ja hän kierähti majaan
kuolleena.

You might also like