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    Tangaza Update(Culture Galore)
    (Tangaza University College, 2009-11) Tangaza University College
    Running right through the bible is a tension which echoes in each of us in one way or another. Our feelings of insecurity create a desire to feel we 'belong' within a community. Unfortu­nately human communities usually function by creating a distinction between insiders and outsiders. Insiders are those who belong; outsiders do not.Thus the tension is created between inclusion and exclusion. These communities of inclusion/exclu­sion may be based on race, nationality, tribe, class or age stratification, culture and religion or indeed gender. What lies at the basis of such distinction is the desire to feel secure in a community of shared assumptions and prejudices, which allows us to intelligibly in­terpret the world around us in. Perhaps this is all the more desirable in matters of faith, because this deals with our deepest aspira­tions. Many parts of the scripture tradition, as indeed of Jewish and Christian history are saturated with such aspirations.The very no­tion of chosen people is an obvious case in question. In itself it is an exclusive concept ... chosen for a special place in God's con­cern or affections, often leading to extremes of religious fanaticism, nationalism and in­ justice. Some of the prophets are incisive in questioning the notion. As I return to the Tangaza community af­ter many years of absence, I find myself asking if there is such a thing as the Tangaza com­munity. And if it is there, then it must have a set of shared assumptions and prejudices. {I use prejudice here in the original sense of praejudicium : assumptions which precede our judgments, with no necessary nuance of something to be disdained). I pose the ques­tion today to ourselves as a Tangaza commu­nity : what are the set of shared assumptions and prejudices which distinguishes us from other similar communities of learning in Ke­nya or throughout Eastern Africa. Last March, when I was approached to consider accepting the role of Principal of Tangaza College, I found myself asking : is Tangaza still a community of learning whose assumptions and prejudices I can sympathise with and share, and which I could try to deepen and develop? It was at this point that Dr. Maurice Schepers presented me with the Strategic Plan to get some idea of what are the basic assumptions which make Tangaza tick, as it were. This was the most recent ef­fort of the community of learning of Tangaza to articulate its communal identity. I looked to Chapter 2 where I read that our vision is to produce agents of transfor­mation in the light of Jesus' mandate to make disciples of all nations, agents whose con­sciousness is global, and which honours cul­tural diversity as a core institutional value. At a time in the history of Kenya, and indeed the whole continent of Africa, when rising tides of ethnic prejudice threaten to Fr, Roe, the Principal greets students dur­ing the opening mass. tear communities and countries apart, per­haps there was never a more relevant time for the vision of Tangaza College to reassert • itself, inviting each one of us, and the com­munities which are touched by our mission and ministry, to rediscover the broader vision ... the horizon which corresponds to the horizon of Jesus, a common brother­hood and sisterhood under the influence of the same Heavenly Parent. But before we preach it to others, per­haps we should ensure that we have estab­lished that universal horizon in our own consciousness, in the practice of our Tangaza community, and in the orientation we give to our academic life and priorities. This is our task for the coming year and the years that follow. We live in a society afflicted increas­ingly with manifest poverty and destitution. Let us not insulate ourselves in an academic ivory tower, from the poor, so beloved to the heart of Jesus. On a world horizon we are living through a crisis of the capitalist model of economic organization of society, which leaves open the opportunity for a re­ newed consciousness of the limitations of the capitalism, and an opportunity to focus attention on the heritage of Catholic social doctrine which has tended to be ignored in recent years. Perhaps the time has come for an institution like Tangaza to renew its commitment to what the strategic plan calls programmes and projects which will con­ tribute to a future society in which wealth is distributed more equitably and social justice prevails. Jn the new academic year 2009-10, let us invoke God's Holy Spirit to be with us and guide us in pursuing the universal vision of the horizon of Jesus in our study and our life as a Tangaza community in the service of God's Church in Africa and to the ends of the earth. It is that same Holy Spirit who sends us and missions us. May the coming year be a time of blessing and growth for us and for all entrusted by divine providence to our care.