Catholic Diocese of Tombura-Yambio Set to Revive its Educational Center at Mupoi Parish, the Cradle of Faith and Education in Western Equatoria

The Catholic Diocese of Tombura-Yambio is in the process of reviving its long time Educational Center at Our Lady of Sorrows Parish in Mupoi. This is in a bid to reclaim the glory of Mupoi as the cradle for education in Western Equatoria State.

 According to Rev. Dr. Ibiko Morris, the director of the Catholic University of South Sudan, St. John Yambio Campus, Mupoi is the cradle of civilization, the cradle of enlightenment, it is a center of education right from the beginning.

 “Mupoi is a very significant place in the life of the Catholic Church in Diocese of Tombura-Yambio, it is the cradle of Christianity in the whole of Western Equatoria State. It is where the Missionaries who evangelized the natives started their work from when they came into the region in 1912,” Fr. Morris explained.

 As a characteristic of many missionaries during their endeavors to evangelize the local

communities, the majority of them are known to have simultaneously contributed to education and health care. Mupoi, therefore, was no exception and the place has the first school from where many natives in the early days obtained their knowledge and skills.

 “We are putting ourselves to the task and challenging ourselves that if we have to imitate our fore-fathers we have to return to our origin. This is the reason why Barani Eduardo Hiiboro Kussala, Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Tombura-Yambio during the celebration of Centenary (100 years) of faith in 2012 launched and started the projects of reviving both the technical and vocational schools at Mupoi,” Fr. Morris who is steering the project explained adding that as soon as the renovation work is completed, the center will start enrolling students.

 Fr. Morris explained that many young people often find themselves at crossroads with no meaningful activities and therefore vulnerable to manipulation by some politicians or even get recruited to armies.

 “Because many of these young people lack skills and cannot get employment, you will always find that many are being manipulated and used for selfish motives by some politicians. Additionally, they are easy to conscript into the army because that is the only thing they can do,” Fr. Morris pointed out.

 The technical and vocational schools in Mupoi will be open to everybody in South Sudan especially, within Western Equatoria State and it shall be targeting young people who dropped out from school, a situation Fr. Morris is worried about because according to the statistics of South Sudan, about 75% of young people from the age 15 and above are illiterate.

 “If you move around in the villages and try to speak English to young people, many of

them will not understand you because they dropped out from school at primary and secondary school levels; these are the young people we have,” Fr. Morris expressed adding that the most unfortunate thing is that the demographic structure of South Sudan is composed of 60% young people who form the workforce.

 “Through this institute we will be imparting skills and knowledge to these young people, thereby giving them hope so that they can have confidence in life and be able to have a purpose in life,” Fr. Morris explained adding that they have already designed a syllabus for building and masonry, carpentry and tailoring, home management courses and civic education.

“Our Lady of Sorrows, Mupoi Parish remains a very dear place to every faithful in the Catholic Diocese of Tombura-Yambio. It is actually a pilgrim place, a shrine where we come to remind ourselves of our own history, of our own heritage as we also have here the remains of those committed men and women who came and handed us the Christian faith.”

 It is the first place where the first Comboni Missionaries who brought the Catholic faith to Western Equatoria established the first Church on 12/12/1912. After the missionaries met King Tombura in his Palace and were accepted he authorized them to go and stay with the stronghold Chief called Mupoi. Chief Mupoi accepted to host the missionaries and even gave up his own residence for them as he went and constructed another home, which was three miles away.

 According to Fr. Morris, the missionaries turned the home of Chief Mupoi into the first Catholic Parish, which is there to date.

 Following the establishment of the Church, Mupoi became a Centre for Catholic Faith

and education from where many Azande people, the predominant natives of Western Equatoria got their first education. Among them is the first native Catholic Bishop of Tombura-Yambio, the Late Rt. Bishop Joseph Gasi Abangite who actually hailed from Mupoi area.

 According to Fr. Morris, the technical and vocational schools, a boarding school for both men and women, convent and Primary school were all established in Mupoi and were functioned for many years until war broke out in the country.

 “Because of the wars in the Country the activities collapsed and the structures were abandoned for many years.” He however intimated that a Missionary group from Italy called Sorriso had started the project of rehabilitating classrooms, dormitories, staff quarters as well as halls for doing practical lessons.

 “We only need to fix the doors and windows as most of the machines and equipment which will be required for training are already here in Mupoi,” Fr. Morris intimated adding that the places which are yet to be renovated include the kitchen and washing room. The institute also lacks a big generator that can be used to supply power for the handwork as well as for other uses within the institution.

 He is optimistic that if they get support from well-wishers include education partners to help in the areas that are yet to be completed, the learning process might commence the course of next year, 2021.

By, Elias Ginana Mangbondo