9-N ENYOR DE LA TERRA - ONE´S BIRTHPLACE

CAT

9 de Novembre, Catalunya viu un moment decisiu. Avui, desitjaria poder ser a la terra on vaig néixer, amb la gent amb qui vaig créixer. La distància no minva el fet de sentir-me Català.

A milers de quilòmetres, aquí a Maban, Sudan del Sud, 128,000 persones enyoren la seva terra d'origen (Blue Nile), d'on van fugir per la força. Enlloc com a casa.

Catalunya i Maban, dos mons, un anhel: pertànyer a una terra i poder-hi viure en pau.

ENG

November 9, a historic day in Catalonia, my mother land. I wish I could be there with the people I grew up with, to whom I am so much indebted.

Here in Maban, South Sudan, so many refugees living in forced exile remind me of that deep longing for home, so human, so essential. There is nowhere like home. R. Panikkar, a universal Catalan, once said:

“Perhaps only one´s birthplace has that power, that aura of life which makes it appear not separate, not just a beautiful parcel of land or indeed anything ‘outside’ of us, but part and parcel of ourselves, an extension or rather a continuation of our very being … That place is part of me, and I am part of that place.”(The Cosmotheandric Experience)

But land is not just merely landscape or a piece of soil, it is a place marked with a history, a "storied place". That is why W. Brueggeman, reflecting on the theme of land in the Bible, said:

 “The central problem is not emancipation but rootage, not meaning but belonging, not separation from community but location within it, not isolation from others but placement deliberately between the generations of promise and fulfillment.” (The Land: Place as Gift,Promise, and Challenge in Biblical Faith)

Next time, I shall try to share the reasons why, if being rooted is so important, am I voluntarily living so far from my mother land.

Ana and her children long for 'home' - Ana i els seus fills es pregunten 'Fins quan?' - Doro refugee Camp/Maban - Doro refugee Camp/Maban . P. Vidal