I was eight years old when I first heard stories about the Pope. The sitting Pope, John Paul II had just visited Rwanda and at our primary school in Uganda the story about this person, who ‘rules’ over all the Catholics in the world, was fresh in the minds of most of the children.

It seemed to me that maybe a person that presided over all the Catholics in the world is not a normal human being. I remember returning home and putting my mother to the task of explaining to me about this person called the ‘Pope’.

I asked her so many questions including whether he rules over even presidents and whether he is a super human. Her answers left me doubtful of this person’s humanity though she denied his being a super natural. All my wishes were to see him face to face. Unfortunately John Paul II died before I got the chance to meet him.

Four years after his ordination as Pope, Benedict XVI now visits Africa. He came to Cameroon and Angola, whose populations are largely Roman Catholics.

Thousands of Catholics in and outside Cameroon flocked the capital, Yaoundé, to welcome him to Africa. This spiritual leader is widely looked at as one who has answers to people’s problems especially in Africa "A land of problems”.

He has come at a time when conflict is escalating in many of our countries with coup de tats taking place in three countries in less than four month. We have had coup de tats in Guinea Bissau, Mauritania and more recently in Madagascar.

There are still political hassles in Zimbabwe, war in Chad, Somalia, in the Darfur region of the Sudan, in the DRC list endless. He has also come when the global economic down turn has started to affect the poverty stricken continent.

My worry is that he probably might have found more problems than the answers he has for us. His message to Africa seems to have solutions to our endless list of problems. He advocates for justice, peace and reconciliation and the fight against HIV/Aids.

This massage in its truthful sense may provide answers to African problems but how far can peace, justice and reconciliation be achieved in Africa when selfishness and greed are still eating us up? I hope the African clergy will not leave the Pope’s message to die in Cameroon.

They should preach for love just as Jesus Christ commanded us to love one another as we love our selves and fight divisionism among their followers. The Pope has also condemned the use condoms in the fight against Aids.

To him abstinence and fidelity is the only in which the scourge can be fought. This however has drawn a lot of criticism that not every one can abstain and that continued advocacy for abstinence alone will instead increase the scourge.

I also think that our A-B-C strategy (abstinence, be faithful, use a condom) is still much better so that in circumstances where one can not abstain, he should use a condom. I agree that condoms do not guarantee 100 percent safety but I am also certain that it reduces on the risks of being infected.

In his sermon at a mass celebrated by thousands of Africans in the Cameroonian capital he called upon Africans to shun materialism and have respect human dignity and human rights.

Of course these fundamental values of humanity are very important for Africa to develop but to be more frank these values are far from being achieved on this continent when we still have countries where issues of good governance and the rule of law do not apply at all.

I can’t be convinced for instance that the current government in Mauritania or Madagascar can live to the expected standards of the international democratic values. I hope the Pope’s massage will bear fruits of love, peace and reconciliation on our continent.

Contact: phatari@yahoo.co.uk