The Death and the Burial of Little Sister Genoveva, Midwife of the Tapirape People
12/10/2013
- Opinión
On September 24, 2013, in the small village of the Tapirape people, in the Araguaia, the Little Sister of Jesus Genoveva, French by birth, passed away. Little Sister Genoveva and her companions lived an experience that anthropologist Darcy Ribeiro considered one of the most exemplary in the entire history of anthropology: the meeting and submersion into the indigenous culture of someone of the White culture.
What follows is the testimony of Canuto, who knows well the life and work of Little Sister Genoveva. This is how he describes her death:
«In the morning of Tuesday the 24th, Genoveva was well. She kneaded the clay to fix the house. She had a tranquil lunch with Little Sister Odile. She was relaxing when she felt a pain in her chest. Odile hurried to get transportation to take Genoveva to the hospital of Confresa. On the way, her breathing became more and more labored. She died before reaching the hospital.
Back in the village, there was general consternation. Genoveva had overseen the birth of 100% of the Apyãwa (that is what the Tapirape used to call themselves. It is what they are now calling themselves again), in their 61 years of shared life.
The Apyãwa wanted to bury her according to their customs, as if another Apyãwa had died. The funeral chants, and rhythmic steps, lasted through the night and the following day. Much crying and lamentations could be heard.
In keeping with the Apyãwa ritual, Genoveva was buried inside of the house where she lived. The grave was very carefully opened by the Apyãwa, accompanied by ritual canticles. Some 40 centimeters above the ground they placed two bolsters, one at each end. To these bolsters they tied her hammock. It was spread out, as if she were sleeping. Above the bolsters boards were placed, and earth was put on them. All the earth that was put on the boards was brought by the women, as tradition mandates. The following day this earth was soaked and it was molded so that it became as firm and thick as well mixed earth. Everything was accompanied by ritual canticles.
In her hammock where she always slept, Genoveva now sleeps the eternal dream among those she chose to be her people.
The news of her passing flew across the region, all over Brazil and throughout the world. Many Pastoral Agents came. The Coordinators of the Missionary Indigenous Council, CIMI, from Cuiaba, arrived after a trip of more than 1,100 kilometers, when the body was already in the tomb, still covered only by the boards. The Apyãwa removed the boards so that those who had just arrived could see her one last time in her hammock.
With the ritual chants of the Tapirape were blended other chants, and testimonials of the Christian path of Little Sister Genoveva. At the end, the Cacique said that all the Apyãwa were greatly saddened by the death of the Little Sister. Speaking in Portuguese and in Tapirape, he pointed out the respect with which the Little Sisters had treated all of them during the sixty years of coexistence. He recalled that the Apyãwa owed their survival to the Little Sisters, because when they arrived, the Tapirape were very few and now they number almost one thousand.
Planted in Tapirape territory is Genoveva, a monument to coherence, silence and humility, to respect and recognition of that which is different, proving that it is possible, with simple and small actions, to save the life of a whole people.
Greetings: Antonio Canuto».
In September, 2002, after an encounter with Little Sister Genoveva, I wrote a small article in the Jornal do Brasil, that I bring back in part here:
The Little Sisters of Foucauld are a testament to the new form of evangelization, desired by so many in Latin America: instead of converting people, instead of giving them doctrine, and building churches, they decided to embody the indigenous culture and to live and coexist with them. This path was lived in our times by Brother Carlos de Foucauld, who early in the XX century went to the desert of Algeria, among the Moslems, not to preach, but to coexist with them and to welcome the differences of their culture and of their religion. That is what the Little Sisters of Jesus have done among the Tapirape people, in the Northeast of Mato Grosso, near the Araguaia river.
On September 17, 2002, I attended the celebration of the fifty years of their presence along the Tapirape. There was the pioneer, Little Sister Genoveva, who began her coexistence with the tribe in October 1952.
How did they come there? The Little Sisters learned through French Dominican friars who had missions in the lands of the Araguaia, that the Tapirape were dying out. From the 1500 who existed in ancient times they had been reduced to 47, due to the incursions of the Kayapo, White men's diseases, and the lack of women. In the spirit of Brother Carlos, of going to coexist and not to convert, they decided to join that people in their agony.
When she arrived, Little Sister Genoveva heard from Cacique Marcos: “The Tapirape will disappear. The Whites will finish us. The earth has worth, hunting has worth, fishing has worth. Only we Indians are worth nothing." The Tapirape had internalized the thought that they were worthless, and that they were inexorably condemned to disappear.
The Little Sisters went to the Tapirape and asked for hospitality. The Little Sisters began to live the Gospel of fraternity with the Tapirape, in the fields, in the struggle for the yuca of every day. They began learning their language and assimilating all that is theirs, including religion, in a solitary journey without return. In time, they were incorporated as members of the tribe.
The Tapirape's self respect grew. Thanks to the mediation of the Little Sisters, Karaja women married Tapirape men, thus guaranteeing the multiplication of the people. From 47 they now number almost one thousand. In 50 years, the Little Sisters did not convert a single one member of the tribe. But they accomplished much more: they became midwives of a people, following the light of He who understood His mission as "bringing life and life in abundance", Jesus of Nazareth.
When I saw the face of a Tapirape woman and the aged face of Little Sister Genoveva, I thought: if she had dyed her white hair with tucum, the Little Sister would have passed as a perfect Tapirape woman. She had accomplished in fact the prophesy of the founder: “The Little Sisters would make themselves Tapirape, so that from here they would go to others and love them, but they always will be Tapirape”.
Should not Christianity follow that path if it wants to have a future in a globalized world? The Gospel without power, and coexistence that is tender and fraternal?
- Leonardo Boff Theologian-Philosopher, Earthcharter Commission.
Free translation from the Spanish by Servicios Koinonia, http://www.servicioskoinonia.org. Done at REFUGIO DEL RIO GRANDE, Texas, EE.UU.
https://www.alainet.org/en/articulo/80029
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