Winnie's comment linked two concepts together: liberation and violence. This is not an uncommon linkage. In fact, the tired argument for a just war joins the two concepts together and proposes that it is impossible to achieve physical liberation without it. Certain religious figures have gone one step further and suggested that spiritual liberation accompanies physical liberation; out of this concept, "liberation theology" was born. Although liberation theology has been known world-wide as a Latin American concept, there was a development emanating from Africa, beginning in the 1970s.
A couple of years ago, I met Sister Janice McLaughlin, a Maryknoll nun on leave from Zimbabwe, where she has lived and worked off and on since 1977. In 1977, Sr. Janice became (in)famous when the Rhodesian government arrested her as a terrorist and Communist after they realized she was publishing a book, The Propaganda War, which exposed the government's methods for discrediting the "liberation soldiers." Sr. Janice's detention without bail caused an enormous international stir; under U.N. pressure, the government tried and deported her. During her trial, Sr. Janice refused to use the word "terrorist" to describe the guerrillas, although it was a treasonable offense not to do so. She claimed, "I am not a Communist," though she advocated redistribution of wealth and argued that Africans deserved independence and a free society.
Her support for the cause gained her notoriety among big-wig guerrillas and, ultimately, Robert Mugabe himself invited her to join the "liberation soldiers" in their Mozambique camps. Sr. Janice did, in fact, join them, and became something of a cause célèbre for the guerrillas, advocating their ideas and methods on the radio, in magazine articles, and in speeches.
Sr. Janice's involvement with guerilla-style liberation movements highlights some important historical trends in the 1970s, as around the world nuns and priests committed themselves to the idea that Christianity meant not only spiritual liberation-or liberation from sin and suffering after death-but also physical liberation here on earth for people who were suffering from poverty or discrimination or unjust regimes. Even more radical than Sr. Janice's involvement, this commitment led some priests and nuns to join guerrilla movements and kill in the name of justice.
