On Wednesday, October 1, 2025, the feast of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, in Yandombo, Father Gabriel KINZE, parish priest of Ekama, in collaboration with Father Jean-Robert NDIWA, parish priest of Yandombo, as well as the head of the area of Itilbiri/province of Mongala, in Yandombo itself, presided over a large meeting, the second, on preparations for the 90th anniversary of the parish of Saint Thérèse of Ekama.
The 8 heads of the groups in the Itilbiri sector and all the heads of the localities in the area were invited and actually participated in the meeting.
On the menu, three questions addressed: 1) On October 4, 2026, Ekama, the land of our ancestors, will celebrate his 90 years of canonical erection as a parish. It's our party. It's your party: You, leaders of groups and leaders of localities... You're the first guests. Will you answer that invitation or not?
2) How to organize your welcome: your accommodation and your restaurant: « bokolia nini mpe bokomele nini » ? Bokola wapi? Bongo bampaya: tokoyamba bango ndenge nini ?
3) Culture, sport and leisure: would it be possible to organise a championship of our football teams and a visibility of ancestral dances? What to do ???
Around this triple question, several proposals have been collected and the meeting is scheduled for the last weekend of October. Indeed, the leaders of the groups, very pleased with the invitation, offered to bring together the local leaders at home. Each group will meet, and the selected proposals will be shared and submitted to the priest of Ekama at the next meeting (end of October in Yandombo, headquarters of the sector).
At the end of the meeting, participants gathered from the tomb of Father MAKANZA, the very first black priest in Lolo. It was he who managed the parish of Ekama after the departures of the first expatriate missionaries.
It was Abbé Makanza, the first priest of the diocese of Lolo, he stressed, who was the founder of the Mobutu/Ekama Presidential College, now the Bosembo/Ekama Institute. Peace to his soul!
For the traditional leaders, the celebration of the 90th anniversary of the parish opening the gates of the Centennial in 2036 will also be the occasion to honor this emblematic figure of the region and, therefore, of the diocese of Lolo.
HOMMING TO MONITOR L-ABBE MAKANZA
The late Father Makanza is recognized by all, Catholics and non-Catholic, as a true father. He devoted all his youth and his priesthood to the formation of the elite of Ekama. Many sons and daughters in the community express their gratitude to him and demand his canonization, the construction of his grave in Yandombo where his body rests and the erection of a monument in Ekama or Lolo in his memory. Father Gabriel KINZE, Oblate missionary of Mary Immaculate, parish priest of Ekama, was instructed to send this message to His Excellency Bishop Jean-Bertin NADONYE, bishop of Lolo and second vice-president of the National Episcopal Conference of the Congo (CENCO).
Sé/ Fr Gabriel KINZE, OMI, Curé – Prefect of Ekama. Contacts: (+243)828286245. // (+237)672033245 (WhatsApp)
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