ZAMBIA, 2005, the centenary of Jesuits in Zambia
Fr. Joseph Moreau, SJ and the Chikuni Church, Scott 1065
Father Joseph Moreau, a French Jesuit, with the help of Fr. Jules Torrend, SJ established the Chikuni Mission in Zambia in 1905 after several other Jesuits had died trying to bring the faith into that country. Moreau as early as 1903 had gotten from Chief Monze some young men to whom he taught farming in Zimbabwe and who in turn taught him to speak Tonga. Today, a hundred years later, there are 120 Jesuits in the country. Moreau, with a French farming background, at once set up a farm to sustain the Jesuits and their missionary efforts. He introduced the use of an ox-plough, which impressed the natives who till then had used only hoes. His farm became a model that revolutionized agriculture and maize production in the southern area. Only then did Moreau move on to evangelization and education. He believe that "the hungry stomach has no ears," that people will not listen to the Gospel until their basic physical needs have been met. In 1910 Moreau and other Jesuits were expelled from the country, to be replaced later by Polish Jesuits, but he returned to die in Chikuni in 1949.