Father Arnold Grol Speaks
Originally published in Executive
magazine , January 1993
(Article)
By David Blumenkrantz
Underground
Nairobi, and the children are the gatekeepers.
Njoroge, perhaps ten years old, shows no
outward embarrassment in his ultra-tattered
sports coat, replete with missing arm, (and
though scrubbed in a drainage ditch at Uhuru
Park), the stench of urine. Young teens
convalesce in polythene huts in city-center
alleyways, recently circumcised by cultural
imperative.
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Photo by David Blumenkrantz |
Faces
beautiful and ugly, eroding innocence. Childlike
mischievousness gone bad, or studied toughness
born of fear. A subterranean world of degradation,
prostitution, and a cheapening of life.
The common denominators are many: the brain-deadening
high of industrial glue sniffing; jaded
perceptions; fear of police harassment.
A future limited by injustices beyond their
making.
I
wonder tonight, after having had the benefit
of several conversations with people whose
lives are intertwined with the many-headed
monster of urban poverty. Why do so many
people I come across-- children in the streets,
slum dwellers proud and humble, and even
those not directly affected, draw the immediate
association of the Undugu Society of Kenya,
with the St. Theresa's Catholic church in
Eastleigh? Surely the obvious answer is
that the organization's founder and patron,
Father Arnold Grol has held that parish
and resided in the church's compound since
the 1970's. How is it that a man once sent
out of the country by a professional sociologist
(former Undugu director Fabio Dallape) with
the instruction that he should behave more
"priestly," can command such a
following?
The
answer is once again simple. Father Arnold
Grol, I suspect, has over the years been
human enough to love, and his goodness holy
enough to believe.
CONVERSATION
WITH FATHER ARNOLD GROL
FOUNDER AND CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD, UNDUGU
SOCIETY
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Photo by David Blumenkrantz |
Father
Grol was a fixture in Nairobi's slums and
streets for nearly 30 years, until his death
at 73 on August 18, 1997. A Roman Catholic
parish priest, he delivered his Sunday sermons
at St. Theresa's in Eastleigh, one of Nairobi's
low-income communities. During the week
his time was spent in the alleys as well
as the boardrooms, all for the continued
growth of the dream he started long ago.
In this 1993 conversation, he waxed philosophical
about topics seminal to his work: greed
and sharing, success and failure, creativity
and depression, and other subjects . . .
ON
AFRICANIZATION:
"I started Undugu in `73, and in my
wildest dreams I would not have thought
that we'd come so far. My biggest success
has been that Undugu is Africanized after
so few years. So many European firms and
others are so reluctant to Africanize because
they want to do it the European way. I'll
just give you one example: Some young Africans
the other day made a film about street girls.
The film is much better than a film made
by independent professionals-- ex-BBC people
that have been on the job for ages-because
as regards the subject of street children,
the Europeans will never understand the
African mentality like an African does.
ON
WEALTH AND SHARING:
"The point where we have failed is
that we have not involved the rich people--
we have not made clear to those who have
money, and especially big firms, that money
is there to be a little bit equally distributed.
I'm not against big salaries, but what I
am against is that when you get the big
salary you use it in order to buy your third
or fourth car, your third or fourth house,
or a private plane. I think that the choice
I have made in life was between three textile
factories of which I could have become director
by inheritance. I would have 100 European
workmen, I would have money, and I said
to myself when I was seventeen, `this probably
gives me the chance to get a rich wife and
a rich life,' but I thought `no, let me
do something else in my life.' And that
is why I had some money myself to start
helping poor street children.
"I
think that if I see which of my rich friends
are the happiest, it's those who care for
others. My rich friends on the whole also
have educated wives, and many of the wives
are bored stiff. So many of them decided
to give their free time, their whole personalities
(to Undugu). Many of these rich and educated
women tell me, `Arnold, I'm so happy that
I'm able to help you. It gives meaning to
my life in Kenya.' In my own family, I've
had people who only lived for money. I don't
know one of them who only lived for his
personal pleasure and money that has become
happy. Those who shared their big salaries--
not giving half away, but a reasonable sum--
they are the ones who are the happiest."
ON
THE GENEROUSITY OF KENYANS:
"I'll give you some examples. I might
go to the post office, and someone will
say, `Oh you are Father Grol! I want to
give something to the parking boys, I want
give 100 shillings. Now people that have
not so much money divide the money. So ten
shillings out of one pocket, twenty from
another, and sometimes you arrive at 95
shillings. So when someone says `I want
to give 100 shillings,' I say `beautiful!'
I went to an MP, who called me to his office,
and he said `Father, I like your work with
parking boys-- here are 10,000 shillings.
If I go to parties, even politicians or
nobodies come to me and say `Father we like
your work.' So I say, if you like the work,
then you must do your part, because street
children are everybody's concern. It's not
the concern of Father Grol; it's not the
concern of Undugu. It's not Starehe, and
SOS, and Mama Fatuma. Street children are
everybody's concern. And I assure you that
if you share with poor people, you have
more happiness than when you only spend
it on lobsters, and expensive women and
expensive cars and houses. This is in the
nature of people."
ON
SINGULARITY OF PURPOSE:
"Everybody is one-sided. I'm one-sided.
I always work amongst the poor. Now I've
just started a new society, which is not
the Undugu Society, but is called "Happy
Mixture." The main purpose is to assist
refugees. It mixes Ethiopians and Somalis
and Kenyans. It mixes Muslims and Protestants
and Catholics. It also mixes the haves with
the have-nots. I believe in a better world,
if everybody starts to be friends."
ON
SPIRITUALITY AND GIVING:
"Now I thought that this was typically
of the Christian churches. So the other
day I looked up the Koran, and I found it
written that if you want to be pleasing
in the sight of the Muslim Allah, the rich
have to share the wealth with the poor.
And I now am convinced that (this is so)
even in Buddhism, in all religions. And
everybody's a little bit religious. Even
denying the existence of God is a kind of
religion for me, because everybody believes
in something better than only eating, only
drinking, only dancing. There is something
in everybody, so I think that if we want
to be happy, we have to give in to that
natural longing for sharing."
ON
REACHING THE UNREACHABLE:
"I read in the paper that the Kenyan
prostitutes are getting very angry with
the Somali prostitutes, because they are
gaining the market. So with Undugu social
workers, I went to the nightclubs, and to
my astonishment these Somali girls, from
18-22 look so beautiful, that there must
be somebody behind them, because they dress
so well. I wouldn't say expensive, because
often expensive clothes don't look well.
But they are so refined in their taste for
Europeans that we started looking after
them. Now my way to get at people who are
unreachable is through medicine. When they
say to me in the nightclub that they want
to go to the hospital, I ask what illness?
If they tell me it is malaria, I know what
side of the body the 'malaria' is. It is
generally the rather low parts-- it is just
a name for another illness. Now there is
so much Aids, I know that 80% of the girls
are sero-positive, have Aids in one form
or another. So I take them to the hospital,
and that is going to the heart. I reach
the unreachable by taking them to the hospitals.
We have a holistic approach. We are teaching
the Somali prostitutes English and Swahili,
and at the same time teach them about Aids,
about health care, looking after yourself.
Especially once we have taught them enough
English, we say now learn hairdressing,
we will pay for you."
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Photo by David Blumenkrantz |
ON
AGING GRACEFULLY:
"I have developed a big sense of delegating.
So as soon as I have the ideas, others must
suffer for it by working hard. I've also
trained people in creativity, and I think
that is what we need all over the world,
creativity. And also I teach the people
that without joy, you can't do your work
well. And I will stop working when I am
mentally or physically finished. I am now
68 years-- I think that in 12 years time,
or a little bit less, that will happen.
Everybody knows that one day he has to stop.
I've never seen somebody of 150 working
hard. I see people of 90 pretending that
they do a lot, but I consider that pretending."
ON
SELF-RENEWAL:
"Certainly, I get my depressions like
anyone else. But I need depressions. For
me it's like childbirth. I feel that I can't
be creative without suffering. My big point
is that if I have long spells of depression,
afterwards I am more creative. It's like
giving birth."
For
a biography of Father Arnold Grol:
http://home.pi.net/~heinies/html/grol.htm
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