In Union and Solidarity with the Entire Body
The 72nd Plenary of the Major Superiors of the Jesuit Conference of Africa and Madagascar took place at Livingstone, Zambia, from 15 to 19 April 2026, hosted by the Southern Africa Province. The seven provinces of the Conference are international and supranational in character, since six of them span multiple countries, and a Jesuit typically studies or lives in another province at some point in his formation.
The meeting was carried out in the spirit of Fr Kolvenbach’s reminder that in an interdependent and global world the Provincial is called to govern through “generous and efficacious collaboration” within his Conference of Major Superiors. Many of the challenges before the Conference are global in nature and call for global solutions, even in provinces originally shaped to serve a local horizon. The Provincials are therefore called to look beyond their own provinces and to regard “the needs of the whole Society as something that is directly incumbent upon them.”
The week opened on Wednesday, 15 April, with a welcome from the SAP Provincial in a newly completed conference facility. Fr Chuks Afiawari, Interim Regional Assistant for Africa and Madagascar, then brought greetings from Fr General, who looks forward to attending the October Plenary on Formation in Nairobi. He also conveyed the formal convocation of the 72nd Congregation of Procurators in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, from 7 to 17 October 2027.
The substantive work of the day began with a reflective input titled “Dreaming Together.” The input drew on the JCAM Apostolic Mapping 2026, a study prepared by the Ad Hoc Commission for Apostolic Planning under the guidance of Fr John Dardis. The Mapping offered the Major Superiors a shared and grounded picture of the apostolic landscape of the Conference, comprising 1,899 Jesuits across seven provinces and more than thirty-five countries. The day moved from data to discernment as the Major Superiors took up in the Spirit what the morning had placed before them. The shaping of a Conference apostolic plan was held as a discernment in common, attentive to the needs of all the provinces, while avoiding making the Conference operate as an eighth province. The final version of the Apostolic Plan will be presented at the Plenary of April 2027, before being sent to Fr General for approval. The opening Eucharist of the Plenary, presided by Fr José Minaku, President of JCAM, gathered the day’s work into prayer.
Thursday, 16 April, opened with a recollection on Luke 16:19-31, the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, received as a searching examen on the globalisation of indifference. The morning’s silence and conversation invited each Provincial to consider how the temptation to work in apostolic silos can quietly enter the life of a Conference, and how the call to step beyond them is itself a call to deeper collaboration. The Eucharist, presided by Fr Kizito Kiyimba, gathered the work of the day into prayer.
Friday, 17 April, was given entirely to formation. JCAM is the youngest conference in the Society of Jesus, with most of its provinces just about fifty years old. The reality of this youth appears in the overwhelming demography of Jesuits in formation. About 68.8 percent of African Jesuits are still in their formation years, double the global Society average of 39.9 percent, and this concentration shapes where the Conference must place its apostolic attention. No province carries the kind of formation infrastructure that older provinces have built over time, and interprovincial collaboration is therefore the bedrock upon which JCAM rests. The 2026 statistics of the Society further reveal JCAM as the only conference recording yearly growth, however modest, and the Conference now holds 13.4 percent of the roughly thirteen thousand Jesuits worldwide.
To prepare for this central question of JCAM’s mission, the October 2025 Plenary established an Ad Hoc committee charged with guiding the formation conversation across the Conference and shaping the October 2026 Plenary, which will make significant decisions in formation in the presence of Fr General Arturo Sosa. The conversation reached a notable moment in March 2026 with the meeting of Formation Delegates in Kigali, Rwanda, which prepared the blueprint for October.
Drawing on the demographic data and on the discernment already begun by the Formation Delegates, Fr Deogratias Rwezaura, the JCAM Formation Delegate, pointed out in his presentation that successful formation planning in JCAM rests on formation solidarity organised around three areas, namely infrastructure, the staffing of formation houses, and the shaping of formation processes. After the morning’s presentations, the Provincials entered a session of discernment in the Spirit on vocation promotion, the novitiate, first studies, and regency. As the blueprint for October takes shape, the Provincials expressed a shared desire for greater coherence, mutual accountability, and a generous willingness to carry formation as a responsibility belonging to every province together.
After Saturday’s morning Eucharist and the outing to the Victoria Falls graciously hosted by the SAP Province, the Provincials gathered again on Sunday, 19 April, for a business meeting. They reviewed and adopted resolutions and recommendations addressing the governance of common works, the preparation for the October Formation Plenary, the strengthening of inter-plenary consultation, the question of African Jesuit participation in international gatherings, and the Conference’s growing collaboration with the Conference of European Provincials in service of mission in JCEP territories. A commendation was offered to the JENA coordinator, Fr Rampe Hlobo, SJ, on his appointment to the Dicastery for Integral Human Development, a sign of the Conference’s deepening contribution to the universal Church. The Plenary closed in the same spirit in which it had opened, with the closing Eucharist celebrated by Fr Chuks Afiawari, Interim Regional Assistant for Africa and Madagascar. The Provincials offered their heartfelt gratitude to the entire team that facilitated their stay in Livingstone, including the housekeeping staff and the organising team led by Fr Virgilio Costa, the Socius, and Fr Isaac Fernandez, the Province Treasurer.
Throughout the week the Conference gathered around the seven Provincials and the President of JCAM. Fr Leonard Chiti of SAP hosted the meeting, joined by Fr Rigobert Kyungu of ACE, Fr John Ghansah of ANW, Fr Kizito Kiyimba of AOR, Fr Jocelyn Rabeson of MDG, and Fr Fabien Gasigwa of RWB, with Fr Mathieu Ndomba representing the Province of AOC and Fr José Minaku presiding as President. They were accompanied by Fr Chuks Afiawari, Fr Deogratias Rwezaura, Fr Dhedya Dominique as the incoming Provincial of ACE, and Fr JB Anyeh-Zamcho as Socius and Secretary. The Plenary marked Fr Rigobert Kyungu’s last gathering as Provincial of the Central Africa Province and welcomed Fr Dhedya Dominique into that office as his successor.
The Plenary at Livingstone offered the Conference an experience of what it looks like when discernment, collaboration, and networking become the inner texture of governance. The Major Superiors return to their provinces with a clearer sense of the road ahead, the work that gathers them, and the trust that holds them on the way. As the Society prepares for the Congregation of Procurators in Yogyakarta in October 2027, and as JCAM moves toward its Formation Plenary with Fr General in October 2026, the work begun at Livingstone will continue to bear fruit.
