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Tendai H Manzvanzvike
Head, Zimpapers Knowledge Centre

Taking the celibacy vow and dedicating one’s life to serving the Lord are not easy choices. However, Sister Janice Mclaughlin of the New York-based Maryknoll Sisters Congregation, was among that rare breed of women and men to do so.

At one point she remarked: “I’ve learned that to persevere and not lose hope is possible only through a deepening of faith in God’s goodness and presence. We must not be disheartened by human failure.”

Unfortunately, the missionary who was a store-house of experience and knowledge on the history and people of Africa, died on March 7, 2021 at the Maryknoll Sisters Centre, Maryknoll, New York. She passed on a day before the celebration of International Women’s Day.

She was born on February 13 1942, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to Paul McLaughlin and Mary (Schaub) McLaughlin and had one sister Mary Ellen, who pre-deceased her.

Sr Janice had held a number of key decision-making positions during her life of service, including being president of the Maryknoll Sisters from 2009-2015. She was also a member of the Catholic University of Zimbabwe’s Research Board.

Zimbabweans celebrate Sr Janice as a fighter for its freedom. She was also a veteran educationist, communicator, development specialist, counsellor, women’s rights defender and an advocate for empowerment across the Eastern and Southern Africa regions.

She had dedicated her life to service for the common good and spent more than four decades in mission work on the continent,  working in Kenya, Mozambique and Zimbabwe. She was passionate about every issue she believed in.

Speaking about human trafficking, Sr Janice said, “I became aware of human trafficking when I was president of the Maryknoll Sisters from 2009 to 2015. These experiences opened my eyes to the oppression and exploitation of women, both by trafficking and by discrimination.”

Zimbabwe was like her second home as she came and went at will. But in 2015 when she returned as a volunteer in “Africans for Catholic Social Teaching”, she observed a nation at the “tipping point”. Her reflections were published in the Maryknoll NewsNotes of September-October 2016.

A year later, Operation Restore Legacy ushered in the Second Republic. Thus her life was intertwined with Zimbabwe’s historical narrative since the days of the liberation struggle.

President Mnangagwa has since joined the nation, war veterans and the education fraternity in mourning this courageous Catholic nun who first came to then Rhodesia at the height of the war of liberation in 1977.

Sr Janice entered the Maryknoll Sisters Congregation on September 2, 1961 and made her First Profession of Vows on June 24, 1964 at the Maryknoll Sisters Centre, New York and her final Profession of Vows on the same date in 1972 in Kitale, Kenya.

From 1967-1969, she attended Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where she obtained a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Theology, Anthropology-Sociology, graduating magna cum laude.

She later studied at the University of Zimbabwe and received a Master of Arts Degree and a PhD in Religious Studies in 1992.

The title of her thesis was: “On the Frontline: Rural Catholic Missions and Zimbabwe’s Liberation War”.

In 2010, Marquette University conferred Sr Janice with an honorary doctorate in Religious Studies and the citation read in part: “. . . Because of her tenacious commitment to a just world, her steadfast solidarity with the economically poor and marginalised, her strong belief in women’s access to education, and her life work of giving voice to the voiceless, Reverend President, I hereby recommend Sister Janice McLaughlin of the Maryknoll Sisters for the Marquette University degree of Doctor of Religious Studies, honoris causa.”

On May 18, 2014 the Board of Trustees of Albertus Magnus College in Connecticut conferred on her the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters for “her work in Kenya and Zimbabwe for many years to promote peace and reconciliation and to advocate for the poor and for the rights of young girls to attend school.”

After graduating in 1969, Sr Janice received her first overseas mission assignment to Kenya. She studied Kiswahili in Makoko, Tanzania before relocating to Nairobi in 1970 where she spent the next seven years serving as Communications Coordinator in the Catholic Secretariat Office for the Catholic Church of Kenya, Coordinator of the Communications Department of Episcopal Conference, and was responsible for radio, TV, press, film and audio visuals.

She used the position to shape the media landscape since she was responsible for “training journalists and broadcasters, the setting up of diocesan newspapers, production of radio and television programmes, and drafting public statements for bishops.”

Sr Janice understood the power of media very well. Joseph Adero Ngala, professor of International Relations and Diplomacy and former war journalist wrote this week: “Many will remember her extensive training of priests and lay people by  organising workshops and giving communication retreats. She died as a friend of (the) media she left, and died while dreaming media. She believed in the power of media. For her, media was the thing she loved . . .”

With support from the Maryknoll Sisters and bishops, Sr Janice moved to Rhodesia in May 1977 to work as press secretary for the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace. She documented the atrocities committed by the Smith regime, and three months later, she was arrested and deported in August 1977.

At the time she came to Rhodesia, some Catholic priests had already been deported, while Bishop Donal Lamont of the Umtali (Mutare) diocese had been arrested and given a 10-year jail sentence.

Her short stint was not in vain as the Catholic Institute for International Relations in London and the American Committee on Africa in New York, compiled her documentations into a publication, “Rhodesia, the Propaganda War”.

According to the Washington Office on Africa, “Her detailed testimony discussed numerous tactics being used against the guerilla movements, including hangings of captured soldiers, starvation of communities, the role of the Selous Scouts in terror operations, the significance of private armies of participants in the internal settlement government, and attacks on refugee campaigns in neighbouring countries. She also spoke about complicity of the United States and Britain.”

In 1979, Sr Janice was appointed “projects officer for the Zimbabwe Project, an initiative set up by Catholic donors to assist refugees from the war in Rhodesia.”

Following the attainment of Independence, the Government of Zimbabwe invited Sr Janice to the country in 1980. From 1981- 1992, she served in many diverse positions including: education consultant to the President and Publications/Curriculum Development Officer with the Zimbabwe Foundation, regarding education and communications.

Her passion for education saw her assist in the construction of a number of schools. From 1998 to 2009, Sr Janice was also involved in adult education and peace building in Zimbabwe.

Prof Kuzvinetsa Dzvimbo, the chief executive officer of the Zimbabwe Council for Higher Education and also a member of the Presidential Advisory Council was among the renowned educationists to work with the Catholic nun. In an interview he said, “Sr Janice played a critical role in the 1980s in our nascent education system, establishing a new and revolutionary educational philosophy that became the envy of countries in the region.”

Referring to ZIMFEP of which she made major contributions, Prof Dzvimbo said: “Sr Janice together with stalwarts like Dr Fay Chung were the pioneers of an innovative and revolutionary education system in the early 1980s. That revolutionary education project was the Zimbabwe Foundation for Education with Production (ZIMFEP). The ZIMFEP established several schools throughout the country such as Chindunduma and Mavhudzi.

“These schools were unique because they combined academic and practical vocational and technical skills which included agriculture, carpentry, building, and animal husbandry. The ZIMFEP schools were early examples of schools could become self-sufficient in terms of food production because Agricultural production was part and parcel of the school curriculum.”

She authored and co-authored a number of books and articles that include “Education with Production in Zimbabwe: The Story  of ZIMFEP”, that she co-authored with V. Nhundu, P. Mlambo and Fay Chung; “Ostriches, Dung Beetles, and other Spiritual Master: A Book of Wisdom from the Wild”, which was published by Orbis Books in 2009, among others.

Apart from interviewing Zanla Chief of Defence Cde Josiah Magama Tongogara, Sr Janice in 1979 interviewed Cde Robert Mugabe on the “Church and State in independent Zimbabwe.”

The interview was reproduced in Cde Mugabe’s book “Our War of Liberation: Speeches, Articles, Interviews; 1976-1979”, published by Mambo Press.

She asked Cde Mugabe: “The Christian Churches in Africa are often accused of having worked hand in hand with colonialism. What is your view of the role the Churches have played in Zimbabwe?”

And his response was: “The accusation is justified to a very great extent. If you study the history of the Church in South Africa, Zimbabwe and elsewhere in Africa, you will discover that originally the Church tended to side with the colonial authorities. Colonialism itself was completely wrong and unchristian, but the Church at first held it as justified”.

He added, “But there came a time, and I think this was a result of the rise of nationalism in Zimbabwe, when the Churches started to adjust. In gradual stages, they worked against the racial patterns and their voice was heard in criticism of government laws, especially the Land Tenure Act and the colour bar that applies in the socio-economic system . . .”

Sr Janice also asked him about the future role of the Church in a revolutionary Zimbabwe, to which Cde Mugabe answered:

“This depends entirely on what the Churches themselves will feel they can do, but from the point of view of the State, I believe that quite a number of changes must occur and these changes might very well affect the role of the Church . . . I believe that education should be organised by the State. Education is the basis, in fact the source, of those vital skills which we’ll need to establish a just social order . . .”

Prof Dzvimbo echoed that Sr Janice’s role in the liberation of an independent Zimbabwe is impeccable.

“Those that worked with her in Mozambique during our just war of liberating Zimbabwe sing her praises as a committed revolutionary who imbued a liberation theology as a Catholic nun.

“As we mourn Sr Janice, let us continue to follow in her footsteps and reform our secondary education system so that students are equipped with the requisite world outlook, knowledge, skills, attitudes, values, and practical competencies that will enable them to create employment for themselves and in the process, contribute to the socio-economic and political development of this country . . . Sr Janice was a true believer of the adage that, ‘In its education, the soul of a people mirrors itself’”.

According to the biographical information provided by the Maryknoll Sisters in New York, Sr Janice served the Congregation for 59 years.

The statement also reads, “Sister Janice generously donated her body to science. A Mass of Resurrection will be livestreamed on Friday, March 12th, 2021 from the Annunciation Chapel at the Maryknoll Sisters Center, NY. Her remains will be interred at Maryknoll Sisters Cemetery, Maryknoll, NY at a later date. Let us be joined in spirit across the house and across the world in celebrating her life!!”

The Church in New York played  “OUR ZIMBABWE” song by Henry Olonga as her sent off.

Additional biographical information provided by the Maryknoll Sisters Congregation, New York through its Gweru Congregation.