Back
“I felt part of something bigger than myself. I was suffering for a cause, and the pain and fear no longer mattered. I was not alone. I was with the oppressed people, and God was there with us in our prison cells.”
This memoir by Maryknoll Sister Janice McLaughlin tells the extraordinary story of a life spent in service and solidarity with the people of Africa, and how this experience shaped her faith and her understanding of what it means to be human.
The dramatic turning point comes in 1977 when she was arrested in then- Rhodesia, where a white minority government was waging a brutal war against the African independence movement. Sr. Janice was charged as a terrorist sympathizer and held in solitary confinement for 18 days before being expelled from the country. She was later welcomed back to independent Zimbabwe to work on rebuilding the education system.
Her remarkable memoir reveals how inextricably her faith was bound with service to the most marginalized and dedication to the cause of justice and human rights.
Sister Janice McLaughlin, MM, who died in March 2021, served in Kenya and Mozambique, in addition to Zimbabwe, where she is considered a national heroine for her many contributions to education and independence. A former President of the Maryknoll Sisters, she also authored Ostriches, Dung Beetles, and Other Spiritual Masters: Wisdom from the Wild.
