The familiar palm crosses that bring hope and security to the people of Tanzania
As Catholics we’ve all been brought up with the touching and highly symbolic act of praying with palm crosses every Palm Sunday. Used across all Christian denominations, the palm cross reminds us of Jesus’ triumphant entrance into the city of Jerusalem, where the residents laid palm brances as a gesture of respect across the road as he approached the city on a donkey.
Today many of the palm crosses that we use in our churches come from Africa, where their production gives extra work and a small income to people living in very marginal agricultural communities. Any money they earn from palm crosses is usually used for the usual household necessities – clothes for the parents and their children, salt, soap and any money required to get to the nearest hospital for medical treatment.
The story of one particular Tanzanian community that relies on the production and sale of palm crosses owes its origins to a visionary Anglican priest from East London.
The Revd Alan John Talbot was born in Leyton, East London and at the age of five moved with the family to Northolt, Middx. Here he became a keen member of the local church, St Mary’s Northolt. He was greatly influenced by the rector, Revd Gordon Phillips and thus began a life of service to his fellow man.
After serving in the Second World War as a navigator in bomber command he read Philosophy, Politics and economics at Oxford University and then went to the College of The Resurrection in Mirfield. He was ordained as an Anglican priest in 1952 and served as a curate at St Mary of Eton, Hackney Wick and then St Saviours in Portsmouth.
In 1963 he went to Southern Tanzania to work with Bishop and leading anti-apartheid activist Trevor Huddleston, and it was here that the Palm Cross project was born.
Revd Talbot was working as a priest in a very remote area of the Masasi Diocese in 1967 when he was visited by two English botanists who identified and confirmed that the bushes of reeds that grew wild around the village were Palm. He had recently read that the making of Palm Crosses in Devon had come to an end. This gave him the idea that the villagers could make some extra money for essentials such as salt by plaiting palm leaves. This wouldn’t interfere with their work as farmers and gave them dignity in earning their own money.
He sent these back to friends in the UK with the aim that they should try and sell them, they proved popular, so he sent more back.
He returned to the UK in 1969 and continued the project which grew as all denominations started to use the crosses, uniting so many Christians on Palm Sunday.
At his funeral Father Henry from African Palms USA told of how Palm Crosses had affected millions of people in Tanzania over the years, both through the work of making the crosses and through money leftover being used in Education and Healthcare projects.
Today the Palm crosses are made in eight villages in the Masasi area of southern Tanzania, these being Mpeta, Namikunda, Mlundelunde, Mumbaka, Machombei, Chivirikiti, Makanyama and Marika and they are distributed throughout the world, bringing a vital income stream to these fragile communities.
The people’s daily work is the planting of maize, millet and some ground nuts to feed themselves and their families, but the important thing about the Palm Cross project is that it does not interfere with their work of producing the food they need to live.
People look forward to being able to do the work. Their work is really good and the crosses are made beautifully. Here in the United Kingdom at the end of each year, if there is any money over after all the costs are paid, it is covenanted to a charitable trust The African Palms Association. The trust aims to give help to schools and for medical work in the area, and recent projects have included bringing a solar power system to Mkonona Secondary School near Marumba, the construction of a security wall around St Mary’s Sistsers’ Hostel in Mile Sita, supplying flour milling machines in Kyerwa District and providing a borehole and clean water to Ndwika Secondary School on the down escarpment of Makonde plateau near the southern Tanzanian border with Mozambique. All of this has been possible from the sale of African Palms and other goods such as tote bags made from the dried branches of the dwarf palm Hyphaena Coriacia, (as used to make the palm crosses).
So, when you buy a palm cross, as well reflecting on Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem and the events which followed that Easter week, you can also stop to think about the extraordinary journey your palm cross has taken, the lives it has helped and the projects its sale has helped to fund, both now and in the future.
__________________________
If you would like know more and help support the vitally important work of African Palms, please visit their website, or contact them by phone or email:
W: https://africanpalms.co.uk/
T: 44 (0) 20 7703 0719