Overview

“With prophetic clarity and experiential wisdom, Fr. Alex Zanotelli challenges his fellow white folks, especially those of faith, to confront the interrelated global injustices of poverty, white supremacy, and anti-Black racism. Formed by ministry among the poorest of the poor in East Africa, Zanotelli recounts the lessons of life, faith, and theology learned in the shantytown of Korogocho in Nairobi and exhorts those Christians in the global north to examine their hearts and minds, histories and prejudices, and embrace the call to Christian conversion in solidarity with those who are locally and globally marginalized and forgotten. This book is a powerful witness that should be read by anybody interested in the Christian call to justice, peace, and solidarity in our broken world today.” — Daniel P. Horan, Professor of Philosophy, Religious Studies, and Theology, Saint Mary’s College, Notre Dame, Ind.

"Alex Zanotelli’s Letter to the White World, translated into English by Frank Stachyra, is a remarkable book based on exceptional erudition and an expansive interdisciplinary synthesis.  The author's insights on the historical and contemporary conditions of global white supremacy are inspired by the lessons he learned from the grounded theology and everyday knowledge of residents in Korogocho, one of Nairobi, Kenya’s largest shantytowns. Father Zanotelli directs his open letter to a largely Western audience whose re-education, conscientization and spiritual redemption are imperative for embracing a pluralistic humanity in a pluriversal world. This matrix of mutuality is urgently necessary to save us all from the convergent moral, political, economic, and ecological catastrophes that jeopardize our planetary existence.  This timely call to leave the (neo)colonial cocoon should be read far and wide."             - Faye V. Harrison, Professor of African American Studies & Anthropology,  affiliated with the Center of African Studies and the Center for Latin American & Caribbean Studies, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Fr. Zanotelli is an Italian missionary priest who served for many years among the poorest in the poor of a slum in Nairobi. Eventually, he felt “commissioned” by these people to minister and evangelize the members of his “White Tribe,” to open their eyes to the history of oppression perpetrated by their European ancestors and continued into the present day—through racism, colonialism, exploitation, and treating the poor world as unworthy of respect or care. That is what he sets out to do in this book.

Alex Zanotelli was born 1938 (86) has been ordained for sixty years as a member of the Comboni Missionaries of the Heart of Jesus.  He has written four (six? Two with L Boff?) books in Italian. He served as editor of the Comboni magazine that deals with sub-Saharan Africa, and has taught and ministered in Sudan, Rome, and Nairobi 1988-2001: Service to the destitute, street children, petty thieves, and among the most poverty-stricken of the city, the garbage pickers and prostitutes dying of AIDS, including twelve years residing among the slum dwellers of the Korogocho shantytown district.  Organized “Udada,” to aid ex-prostitutes and to help others exit from prostitution.  Organized a cooperative for garbage recovery, providing work to garbage pickers.  Worked on movement for a “land community trust,” to transform government land of shantytowns into land dedicated to its residents.  Since 2002: Serves in Parish of the Basilica of Santa Maria Della Sanità in Naples. 

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Click Here For The Table Of Contents

Click Here For Chapter 1