www.jesuits.africa JCAM 2022 Annual Review 45 Two calls from that letter are worth asserting and present-day novitiate statistics could shed more light as to why there ought to be “strategic leadership and consistent support at the highest levels of the province.” These calls include the need to rekindle a broad and deep culture of vocation promotion and the reimagining and promotion of the vocation of Brothers in the Society of Jesus. TABLE 3/ DISPERSION BY COUNTRIES NOVITIATE COUNTRIES PRESENT Arusha (AOR) 9 Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Kenya, Malawi, Sudan, Uganda Lusaka (SAP) 8 Ethiopia, South Sudan, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Zambia, Lesotho Bafoussam (AOC) 8 Burkina Faso, Benin, Cameroon, RCA, Congo, RDC, Angola, Tchad. Cyangugu (RWB) 7 Burundi, Rwanda, Burkina Faso, Congo, RDC, Cameroon, Benin Benin City (ANW) 5 Ghana, Nigeria, Tanzania, Liberia, Kenya Kisantu (ACE) 2 RDC, Angola Antananarivo (MDG) 1 Madagascar These statistics show a net gain in numbers from one year to the Table 4 shows the countries providing the bulk of the novices this next. All provinces and regions seem to be responding positively to year. While this single table cannot provide any reasonable trends Father Sosa’s invitation to focus more on vocation promotion. worth developing, these countries remain the main areas where Another visible trend is the sharing of novices across provinces and Jesuit vocations come from. The one constant is that vocations the evidence of inter-novitiate collaboration as shown in table 3. come from countries having important Jesuit ministries, or places The novitiate in Antananarivo could have men from several where at least one Jesuit community exists countries but for the language barrier as all must speak Malagasy in order to be sent for experiments. This is absolutely the case of the countries with double digits, which are the traditional vocation hubs in the Conference, and it The work of vocation promotion on the ground from country to could be interesting to see in the course of say five years if these country, however, could be telling a different story. values could be grown even further, and what could be done to Table 4/ Novices by Country achieve this. There are some countries with high single digit values, which have been growing steadily through the years, and this is down to the work of Jesuits dedicated to vocation promotion. RDC 38 There are, on the other hand, some countries which seem to be )(*&+&! Nigeria 18 '.%.//. Tanzania 16 declining. The low water mark in these values is the fact that in all, !"#$%&! Madagascar 15 "&-8! $#83) there is only one brother candidate out of 183 novices. 0$+)$%*,+!7!%! Kenya 12 Angola 11 /!3$,4$%2$ '!(%&)!*&! Cameroon 10 '!"& *&#$% <91- 6*-1, $%&)%$! Benin 8 In his three-point strategy for vocation promotion, Father Sosa +$*$#!" $ #(&*$!,-&++!( )*+=.,1 " 25&-.()& Zambia 8 #(&*$! @167/( called for a decisive vocation plan to be put in place in each ).#. ,.;5+.1 +.'!"&! Rwanda 6 +&$%%!,"$.*! /.)$ ;91,1 $# <5,8+13 67*89 589.7?.1 26&4.&%$ & 1@+.<1,/+5?A 6*-1, $ Zimbabwe 6 province or region. He also asked that a diverse vocation team be 3.)5+.1 <125+77, & & $ )5,., $' Burundi 5 # $/(!).%&!",#(&*$! <7,;7 *;1,-1 =5,>1 Congo 5 constituted at the level of the province or region including Jesuits & $& #!-.* ! -527<+18.< +01,-1/% Bukina Faso 4 +5?*3.