Michael Kelly: The only passport I need is going up
JACK ZIMBA ON MONDAY, August 22, 1955, a young Irish Jesuit stepped off a plane at the City Airport (which is now a Zambia Airforce base in Longacres). It was his first visit to Africa, and he fell in love with it. He talks about the cheerfulness, generosity and openness of the Zambian people, as well as their suffering. A mathematics genius, he dedicated his life to educating young Zambians, and later to the fight against HIV and AIDS. Sixty-five years later, Father Michael Kelly says he is now looking forward to going home. And by “home”, he is not referring to his native country – Ireland - but to Heaven. In fact, Fr Kelly renounced his Irish citizenship in 1968 to become a Zambian citizen because, as he puts it, “I wanted to identify with the people of Zambia as wholly as possible”. “I’m Zambian through and through. I don’t have any other citizenship, and at the moment I don’t have any passport at all, either Zambian or any other, because the only passport I need is going up t...