Pella Oasis in the wilderness

Pella sounds like a faraway place, and it is far away – all the way up north in Bushmanland, just inside the South African border. The people of Pella believe the Lord watches over them and their special settlement, which became established around a mission station more than 200 years ago.

- WILLEM VAN DER BERG

Before I am allowed to take a seat in the Immaculate Conception Cathedral in Pella, I have to confess my sins to Father Angus Osborne. As a journalist, I often have to confess: I am here with a camera and a notebook. The priest seems sceptical and severe behind the mask that protects him from both me and Covid-19. I am, however, permitted behind the light-blue altar. “But please,” he requests, “no photos while I am offering the Holy Communion to the children.”

This morning, a group of children will receive their First Holy Communion and thus become full members of the Pella congregation.

The solemn Roman Catholic traditions seem almost foreign here in the semi-desert north-west of Pofadder. This is Bushmanland, somewhere no pope will ever visit.

The singing, accompanied by key board and tambourine, is just as beautiful and strange as the people and the quiver trees that survive in the stark foothills of Pella Mountains: “You are victorious when you follow the Lord. Struggles and strife will never triumph. You are victorious when you follow the Lord.”

After the service – and after the children have had their photo taken with Father Osborne, Mother Mary and their own mothers and fathers – the church empties and falls silent. Like a gentle easterly breeze, Sister Johanna Paula drifts among the pillars and pews before she locks the church door. “The door used to be left open so that people could enter to pray at any time, but these days we have to lock up because of the virus. It moves just as stealthily as evil does.”