Our Lady of Africa (French: Notre-Dame D'Afrique; Arabic: السيدة الإفريقية), also known as Our Mother of Africa, is a Catholic title of the Blessed Virgin Mary associated with a statue of her as a Black woman, located in the major shrine of Notre-Dame d'Afrique in Algiers, Algeria. The devotion has since gained traction across the African continent, as well as in the African diaspora.
Interior of Notre-Dame d'Afrique Basilica
Origins in North Africa
Originating in North Africa, the land of Saints Monica and Augustine, among others, the region began to embrace Christianity in the 3rd century under Emperor Constantine as part of the Roman Empire. It remained Christian until the Arab invasions in later centuries.
The first bishop of Algiers, Bishop Dupuch, found it impossible to build a church because the local population was hostile to the French. He went back to France for assistance. The Sodality of Our Lady in Lyon offered to the bishop a bronze statue of the Immaculate Conception with the understanding that she would be the Protectress of both the Mohammedans and the natives. It was brought from France in 1840 and was entrusted to the Cistercian monks of Staueli.
Bishop Louis-Antoine-Augustin Pavy succeeded Dupuch in Algiers in 1846 and later planned to build a church in the city dedicated to the Blessed Virgin. The Ladies of the Sacred Heart in Lyons proposed that he make use of the Virgo Fidelis that their fellow sisters had possessed. He agreed, though changing to Our Lady Africa after consulting with his advisors. It was installed in a small chapel in 1857.
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Later, Cardinal Lavigiers, founder of the White Sisters, enshrined it in the new basilica at Algiers, where in 1876 the image was crowned. Pilgrims began to come to venerate the image where the lame, the blind, and the crippled were miraculously healed, and sailors came also to beg for protection of their long and perilous voyages. At this and other North African shrines the veneration given to Mary by Mohammedans is very marked.
The church, Notre-Dame d'Afrique, designed by Jean-Eugène Fromageau, was completed next door by Bishop Charles Lavigerie, Pavy's successor in Algiers. The statue was moved there the same year.
The Statue
The statue of Our Lady of Africa was originally modeled on a French sculpture entitled Virgo Fidelis ("Faithful Virgin") a copy of an earlier work completed in 1838 by Edmé Bouchardon. The copy was gifted to the Ladies of the Sacred Heart in Paris. A bronze sculpture, it was eventually represented in art as a Virgin Mary with Black skin and African features.
The outstretched arms, smiling face, and inclined head of Our Lady of Africa mark her as the type of Madonna called “Our Lady of All Graces”. This type goes back to a series of apparitions of Mary to Sister Catherine Labouré in Paris in 1830. At that time the Queen of Heaven appeared in this pose, wearing rings on her fingers that were covered in jewels, most of them emitting a magnificent light. She said: “This is a symbol of the graces which I shed on those who ask me. Those jewels which are in shadow represent the graces which people forget to ask me for.” She also demanded that a medal (the so-called Miraculous Medal) be crafted and widely distributed, depicting herself in this pose on one side.
Supposedly the vestment was crafted by a devout Muslim artist with a deep love for the mother of the great prophet Jesus. (Her crown was a gift of Pope Pius IX.)
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Her basilica was inaugurated in 1872 and continues the theme of ethnic and religious reconciliation with a big inscription on the wall behind her, which reads in French: “Our Lady of Africa, pray for us and for the Muslims.” In many places where Muslims and Christians live together they share a devotion to Mary.
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The Basilica
The Basilica of Our Lady of Africa stands on a cliff overlooking the bay of Algiers. The church, the construction of which was begun in 1872, is visited by Muslims as well as Catholics.
Women, young girls and grandmothers, alone or accompanied, can be seen praying here in front of the beautiful bronze statue of Our Lady of Africa clothed in a richly embroidered Tlemcen style garment. The church custodians say many Muslim visitors ask about Mary, about the Bible, why the four Gospels. They spend time looking at decoration, the Stations of the Cross, and frescoes of the life of Saint Augustine the 4th century Bishop of Hippo, born in Tagaste.
Below the frescoes runs a phrase of St Augustine in Arabic, French and Cabila: “Brotherly love comes from God and is God”. Strong words in a very difficult context of the country where many kill in the name of Allah.
A renovation of the basilica in Algiers was completed in 2010, following damage incurred during World War II and the 2003 Boumerdès earthquake.
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The Devotion
Cardinal Lavigerie placed the newly founded Congregation of the White Sisters under the protection of Our Lady of Africa, with the privilege of replacing the gown and the mantle of the statue. Lavigerie established an order of nuns under the patronage of Our Lady of Africa in 1869, the Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Africa, closely associated with Lavigerie's own order of priests and brothers, the White Fathers (also known as the Missionaries of Africa).
The White Fathers have described the devotion in terms of the Virgin Mary's protection of missionaries serving the African continent:
It was therefore necessary that she be given the same maternal task, for the missionaries who were to bring the Good News to Africa, for the Africans and for all the Muslims who already honoured her as Mother of the Prophet. Since she was also offered to us as mother under the name of Our Lady of Africa, may she accompany us Africans, we Missionaries of Africa, in our task of proclaiming the Good News to the African world. -Fr Patient Bahati, M.Afr.
Though Our Lady of Africa's abode is a Catholic church, she is venerated by Mohammedan men and women as much as she is by Christians. Every day, one can see kneeling Mohammedans who have come to ask Lala Meriem, as they call the Blessed Virgin, for her special favors. Faithful Moslems are familiar with Our Lady and the Saviour because Mohammed speaks of them in clear and penetrating terms in the Koran.
The Koran accepts the fact of the Immaculate Conception, though Christ is considered only a prophet. The devotion of the Saviour to his Mother is also known to the faithful from Sura XIX where Mohammed attributes the following words to Christ: "…And (hath made me) dutiful toward her who bore me, and hath not made me arrogant, unblessed." Thus, it is understandable that Mohammedans, who become aware of the unique position of Our Lady among Catholics and generally among all Christians, are devoted to her.
At present, the veneration is extraordinary because the Moslems frequent Catholic churches. Once, the chaplain of the Basilica in Algiers approached two Mohammedans after their prayer, and asked them why they had come. They answered that they had come to ask Lala Meriem to obtain the cessation of the famine in their village. A kneeling woman cried: "I am sick and suffer so much.
Spread and Recognition
The feast of Our Lady of Africa is celebrated on April 30 and is celebrated as a solemnity in Northern Africa, occasioning obligatory attendance of Mass. It is also included in the liturgical calendars of the Catholic Church in Nigeria, Kenya, and Southern Africa.
As the devotion has spread across the world, the original statue in Algiers has not been the exclusive representation of the Marian title. Churches under the title have been established around the world, including in the United States (where a church was renamed in her honor in Chicago in 2021).
Notre Dame d'Afrique Basilica
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