At the Ngul Zamba orphanage in central Yaoundé, dozens of children are busy cleaning. Above their heads, a banner bears a photo of a waving Pope Leo. He will visit the orphanage on Wednesday, 15 April, just a few hours after his arrival in Cameroon.

“Many of the children here come from difficult backgrounds," explains Sr. Christabel, who lives in the orphanage and serves as head teacher of the attached school. The Pope’s visit, she says, will be a moment of “great joy”—"the children will feel loved ... and feel carried by the authorities of the Church.”

A message of peace

The orphanage staff are not alone in hoping for consolation from the Pope’s visit. The country is still reeling from the violence which erupted after elections late last year.

“We believe the Holy Father’s message of peace is going to bring a lot of healing," says Ngwa Colin Suh, a local Catholic journalist. “He is a neutral person … a spiritual leader rather than a politician, and that’s what we are looking forward to seeing in Cameroon.”

This is a country which has, for a decade now, been suffering from conflict between English- and French-speakers. Many of the Anglophones, who are concentrated in the country’s northwest and southwest regions, feel discriminated against by the Francophone majority. Some have taken up arms in an attempt to create a separate English-speaking state.

Mr. Suh thinks that the Pope can speak to Cameroonians of all backgrounds. “Everyone” is excited about the Pope’s imminent arrival, he says—Francophones, Anglophones, Protestants, Catholics, and Muslims are all hoping that the Bishop of Rome can inspire them to “live together, work together, and get along."

Forgotten suffering

Sr. Claudine Boloum, who normally works at a hospital in Cameroon's north, has taken a short holiday to be present in Yaoundé for the Pope's visit.

"After the election, the political situation here is horrible," she says. "Many people are suffering, and we are thinking that we can't continue to live like this." 

Often, Cameroonians feel forgotten, Sr. Claudine suggests, as if their problems did not matter to the rest of the world. "But when we heard the Pope is coming, you could see the joy in people's faces. It's like a reminder that we are human too."