Human trafficking increasingly exploits digital spaces, turning technology into a tool for deception and exploitation. In this timely interview, Sr Leonida Katonge reflects on the enduring legacy of Saint Josephine Bakhita and on how faith-driven digital evangelisation is mobilised across Africa to defend human dignity, protect the vulnerable, and confront trafficking through prayer, truth, and collective action.
VoiceAfrique: We’ve been seeing more videos and articles highlighting Saint Josephine Bakhita, with the Anti–Human Trafficking Unit of the Pan-African Catholic Theology and Pastoral Network (PACTPAN), also known as the PACTPAN Anti–Human Trafficking Army, playing a leading role. Could you briefly tell us who she was and why her life and legacy matter today?
Sr Leonida Katonge: Saint Josephine Bakhita was born around 1869 in Darfur, Sudan. As a young child, she was abducted by slave traders, torn from her family, and sold repeatedly in Sudan’s slave markets. So brutal was her experience that she forgot her birth name; her captors called her Bakhita, meaning “the fortunate one,” a cruel irony imposed by those who treated her as property rather than as a person. She endured physical abuse, forced labour, and repeated displacement across borders, bearing on her body and in her memory the wounds of enslavement.
Her life changed when she was sold to an Italian family and brought to Italy, where she encountered Christianity for the first time. There, Bakhita discovered a God who did not dominate or exploit, but loved, suffered, and liberated. When her former owners tried to reclaim her, the Italian courts ruled that slavery was illegal, recognising her freedom. This legal decision marked a turning point: for the first time, Bakhita experienced what it meant to belong to herself.
Drawn by faith, she entered the Canossian Sisters and lived a quiet life of service, prayer, and humility. Known for her gentleness, forgiveness, and deep trust in God, she bore no hatred towards those who had enslaved her. Instead, her life became a witness to the Gospel’s power to heal memory and restore dignity. In 2000, Pope Saint John Paul II canonised her, and presented her to the Church as a universal sign of hope for all victims of oppression.
Human dignity is not conferred by society and cannot be erased by violence; it is rooted in being created in God’s image.”
Theologically, Bakhita proclaims a central truth of Christian faith: human dignity is not conferred by society and cannot be erased by violence. It is rooted in being created in God’s image. In an age when trafficking is increasingly facilitated through digital platforms—where human beings are recruited, advertised, and commodified online—Bakhita stands as a prophetic contradiction. She reminds us that even when the world reduces people to data, clicks, and profit, God still calls each person by name.
For us today, Bakhita is not only a saint of the past; she is a patron of resistance, healing, and hope. She inspires our army to fight—not with weapons—but with truth, prayer, solidarity, and courageous action, proclaiming that no form of exploitation has the final word over the human person.
VoiceAfrique: We understand that you’re preparing a significant event to mark her feast day. Could you tell us more about the program and what it aims to achieve?
Sr Leonida Katonge: The St Josephine Bakhita Campaign Against Trafficking in Persons takes place on 8 February, when the Church celebrates her feast. In 2026, her feast falls on a Sunday; therefore, our celebrations will be held on 6–7 February 2026. This will be a continent-wide faith response coordinated by the PACTPAN Anti–Human Trafficking Army.
This year’s theme— “Digital Evangelisation for Human Dignity: Ending Trafficking in Africa”—articulates our strategy with clarity and urgency: we are reclaiming social media as an anti-virus against the very digital virus that fuels human trafficking. What traffickers use to deceive, recruit, and exploit, we deliberately transform into instruments of education, protection, and liberation.
6 February 2026 – Day One is anchored in prayer and worship. Through a global celebration of the Holy Mass, a candlelit vigil, Scripture, silence, and intercessions led by representatives from various African countries, we affirm that this struggle is, first and foremost, spiritual. Victims and survivors are placed at the heart of our prayer, and digital spaces are entrusted to God’s healing and reconciling light.
7 February 2026 – Day Two moves the army into visible, coordinated action. Across countries, teams will hold school and parish awareness sessions, community dialogues, radio and television outreach, social media campaigns, and youth-led advocacy. These efforts will culminate in a continental gathering featuring survivor testimonies, creative expressions, public commitment statements, and the launch of the 2025 Campaign Report (covering the first year of the initiative). We will also be honoured to host a keynote address by PLO Lumumba on the responsibility of governments and state institutions in ending human trafficking.
What traffickers use to deceive, recruit, and exploit, we deliberately transform into instruments of education, protection, and liberation.”
Our aim is both simple and demanding: to unite prayer, formation, and public witness into a single coordinated movement that defends human dignity and confronts trafficking with faith, courage, and collective resolve.
VoiceAfrique: This marks the second year of this important campaign. Could you share any positive outcomes or progress you’ve seen so far?
Sr Leonida Katonge: Our St Josephine Bakhita Campaign embodies this truth with clarity and conviction. Through digital evangelisation, we weave together many “small threads”—prayers and testimonies, videos and social media messages, youth voices, parish initiatives, advocacy efforts, and survivor stories. Individually, these actions may seem fragile. Woven together, they form a strong, resilient web capable of restraining the lion of human trafficking and exposing its lies.
When churches, young people, governments, and digital missionaries act in communion, human dignity is defended, and lives are protected.”
Theologically, this movement reflects the Church’s identity as one Body with many members (cf. 1 Corinthians 12). No single person, institution, or nation can confront trafficking alone. But when churches, young people, religious and lay leaders, governments, and digital missionaries act in communion, human dignity is defended, and lives are protected.
As we enter the second year of this campaign, the fruits are already visible: collaboration across African countries has deepened; young people have emerged as digital missionaries speaking their peers’ language; and faith communities are growing more alert, informed, and courageous in naming and resisting trafficking. Most importantly, survivors are no longer reduced to silence or statistics. They are being placed at the centre—as bearers of wisdom, resilience, and hope—testifying that healing is possible and restoration is real.
We are also raising funds to support survivors, and some have already been assisted. We look forward to helping many more.
VoiceAfrique: Do you feel the campaign is raising awareness effectively? What major challenges or obstacles have you encountered?
Sr Leonida Katonge: Yes, the campaign is raising awareness—particularly among young people and faith communities—but the battle is far from over. Traffickers move quickly, exploit digital anonymity, and adapt rapidly. Fear, stigma, limited resources, weak law enforcement, and digital misinformation continue to hinder progress.
That is why our strategy is deliberate. We flood digital spaces with truth to counter lies, light to counter darkness, and solidarity to counter isolation. Through coordinated messaging and a prayerful online presence, we reclaim social media as a space for protection and proclamation. We move together as an army of conscience, crossing borders, languages, and cultures for one mission.
VoiceAfrique: Finally, what message of hope would you like to share with victims and survivors, and what call to action would you address to institutions and governments?
Sr Leonida Katonge: To victims and survivors, our message is unwavering:
You are not forgotten.
You are not defined by your trauma.
Your dignity has never been stolen.
Like Saint Josephine Bakhita, your life can become a source of healing and hope for others.
To governments and institutions, our call is urgent and clear: human trafficking is not a private tragedy—it is a structural sin and a grave injustice. Ending it requires just laws, effective enforcement, ethical digital responsibility, survivor-centred care, and sustained collaboration. No single institution can win this war alone.
This is a shared battle for the soul of our societies. Human dignity is not optional. It is non-negotiable. Together, as a united army, we choose to fight for it.