French grand lodge faces pushback from 'regular' Masons in Africa

摘要

When Jean-Pierre Rollet, the grand master of the GrandeLoge Nationale Française (GLNF), visited Porto Novo on15 May to install Eustache Kotingan as the new grandmaster of the Grande Loge du Bénin, he put a few nosesout of joint. Several senior members of African grandlodges guard their independence jealously and aredetermined to protect the sovereignty of theirobediences. On 10 May, the head of the Grande Loge duNiger (GLN), Mamadou Talata Doulla, wrote to Kotingan,copying in the heads of other African grand lodges, toask them to "fully exert their sovereignty over their grandlodges" lest they "appear as districts and lose ourregularity." (The term "regular" has a particular meaning inFreemasonry, one that relates to mutual recognitionbetween different grand lodges based on their sharedbeliefs).