The Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar

3. It is in such a climate that the Bishops of Africa and Madagascar present at the Council decided to establish their own General Secretariat with the task of coordinating their interventions, in order to present to the Council Fathers, as far as possible, a common point of view. This initial cooperation among the Bishops of Africa later became permanent in the creation in Kampala of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM). This took place in July- August 1969, during the visit of Pope Paul VI to Uganda — the first of a Pope to Africa in modern times.