AFRICANEWS

Sudan

The hidden treasure of Sudan

Book Review

DAY OF DEVASTATION DAY OF CONTENTMENT the History of the Sudanese Church across 2000 years, by Roland Werner, William Anderson, Andrew Wheeler, Paulines Publications, Nairobi, 2000. 700 pages

Sudan has become synonymous with war. Not surprisingly, since it has the longest running civil war in Africa - most probably in the world. In the wake of the war, other calamities have become endemic. The very mention of the name Sudan nowadays evokes images of tribalism, poverty and backwardness but also religious fanaticism, slavery and famine.

To follow the facts of the Sudan war and to interpret them has become a specialised task. People of the street cannot understand any more what is happening. People ask: "I have heard on the radio that Riek Machar has conquered a town. But on which side does he stand now?", or, "is all this talking about slavery a Christian propaganda against the Muslims or is it true?". They listen carefully, but next time they have lost track again of who is with who. And while they wait for an answer, they compose their face like they are mourning, they expect only bad news.

There is a new book in Nairobi bookshops that goes against these negative images of Sudan. It makes fascinating reading, and helps to understand the problems of Sudan in an historical perspective. It is about the history of the church in Sudan, but it touches all aspects of Sudanese life and after reading it, one has the feeling that the present moment is only a negative phase of a nation and of a church endowed with an extraordinary inner strength.

Says Andrew Wheeler, one of the three co-authors: "The idea of writing this book started about five years ago with a seminar at Limuru, where scholars and pastors interested in Sudan were invited by William Anderson and myself to share their knowledge. Thirty-five people turned up - many paying their fares to come from different parts of the world. There were very resourceful presentations and Bill and I realised there was a gold mine of materials, ideas and historical research. With the collaboration of different people - we got a great support from the Comboni Missionaries and the Mill Hill Fathers - we set out to work. It was from the very beginning an ecumenical work."

One of the consequences of the war is that Sudanese people have no time to tell each other stories from the past. They are too concerned about daily survival. Communities have been disrupted; villages and towns have disappeared. Even the churches, usually good in preserving the memories of the past, are living in a kind of permanent amnesia. They are alive and functioning but they often have little idea of their roots and where they came from and what had shaped them.

The authors of "Day of Devastation, Day of Contentment" were able to trace the history, to show the continuity.

The book is a comprehensive account all the way from ancient Nubia or all the way from Acts Chapter 8 and the Sudanese official and his conversion to the present day. It is a survey and not an in-depth study but a survey across 2000 years. To affirm, in Sudan, where Christians are constantly being told "you're a Western import, you have just recently arrived, Islam is the real religion of this country" that Christianity in the country has a history covering nearly 2000 years is a very potent political statement.

Especially enticing is the first part about the conversion of the Nubians. It brings to life what those early Sudanese Christians believed, lived and felt. For those who know the arid and prevalently Muslim area of the present Dongola, it is emotional to read that in that area a Nubian called Abraham, "the humblest priest", rededicating a former pagan temple as a church in the year 559, concluded the inscription with the following words: "May everyone that shall read these writings have the charity to offer a prayer for me".

The book is ecumenical. It tells the story of the whole people of God in Sudan. For the authors, it is a matter of principle and of theology that the history of Christianity must be told in its wholeness. Archbishop Zubeir Wako of Khartoum, in his foreword, highlights this aspect saying: "The book gives one a panorama of all the people and activities that contributed to the spread of Christianity in the Sudan. Catholics have been used to studying the history of the Catholic church in the Sudan and Protestants and Evangelicals to studying the history of their own churches. Now each church can truly exclaim 'we were in all this together'".

The authors have a novel approach to the history of the church. They do not dwell long on the development of the institutions, the structures and the leaders, they prefer to highlight the communal life, the fate of the people at the grassroots, their experience, how does the Church live in growth at the grassroots level. In this aspect, the book breaks new ground. There are few bishops and leaders mentioned, but there are many lay people, catechists and evangelists, people whose names are not registered anywhere but here. It is a modern understanding of the church.

Precisely, this work at the grassroots level is what Wheeler found more rewarding. He says: "It was a refreshing and renewing experience to get deeper into the rural Christian experience in South Sudan, grassroots Christians. I spent a lot of time with the Dinka church, Nuer church, Catholics and Presbyterians and churches from other parts. I began listening to people, getting a heart and a feel of what the gospel of Christ means to them and how they giving expression to that and how they wrestling in being a Christian in the context of the war".

In this trip to the roots of Sudanese Christianity, Wheeler adds, he "discovered that the experience of the Sudan church is important for the whole church because it is not an experience of the gospel which has been shaped and dictated by the western world. The Sudan church emerges from a largely African traditional context and so represents an authentic African response to the gospels in away that is perhaps more difficult to find in other parts of Africa".

Aren't Southern Sudanese becoming Christians in large numbers only as an opposition to the perceived domination of the Muslim North? "No - is the opinion of Wheeler - certainly there are different dynamics at work in different parts of Sudan, the situation of Christians living in refugee camps in Khartoum is different from the experience of Christians living in the Nuba Mountains and is different again from those living in the so-called liberated areas of the South. For instance, in the South, Christian faith has to do more with how do we cope with overwhelming suffering and loss, how do we find meaning for personal and communal survival in this abhorring war. The main problem is not the political question about what is our relationship with Islam, but how do we relate with the spiritual forces of the past, how do we understand them, what reality, or truth or goodness do we attribute to them, what do we say God is doing through the war and suffering, what is the purpose of God here and now in the midst of war".

Sudan is not only devastation, it is also contentment and spiritual growth. Thinking about it, it is truly extraordinary that such a book exists about a country devastated by war, and there is nothing so deep and stimulating on the history of the Kenyan church. And in Kenya we have many Christian institutions at university level.

| CONTENTS | AFRICANEWS HOMEPAGE |

AFRICANEWS - Koinonia Media Centre, P.O. Box 21255, Nairobi, Kenya
tel: +254.2.576175 (voice) Fax:- +254.2.577892 (fax-modem)
AFRICANEWS on line is by Koinonia Media Centre