Book review: the quest for an open SudanHarold F. Miller
The most important unresolved debate in the Sudan today is concerned with the relationship between religion and state. Sudan is a country in which Islam is the dominant religion while Christianity constitutes a significant religious minority. Within the present Government of the Sudan, there is strong support for rule by means of Islamic law or sharia. Over the decades, even centuries, the debate has been consistently intense. The rise and reign of the messianic Mahdi (the "sent one") and his immediate successor in the 1880s serves as an historic reference point for governance based on the sharia. Then as now, some portion of that debate has been located within the Muslim-Christian matrix. But it was not always so. Strange as it may seem, Christianity was established in the Sudan well before the advent of Islam. From approximately 500 AD to 1400 AD, Christianity flourished along the Nile Valley, northward from the present capital city of Khartoum. It took the form of three Christian kingdoms, Nobatia, Makuria and Alodia, archaeological artifacts of which are prominently displayed at the National Museum in Khartoum. The history of Christianity's classic period in Sudan has been extensively recorded1 and even now is attracting continued research. A growing awareness of this heritage has emboldened modern Sudanese Christians to claim their rightful place in the religious history of Sudan, and thus in the on-going, but somewhat strained Muslim-Christian dialogue. Sudan is by all measures an extremely complex country. It straddles the Afro-Arab divide between northern and central Africa. Its 26 million people represent 19 major ethnic groups and speak some 115 languages with Arabic serving as the national language, several versions of which are spoken throughout the country. Because of Sudan's recent colonial history, English is also widely spoken. Southern Sudanese, many of whom are Christians, would insist that the largest portion of the peoples of Sudan are of African descent while Northern Sudanese, especially those of Arab descent and adherents of the Muslim faith, would note that people of the Islamic faith include the largest portion of the Sudanese people. Southerners speak easily of the commonality of Sudan's African people while Arab Northerners speak of the benevolent nature of Arab-Muslim hegemony. These disparate emphases, among others, function as some of the contentious factors fueling the current civil war. Except for a respite from 1972 to 1983, the Sudan has been engaged in civil war since its independence from Britain in the mid 1950s. The so-called Addis Ababa Peace Accord of 1972 brought a 17 year war to an end. But differences between the Khartoum Government and Southern dissidents rekindled the civil war in 1983 which continues to the present. Currently, international news media focus on the war because of the disastrous famine which has claimed the lives of many thousands of Southern Sudanese. It is against such a backdrop that this slender compendium volume on Christianity in Sudan takes on significance. The book is one of a series produced from papers presented at a conference held in Nairobi, Kenya during 1997 under the theme: "The Church in Sudan: its Impact Past, Present and Future." The editor of this small book, Stuart Brown, is the current Director of the Project on Muslim Christian Relations (ProCMuRA), an ecumenical Christian initiative in Africa which fosters Muslim-Christian dialogue. In his work, Dr. Brown has consistently emphasized the commonalties which characterize the "Abrahamic faith traditions" (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) or "people of the book" as they are referred to in the Quran. The editorial comments provided by Brown reflect an appeal to those common values. One of the contributing writers, Gerhard Lichtenthaler, examines the "National Issues, Political Styles and Islamic Responses" of the Sudan by offering a well researched case study of Mahmud Muhammad Taha, the "liberal" Sufi-oriented leader of the Republican Brothers. For his relatively liberal interpretation of Islam, including an insistence on the total equality of women, Taha was executed at age 76 by the Sudan Government on January 18, 1985. The Republican Party had been formed in 1945 by Taha and fellow intellectuals as an alternative to other political parties which were criticized by Taha for having compromised with the colonial powers. Taha represents but one of numerous Islamic traditions in the Sudan. Islam in Sudan is not hierarchically structured. Because of its decentralized character and its common mystic, pietist Sufi traditions, Islam in Sudan has been preoccupied with questions of authority, proper governance and more specifically, about the role of Sharia or Islamic law in modern governance systems. It could be argued that the debate on these issues within the Islamic community in Sudan are in fact more intense than the rather secondary tensions between Christians and Muslims. In his contribution to the book, the Rev. Ezekiel Kujok, former General Secretary of the Sudan Council of Churches, traces in considerable detail the formation of official Muslim-Christian dialogue in Sudan, a process in which he participated from its inception. These efforts resulted in two international conferences, the first one held in 1993, known as a Conference on Religions in the Sudan and the second in 1994 known as the Inter-Religious Dialogue Conference. These conferences coincided with the formation of an Inter-Religious Dialogue Association intended to serve as the official vehicle in Sudan for fostering inter-faith dialogue, embracing Muslim-Christian discussion as well as engagement with traditional religion.2 Both conferences were attended by European Muslims from countries like Britain, Sweden, Germany and Bosnia as well as from Middle East countries like Syria, Lebanon and Egypt. (The writer of this review also attended.) Staged as official and relatively lavish events, these conferences were perceived by Southern Christians as a way of polishing Sudan's rather tarnished international religious image at the expense of fostering genuine dialogue between Christians and Muslims within the country. Interestingly, Middle East Christians in attendance at the conferences seemed to enjoy greater cultural affinity with Northern Sudanese Muslims than with Southern Sudanese Christians; the latter would claim to be victims of the negative impact of cultural, political, and historic dynamics of Sudan, realities not easily ignored nor readily resolved. Additionally, the two conferences highlighted markedly different assumptions with regard to religious dialogue; Northern Sudanese presenters at the conferences made virtually no distinction between the expectations of the Government and the demands of Islam. Additionally, representatives of the Khartoum Government identified Sudan with a revivalist Islam; events in the Sudan are "heralding a new transition in the Islamic world, one which is bound to have impact on the world at large. We (Sudanese) take pride in being in the forefront of a sweeping revivalist movement in the world of Islam." 3 Islam insists that religion and the governance apparatus constitute a single entity. For pragmatic and obvious political reasons, Sudanese Christians, including Southern political dissidents, insist on the separation of religion and state. Official peace talks between the rebel South Sudan Peoples' Liberation Movement (SPLM) and the Government of the Sudan have reached an impasse precisely on this issue. However, any cursory reading of history quickly demonstrates that the advent of Christianity in Africa was profoundly linked to the imperial designs of the colonial state. (In the afore-mentioned ancient kingdoms of Sudan, it may be recalled, Christianity functioned as a state religion.) In the context of these conferences, Christians worked on the assumption that religious dialogue needs to take place among competent theologians or committed practitioners from the respective religious communities, thus maintaining the avowed commitment to the separation of religion and state. In another remarkable article, author Michael Parker recounts the strange saga of the conversion of a Sudanese family from the Islamic faith to Christian belief. For readers acquainted with clear cut conversions as fostered by the western missionary tradition, this conversion story is riddled with visions, mystery and the charisma of a strong head of an extended family. In many respects, this conversion story is more easily understood in the context of Sudan's mystic Sufi tradition. In a personal encounter with the Roman Catholic priest who was well acquainted with the family, the writer was told that the faith journey of this remarkable family was still unfolding and not yet recognizable as a stable Christian expression, though it is nevertheless a profound expression of Sudanese spirituality. Given the unique history of the Sudan it is exceedingly difficult for the outsider to understand the complex dynamics of this, Africa's largest country. In an extraordinarily well argued treatise, a Sudanese writer insists that the problems of the Sudan can be attributed to "conflicting identities," including religious identities; "Religion in the Sudanese political context is no longer a matter of personal ethics, piety, spirituality or morality; but a lethal weapon in the power struggle."4 Strong words. Some Western observers of Sudan's politicians would tend to agree. They would see the current leadership of Dr. Hassan El-Turabi in Sudan's ruling National Islamic Front as a distortion of both religion and politics. On the other hand, the recent US missile attack on a Khartoum factory (in retaliation for the bombing of the US embassies in Nairobi and Dar-es-Salaam) does nothing to mollify what is perceived, rightly or wrongly, to be militant Islam in Sudan. The call for an open society in the Sudan must surely be extended to include a call for an open world in which adherents of religions engage in dialogue and in which politicians deploy peaceful instruments to resolve their differences. In the quest for an "open society" in Sudan, Muslim-Christian dialogue does not constitute a process sufficient to achieve the peace of the land, but it does provide an extraordinarily important entry point toward that end. Happily, this book provides a basis for some optimism and evidence of considerable effort, however plodding, in the direction of inter-faith understanding, a process in Sudan which always touches on inter-cultural, inter-racial, inter-regional and inter-party elements. One can only concur with the concluding paragraph by the editor: "Patience and perseverance are not abstract qualities but spiritual disciplines which [can be squandered] at our peril. Africa is at the forefront of the worldwide state of Christian-Muslim relations and Sudan is in the spotlight."
Notes1. Giovanni Vantini. Christianity in the Sudan. Italy: Collegio delle Missioni Africane, 1981.2. During the 1993 conference, the famous Southern Sudanese writer, Dr. Taban Lo-Liyong, an avowed practitioner of traditional religion, presented a paper entitled: "Indigenous religion in three West African societies." 3. "Sudan's experience in religious tolerance" presented by Dr. Ghazi Salahuddin al-Atabani, State Minister for Political Affairs at the October 1994 Conference on Inter-Religious Dialogue. 4. Francis M. Deng. War of visions: conflict of identities in the Sudan. Washington, D.C. : The Brookings Institution, 1995.
 A JOURNAL OF SOCIAL AND RELIGIOUS CONCERN Published Quarterly by DR. GERALD J. WANJOHI Likoni Lane - P .O. Box 32440 - Nairobi - Kenya Telephone: 720400 The Online publishing of WAJIBU is by Koinonia Media Centre. GO TO WAJIBU HOMEPAGE |