THE SUFFERING CHURCH IN THE SUDAN

by Thomas P. Kedini

Presented to conference African Christianity: Past, Present and Future

2. THE AFRICAN CHURCH

I. Africa, the Forgotten Au Pair of God.

In today's world, talking about Christianity and the African continent seems to be something strange or so new and interesting that it warrants some meticulous research project. It feels the same when I talk about the "Suffering Church in Sudan." It seems one is trying to invent a relationship that is foreign between the subjects themselves. Africa, the "Dark Continent," and the birth of Christianity don't match, and the claim of a "Suffering Church in Islamic Sudan" don't warrant any legitimacy. Cognizant of these seeming contradictions, I am not deterred from making my claims and arguments to set the record straight and hence contradict this impression. People are just too willing to forget. And in regards to Africa and Sudan, it is convenient and safe to "let sleeping dogs lie."

II. Establishment and Decline of Christianity in Africa.

Christianity is not new in Africa. It didn't come with the influx of Western colonizers and missionaries in the 19th century or there about. In fact, it was returning, although it was coming with a new brand name: 'Western Christianity. John Pobee, one of the renowned African theologians, stated in his book, Toward an African Theology, ¹ that: "Christianity was well established in Egypt and Roman North Africa, not to mention Nubia, in the first three centuries of the Church's existence, long before Western Europe was Christianised."

African Christianity was established by Christ himself He inaugurated the opening of the first refugee shelter in Africa. Remember, baby Jesus, Matthew 2.13-23. We are told about the encounter of one of his disciples, Philip with the Ethiopian eunuch, Acts 8. 2640, the first recorded African convert. The Egyptian Coptic Church also traces its founding father to St. Mark the Evangelist as far back as 42 AD..

Christendom owes its life to the African Au Pair The African milieu gave rise to the growth and development of a dynamic form of Christianity which raised such leaders like Clement of Alexandria, Justin Martyr, Tertullian, Origen, Anus and the great Father of Latin or Western Christianity, Augustine of Hippo³. it also saw the beginnings of such Christian traditions like asceticism and monasticism. Most of the theological debates and controversies, Arianism, Donatism, Monophystism, either originated from and/or was debated by African theologians.⁴

Although the rise of Islam and its expansion was responsible for eradicating most of the Christian presence in North Africa, yet, Christianity never left Africa completely with the 7th

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¹ Pobee, John S., Toward an African Theology, (Abingdon, Nashville, 1979), p. 15

2 Mbiti, John S., Bible and Theology in African Christianity, (Oxford University Press, Nairobi, 1986), pp. 1-2

3 Pobee,p. 15.

4 Mbiti., p. 1

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There are many reasons that contributed to the decline of Christianity in Africa. However, as the scope of this paper doesn't allow, I will mention only a few:

A. Rise of Islam and expansion through its missionary momentum.

The nature of the message of Islam as a religion for the whole of humanity propelled it through its missionary zeal to expand to Africa and to many parts of the world.

B. Rebellion of the North African Church against the Roman Imperial Church and the Advent of Islam

Islam came during the time when Christianity was asking many hard questions about its faith and theology. There were arguments over issues ranging from Christology to the Trinity. It also came at a time when Christianity was becoming very comfortable as the religion of the imperial State. However, the most significant problem was the rebellion and schism that existed in the North African Church at that time.

In The Donatist Church: A Movement of Protest in Roman North Africa,5 Church historian William Frend discusses the rise of the and establishment of the Donatist Church which began in the beginning of the fourth century, say about 311 AD., and had broken away from the main stream Catholic Church. They had their own churches, bishops and congregations. The Donatist Church could be described today as a fundamentalists Church who did not recognize the leadership of lapsed bishops and as well as membership of corrupt often high class citizens.

In around 360 AD. a Hamas-stvle military wing of the Donatist Christians had developed. They robbed Churches and terrorised government officials and property. They were determined to die as martyrs and often went to seek for it even in market gatherings. Some would choose to commit mass suicide by throwing themselves from cliffs - a licence to get to heaven. Some of the leaders of the Donatists even killed their own relatives in an effort to preserve purity from the stain of sin and corruption. These acts of violence of course drew the mighty arm of the empire and the Donatist Church was under state persecution.

It was this fertile ground that Islam found in North Africa. Dissatisfaction with the Church and the State. The Church had colluded with the imperial power to rob and suppress the citizens of their rights and land. After all, the theology was confusing and full of Greek philosophy and foreign culture not plain to the common man. Gods Word had been corrupted And Frend argues, "in early stages, 'Islam was reckoned as another 'nationalists Christian heresy opposed to

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5 Frend, William, The Donatist Church: A Movement of Protest in Roman North Africa, (Oxford Clarendon Press, 1952).

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C. The Failure of Latin Christianity in regaining control over North Africa and its subsequent abandonment and neglect of the African Church.

According to Frend, from the 8th century the African Church was lost to Latinity and Christendom alike -- and all efforts to win it back through crusaders and missionaries proved to be unsuccessful. In fact, the Crusades had a very disastrous effect on the persisting remnant of African Christianity as it hardened Muslim resolve to stamp it out completely.

3. THE NUBIAN SUDANESE CHURCH

As mentioned above, the first time Christianity was established as the official religion in the Nubian Sudan can be dated to 543-580 AD⁶. But in 638 AD. Egypt was conquered by the Muslim forces and became an Islamic State. No sooner had they settled in their new territory when the upbeat Islamic militants were pounding at the gates of the Nubian Christian Dynasty in 641 AD. The Nubian Kingdoms were very strong at the time and repulsed them firmly. However, with more skirmishes and more confidence with the Muslim militants, while the demoralized Nubian Christians fighters were engaged in a war of survival, their leaders were more than happy to agree to a lopsided treaty with the Muslim authorities in Egypt in which among other gifts and taxes, the Nubians were to supply an annual tribute of 360 slaves to the Muslim governor at Aswan. The Nubians were given some food commodities in return. The slaves could be from the Nubian's own captives from the hunting fields further South or if not enough, they should complete the number with "individuals from their own people". Failure to bring the number up to date amounted to a breach of the treaty.

The treaty was lopsided because among its stipulations, although it says no Muslim shall settle in Christian land, and vice versa⁷, it presupposed that Muslims were in fact owning and acquiring land in a country which is not theirs in the first place. In fact, although the treaty was the official regulator of relationship between these two powers, Muslim militia bands did not honour that treaty and continued to raid on Christian villages at will to acquire land, property and slaves. According to Al Adawi, the treaty only "governed the political relations between [those-?-ed.] strictly under the jurisdiction of the Nubian Chief and Arabs."⁸ This treaty, with its weakness, did last for almost 600 years. Imagine how many Nubian citizens were willingly offered as slaves to the Arabs - where they promptly converted to Islam.

Ironically, this was the time when the Nubian Christians were singing endless praises to the

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6 Vantini, Giovanni, Christianity in the Sudan, (EMI Publishers, Bologna, Italy, 1981), p. 33

7 Al Adawi, I. A., Description of the Sudan by Muslim Geographers and Travellers in SUDAN NOTES AND RECORDS Vol XXV, Part 2, December 1954, p. 5

8 ibid., p. 6.

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"Beloved, if you desire to know the power of the Cross, hear its power.

1. The Cross is the hope of the Christians. 2. The Cross is the resurrection of the dead.

3. The Cross is the path of them who have wandered 4. The Cross is the guidance of the blind.

5. The Cross is the staff of the lame... 7. The Cross is the physician of the sick.

11. The Cross is the freedom of the enslaved 12. The Cross is the bulwark of them who have fought

17. The Cross is the endurance of martyrs... 21. The Cross is the hope of those who have been robbed..

34. The Cross is the foundation of the Churches. 36. The Cross is the fountain of eternity.

38.39. The Cross is the father of the fatherless and protector of widows

The Cross is the Comforter through God who was hung upon it, by him that hath given us the victory,

(namely) peace, to our hearts...

However, as can be seen latter, that victorious Cross succumbed to the pressure of the mighty conquering arm of Islam. And it is interesting to note that, while Nubian Christianity was suffering under the burden and threat of Muslim domination, the rest of Christendom had taken off and settled in Europe and only to bring trouble on the isolated and abandoned Nubian Church!

Little known to the Nubians, was the fact that Western Christianity was engaged in Crusadic Warfare with Islam over the control of the Holy Land. In fact, the Nubians felt it by the vengeful attacks the Muslims were inflicting on them. It was particularly the final expeditions of the Crusades (1291 - 1464)10 when the Christian forces lost badly against the Muslims that Nubian Christianity also began to decline". According to Vantini, when the Nubians were beginning to make some contacts with the European Crusaders, "the Sultan of Egypt ordered a sharp eye to be kept on them to prevent such contacts between the Nubians and the Crusaders."¹² In fact, "In 1264, when the Nubian delegation taking the annual tribute, the "baqt", to deliver to the Sultan of Egypt, they all became Muslim."13 Things had suddenly become unbearable for the isolated Nubian Christian population. The only way to survive was to convert to Islam. Therefore it is not a coincidence that Christianity disappeared in Nubia in 1484 AD, which was just 20 years after the last failed effort of the Crusaders in 1464 AD. to regain control of Egypt. The Cross in Nubia was cursed to bear the burden of the Crusader failures.

4. THE MISSIONARY CHURCH IN SUDAN

For about 400 years, since Sudan was last a Christian nation, it had become a robust Islamic State. It was during this time when many Northern Sudanese and Nubian tribes became

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9 Vantini, p. 152, quoted from F. 1.1. Griffith, The Nubian Texts of the Christian Period, (Abhandl. D. Akademie der Wissenschaften, Berlin, 1913, # 8), pp. 47-50.

10 Cross, F. L., ed., The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, (Oxford University Press, 1983), pp. 362 - 363.

11 Vantini, p. 9

12 ibid., p. 185.

13 Ibid., p. 171.

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To Be Continued ...