Religion and Reconciliation in the Sudan
Institutional Requirements for Religious Tolerance and Pluralism

Wal Duany, Ph.D.

Religion’s profound contribution to self-government is to anchor the individual’s mind and soul morally, while leaving matters of political and public policy open to the marketplace of ideas and experimentation. The high level of independent moral judgment upon which self-governing societies depend is made possible by the practice of individual faith. This stands in contrast to state religion, which is imposed on people who may or may not adhere to it.

While institutions of faith and those of government may have a symbiotic relationship, their interests remain distinct. One institution is the sum of self-control, the other, of external control. However, once linked to a particular political system or party, religious authority comes to be seen no longer as a shaper of the heart and mind but as a tentacle of the state.

A pluralistic society is built on a foundation of religious faith. The teachings of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and many other religions rely on precepts that advance a lawful order on daily activities. Among such precepts are:

1. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
2. Love thy neighbor as thyself.
3. Honor God above all else.

These precepts, in turn, are based on the presuppositions that:

1. God is the Creator and source of all Creation.
2. Human beings, created in God’s image, have creative potentials through adherence to God’s Law.
3. A special time (Sabbath or seventh day) is to be devoted to reflection about the Creator, the Creation, and creative potentials.

Secular society, especially the Marxist version that is popular with John Garang and his Socialist colleagues in the SPLM/A, supposes to liberate the people from these presuppositions. What tends to happen is that instead of transcending the ways of their former oppressors, the "liberated" people find themselves in a perpetual class struggle, without institutional means for conflict resolution or moral basis for forgiveness and reconciliation.

The religious presuppositions I mentioned provide the basis for peace, justice, and democracy by presuming all human beings to be equal before their Creator. On a political level, that presupposition accords equal value to all religions. The state must be open to allow the expression of diverse religions and ideas in the public forum. For some, the problem of accommodating a diversity of religions presents a challenge to establishing constitutional law, but a deeper understanding of one’s own faith holds the key to discovering the insights and understanding necessary for liberty to abound. Freedoms of speech, press, worship, and assembly, and correlative limits on government are essential elements of a functioning free society. Where there is freedom of action, there is freedom from both religious and secular tyranny.

I want to caution against reducing the war in Sudan to issues of religion. There are good Christian and good Muslim people on both sides. The root conflict is a moral re-orientation of Sudanese society away from individual faith and toward state imposed religion. The government of Sudan expressly appeals to religious values by describing the war as a jihad (a holy war against unbelievers in Islam). The implementation of Islamic Law as national law denies "unbelievers" a voice in the government and treats them as less-than-equal or second-class citizens.

On the national level, peace and reconciliation require an effort to identify the elements of commonality between Islam, Christianity, and traditional ways and to allow the people of Sudan to squarely face the issue of self-rule through referendum.

On the individual level, the viability of reconciliation efforts between Northerners and Southerners and between Southern factions depends on individuals who are willing to forgive each other for what has been done in the past.

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A Woman Talks About Life in Southern Sudan
An Interview with Margaret Mathiang

Isabel Hogue
Assistant Editor

Margaret Mathiang, a recent graduate of Daystar University in Nairobi, is an intern with Association of Christian Resource Organizations Serving Sudan (ACROSS) in Kenya. Last fall, she spoke to the editors of The Lens about her experiences in South Sudan.

Isabel: Margaret, what kind of work do you do with ACROSS in Nairobi?
Margaret: I do some work with a student fellowship. We carry out missions to refugee camps. In the office, I help with using radios to communicate with the people in the field.

Isabel: Do you personally escort relief supplies into Southern Sudan?
Margaret: I might if the supplies are going to a place I’m assigned to. Otherwise, I make arrangements from the office in Nairobi.

Julia: Accompanying the supplies into Southern Sudan is very difficult, because sometimes the security is not there. It’s likely that the place where the relief is needed had been raided by one of the parties in the conflict.
Margaret: Another problem is taking the supplies by land across the Kenya border into Southern Sudan. There are the landmines and the distance is great. Sometimes we have to remain and disburse from the Kenya border.

Isabel: That means going to Lokichokio, Kenya, right? Isn’t it like a gate way to South Sudan?
Julia: Yes. Originally Lokichokio was a small village for the nomadic Turkana people. Then the U.N. built it up and outsiders came in. When I first went there in 1993 I thought it was a tourist center because there were little tents all over the place and no buildings. They had pit toilets and a primitive shower. After 1995-96 it was becoming a big settlement with a hospital. There was running water and electricity. Now it even has bars and nightclubs.
Margaret: For us Lokichokio is a place for resting. ACROSS field workers go into Sudan for two weeks and they come to Lokichokio for one week of rest. It’s a very hot climate. They even have swimming pools.

Isabel: How are the relief supplies distributed once they arrive in South Sudanese villages?
Margaret: We normally take the relief to the most desperate villages. We respond to emergencies. In Sudan we work through local churches to monitor the distribution. In Upper Nile, we work through the Presbyterian Church. In Equatoria, through the Episcopal Church. People respect the church and the distribution always goes systematically.

Isabel: The local church has a strong influence in the community?
Margaret: Oh yes. The church leaders distribute the relief items to those who are most needy in the community. It may be the crippled, it may be the elderly ladies, but it is the people who are most needy that we are targeting. Obviously, we cannot help the whole community. The funds we have available are not enough.

Isabel: What is a typical village in South Sudan like?
Margaret: Most of the energetic men are in the army, fighting, so most of the households consist of women and their children.

Isabel: How do the women manage to keep order and provide for themselves?
Margaret: The women are having a difficult time. The men may pass through their houses when they travel from village to village and if a woman needs help the men just have time to give her ideas and then go on. So the women are struggling alone. Some NGOs have started self-help projects for women. For example, one project I’m aware of is what I would call a tea shop. The women sell tea to soldiers and get to keep the money that comes in. There are some other small projects, but because of lack of funds most of the projects don’t last. So the women have to struggle on their own, traveling long distances to search for food, leaving their kids behind. They have to leave the kids. This is hard, but it is for survival.

Isabel: The women have to travel to find food? How far? Where do they go?
Margaret: Here’s an example. I went to a place that was two days walk from Bentiu. Arab traders bring grain to Bentiu, so these women try their best just to walk all that distance to buy a tin of grain that might last for two days—just for their kids to live.

Isabel: A tin? You mean it comes in a can? How big?
Julia: It’s a little larger than the gallon-of-milk container you would find in an American grocery store.
Margaret: Yes. So if the woman has money she can buy them. Maybe she’ll save a quarter of what she bought for planting and take the rest for eating. A tin might last for two days. Then she has to struggle again.

Isabel: It’s just the raw grain? Doesn’t she have to grind it before she can make something with it?
Julia: Of course. She grinds the grain, using whatever tools she has, into a coarse flour. There are no grinding mills. Some of the small towns used to have grinding mills, but after the war broke out all those things are gone.

Isabel: Who watches the children when the mothers are gone?
Margaret: An elder daughter, sister, or relative may take care of them. In Africa, taking care of a child is not the responsibility of the mother alone, but of the whole community. So if the mother is not there somebody else will do it, either a church deaconess or neighbors. Somebody will take care of them.
Julia: It’s a kind of network. You say, "I’m going to Bentiu for a few days to get grain and my children are staying here," and they say "Oh, go ahead, we’ll take care." Sometimes there are elderly women who cannot walk the distance, but they can supervise the kids. The mother just leaves something for the children to eat. In one way it’s just like before the war. During the dry season the able people who could do hard work would go to the cattle camps and the elderly would remain with the young children. But now, what strikes me when I go to the villages in Southern Sudan, is the absence of the able people. You notice the young generation, the children, and then you notice people from maybe age 45 and older. But the people from age 15 upward to 25 or 30, seem to be absent. Especially the men. The men in the middle age group, who have the energy of youth, who can do hard physical work, are not in the villages. They are either dead, in the front line fighting, or in refugee camps.

Margaret: In the northern part of Sudan life is a bit different. Most of the facilities for displaced people are outside Khartoum, but there are Christian young people from the South living in Khartoum who are trying to preach the Gospel to the Arabs. It’s a dangerous thing to do. Activities of Christians in the Northern Sudan are constrained, because there is no religious freedom. Bibles are banned. I know of a man who came to Christ through Christian people that he met while he was in prison. When this man told his family the news, he was cast away from home, because in Sudan if a Muslim becomes a Christian, his family will ostracize him. He could even be charged by society with apostasy, which carries a death penalty. This particular man was eventually taken in by some missionaries in Nairobi and is now studying theology. He’s growing in his faith and doing very well. There are other Northern Sudanese converts like him who are hoping to return to their places someday and become the first Arab pastors.
Isabel: Considering the level of religious intolerance sustained by the Islamist radicals, that’s amazing.
Margaret: It’s happening.

Julia: Those are the good stories. Although we cry about the war, good things are happening, too.

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Recent Events

Summer 1997 – friend-of-Sudan Audrey Heasty takes up residence in Nairobi as assistant to the Principal of Nairobi Evangelical Graduate School of Theology.

September 9-13, 1997 – Julia represents Sudan at Presbyterian Women’s Conference, Louisville, KY.

September 15-17 – Wal presents a paper at US Institute for Peace conference, Washington, D.C.

Fall 1997 – congregation organized and elders ordained at Sudanese-American Nuer Presbyterian Church, Nashville, TN.

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