The Sudan Handbook

104 the sudan handbook

intercession to God to give us the grace to find forgiveness for Darfur

and for all the conflicts in Sudan.’ Outside, children were playing soccer

under a huge mural of the saint’s face. Though Josephine is scarcely

remembered in Darfur itself, her face now appears on hats, key rings,

badges and women’s brightly printed clothes in Juba. In     2006     Bakhita

Radio   91   FM, run by the Catholic Archdiocese of Juba, went on air, broad-

casting a range of programmes relating to social affairs and community

development in English, Arabic, Bari, Madi, Acholi, and Dinka.

Since the time of J. M. Schuver, many others from outside the Sudan

who have come to know the country, whether from travel or reading, have

been struck by the extent to which Sudanese life is steeped in religion.

This impression corresponds, to a marked extent, to the feelings and

memories and commitments of Sudanese themselves. Religious feeling

and observance in Sudan is not necessarily a matter of formal adherence

to the mainstream faiths; it may occur outside the rituals of the mosque

or the church. Today, there are new complications in the field of religion.

Competing political visions draw both on religious rhetoric, and on the

national and international resources offered by organizations supported

by the world religions. But the religious landscape of the Sudan is many-

layered; not all of it is visible or predictable. I have indicated some of

the interactions in real communities between various levels of practice

and belief. Among these are many which have spread to become more

widely recognizable. The ceaseless movement of people in Sudan in

the present day – the growth of trade networks and labour migration,

the intermixing of status and gender roles, the long history of war and

displacement – these factors create the occasion for the development of

new pan-Sudanese religious phenomena, constructed from a dialogue

between new global religious trends and the country’s own very rich

heritage of belief and practice.

Recommended Reading

Karrar, Ali Salih. The Sufi Brotherhoods in the Sudan. London: C. Hurst and Co,

1992.

The Sudan Handbook, edited by John Ryle, Justin Willis, Suliman Baldo and Jok Madut Jok. © 2011 Rift Valley Institute and contributors

(www.riftvalley.net).