The Sudan Handbook

96 the sudan handbook

been extensively exploited by the Verona Fathers.

In all cases, missions were expected not only to preach on religious

matters but to teach practical skills which would contribute to the devel-

opment of the country. Missions which openly preferred to concentrate

on evangelism as such, like the SIM (the Sudan Interior Mission, later

Serving in Mission), were discouraged. Latecomers to the system, they

were allowed to work only in remote areas where it was supposed they

could not do much damage – such as the north-eastern corner of Upper

Nile near the Ethiopian border. In this case, two districts where the SIM

had already established itself were transferred to Blue Nile province in

1953, shortly before Sudanese independence. This meant that these Chris-

tian congregations found themselves in a province of northern Sudan,

creating a fraught situation within a very few years, after the outbreak

of the first civil war.

Perhaps the main reason for the broad coherence of the Christian

tradition as it exists today in the southern Sudan lies in the shared

experience of marginality which so many southerners have experienced

in the modern nation. During the Condominium period, what became

known as the ‘Southern policy’ attempted to rein in the influence of

Islam and the Arabic language in the south, while granting responsi-

bilities for education as well as religious prosletyizing entirely to the

mission organizations in their respective areas. With the beginnings of

insurgency in the south starting in 1955, the newly independent govern-

ment of Sudan of    1956     began to blame the missions for creating unrest.

Within a few years, their permissions and visas had been curtailed, and

all foreign personnel in the field had been expelled – among the last to

go were from the Blue Nile in 1964. Local churches were thus rapidly

‘Sudanized’ – initially a simple handover – and in the conditions of war

displacement, partial recovery during the 1970s, and the return of war

from 1983, the role of the Christian faith understandably expanded.

Despite the sectarian rivalries that might once have been expected,

the various Christian churches based in the south, with their central

institutions largely in Khartoum, have worked together effectively. The

The Sudan Handbook, edited by John Ryle, Justin Willis, Suliman Baldo and Jok Madut Jok. © 2011 Rift Valley Institute and contributors Sudan^ Council^ of^ Churches,^ founded^ in^1965 (shortly^ after^ the^ expulsion^

(www.riftvalley.net).