Christian - Muslim Relations in Sudan: A Study of the Relationship Between Church and State (1898 - 2005) 3Rd Edition

By Gabriel Gai Riam

• This book examines relationship between Sudanese Churches, either as denominations or as ecumenical bodies and the successive central government in Khartoum – Sudan. In this context, and for the propose of this book, church state relations therefore focus on constitutional, political and social aspect of Christian –Muslims relations. The author used the term theologically with reference to the challenges that face Sudanese religious communities to find theological resources in their respective traditions.

• The book advances four main arguments: firstly, both Christianity and Islam in Sudan have allowed themselves to become polarized by political, ethnic and cultural factors; secondly, the policy of successive governments and military regimes since independence has been to deploy Arabisation and Islamization as means of national unity; thirdly, both Christianity and Islam have ethical and theological resources that can contribute to national reconciliation and lastly, that the African traditionalist have theological resources that can contribute to consolidate peace building mechanisms among the Sudanese communities.

• The objective of the book is to contribute to an understanding of the complexity of the factors that have strained religious communities to enable them draw lessons that can contribute to the challenge of reconciliation and peace building within Sudan as a nation.

• The book is recommended as essential reading for everyone seeking to understand these complexities of the historical and theological resources of the Sudanese religious communities involved around the subject.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: May 23, 2022
• ISBN: 9781664263833

Gabriel Gai Riam

Professional credentials: Rev. Gabriel Gai Riam (PhD), Date and place of Birth: 01/01/1950, Dirrror Payam, Akobo County Jonglei State - South Sudan. He is a holder of: Doctor of Philosophy in Religious Studies, from the Catholic University of Eastern Africa, Nairobi - Kenya; Master of Theology; Culture and Development (MTCD), The University of Edinburgh; Masters of Philosophy (MPhil) – The University of Edinburgh; Master’s in Public Administration (M.PA), from the University of Liverpool – UK; Postgraduate Diploma in Public Administration - Sudan Academy for Administrative Sciences, the University of Khartoum – Sudan; Diploma in Public Finance and Management from the University of Juba- South Sudan; Postgraduate Diploma in Development Finance from the University of Birmingham UK; and Postgraduate Diploma - in Theology and Biblical studies - Hampstead Bible School London - UK. Experiences: He is a self-motivated person with a sense of individual ability, team work and with skills in conducting innovative research in social studies with emphasis on Christian, Islamic, social and economic developmental themes. His experiences have involved executive and administrative roles and duties; both in public and private sectors. Publications: Christian-Muslim Relations In Sudan: A Study Of The Relationship Between Church And State 1898 – 2005 (1st and 2nd editions) Involvement of Religious Leaders in Conflict Resolution Initiatives in Jonglei State South Sudan, 2005-2016 (PhD Dissertation) Nuer Culture: It’s, Development, Social Change and Effects on Nuer Traditional Values (Manuscript)

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Copyright © 2022 GABRIEL GAI RIAM.

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ISBN: 978-1-6642-6382-6 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6642-6383-3 (e)

WestBow Press rev. date: 05/12/2022

CONTENTS

Dedication

Acknowledgements

Abbreviations

Glossary

Abstract

1: Chapter One

1.1: Introduction

1.2: Scope and Structure of the Book

1.3: Research Method and Sources

1.3.1: The Historical Background

1.3.2: Christianity in Ancient Nubia

1.3.3: The Coming of Islam

1.3.4: The Turco-Egyptian Period (1821-1881)

1.3.5: The Mahdi State (1881-1898)

PART ONE

2: The Anglo-Egyptian Condominium: 1898-1946

2.1: Introduction

2.2: The Anglo-Egyptian Condominium

2.3: The Role of the Christian Missionaries, evidence by the CMS (1900-1946)

2.4: CMS Activities in Sudan and Expedition to the South

2.5: Education Development in Southern Sudan

2.6: McMichael and Southern Policy: 1930-1946

2.7: Government and Missionary Spheres

2.8: Critique of Missionary Education in Southern Sudan

2.9: Political Economy

2.10: Islamic Revival (Mahdist Movement and Khatmiyya Orders

2.11: Religion and Law

2.12: Conclusion

3: Anglo-Egyptian Condominium: 1946-1956

3.1: Transitional Arrangements 1946 – 1955

3.2: Change of British Policy: 1946

3.3: Juba Conference 1947

3.4: Legislative Assembly: 1952

3.5: The Anglo-Egyptian Agreement of 1953

3.6: Torit Uprising – August 1955

3.7: Historical, cultural and economic factors of disparities

3.8: Conclusion

4: The First Period of the Development of Sudan as an Independent Republic: 1956 -1972

4.1: Introduction

4.2: Education Policy in Southern Sudan (1956 – 1958)

4.3: Development of Religious and Cultural Conflicts (1958-1964)

4.4: Church and State Relations (1962-1969)

4.5: Missionary Societies Act 1962

4.6: Education and Religious Policies of the Government

4.7: Southern Reaction to Educational Policy

4.8: Civilian Government: 1964-1966

4.9: The Goodwill Visit of (AACC) to Sudan (1966)

4.10: The Sudan Communist Party’s approach to Federalism

4.11: Numeiri’s Policy Statement: 1969

4.12: The Anya Nya Movement

4.13: The First Ecumenical Initiative to Resolve the Civil War

4.14: Conclusion

5: The Ecumenical Inervention Leading to the Addis Ababa Peace Conference

5.1: Introduction

5.2: The Dynamic of Sudanese Conflicts

5.3: Theresa Scherf’s Mimeographed Paper The Sudan conflict

5.4: The WCC Concern about Unity and Justice in Africa

5.5: AACC/WCC Approaches to the Conflict

5.6: The Negotiations

5.7: Ratification of Addis Ababa Peace Agreement 28 February 1972

5.8: Critique of the Addis Ababa Agreement

5.9: Conclusion

6: Second Period of Numeiri’s Rule (1973-1985)

6.1: Introduction

6.2: Sudan’s Permanent Constitution

6.3: Northern Political Parties Approaches to Islamization (1973 -1977)

6.4: National Reconciliation (1977-78)

6.5: The Situation in South Sudan (1980 – 1983)

6.6: Southern fears about Arabisation

6.7: The Discovery of Oil in the South and Boundary Disputes

6.8: Numeiri’s Conversion From Pan- Arab Socialism to Islamization

6.9: The Process of Application of Shari`a Law (1980-1983)

6.10: Public and church Responses to Islamic Codes

6.11: Conclusion

7: Military and Parliamentary Periods (1985-1989)

7.1: Introduction

7.2: General Swar al-Dahab (1985-86)

7.3: Sadiq al-Mahdi Era (1986-1989)

7.4: Conclusion

8: Islamisation Under the National Salvation Revolution of General Omar Al-Bashir

8.1: Introduction

8.2: Omar al-Bashir (1989 – 2020)

8.3: NIF Federal Structures and Powers

8.4: NIF Educational policy

8.5: The 1998 Constitution

8.6: Church-State Relations (1998 – 2005)

8.7: Conclusion

9: Searching for a Viable Peace Process

9.1: Introduction

9.2: SPLM Solution Modalities to Sudan Conflicts (1994 – 2003)

9.3: The Development of the Peace Process between the GoS and SPLM

9.4: The analysis of Sudan Council of Churches/New Sudan Council of Churches toward the Peace Process

9.5: Conclusion

10: Toward a Cuk (People’s) Contextual Theology

10.1: Introduction

10.2: Toward a Sudanese contextual theology

10.3: Covenant Theology of the Nuer

10.4: Covenant in Islam (Mithâq; `Ahd)

10.5: Covenant in Christianity (Berit and Daithike)

10.6: Covenant and its Implications for Christian Mission and Islamic Da’wa

10.7: Conclusion

11: Inter-Relgious Reconciliation and Peace-Building

11.1: Introduction

11.2: A Nigerian Example: Christian-Muslim Reconciliation and Peace-Building in Wusasa

11.3: Experience of Women’s Action Group for Peace and Development in Sudan

11.4: A Pakistani Approach to Christian-Muslim Dialogue

11.5: Constitutional Implications of Post-Machakos Sudan

11.6: The Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA)

11.7: Conclusion

11.8: Conclusions of the Book

Bibliography

About the Author

Appendixes

Conclusion

DEDICATION

This book is dedicated to all those Christian Missionaries who came to

Sudan in 18th and 19th centuries to preach the Gospel.

This is for you in Christ’s Name! AMEN.

GGR

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The research for this book was first written in fulfilment of requirements of the Degree of MPhil at the Graduate School of Divinity in the Centre for the Study of Christianity in non-Western World, New College – University of Edinburgh. Accomplished in the company of exceptional supervisors, friends, especially the staff of computer department of the faculty of Divinity at New College, Church Missionary Society’s’ Archives, Birmingham University; World Council of Churches in Geneva, and the National Library of Scotland for their support and guidance during my research periods.

Iam deeply indebted to late Professor David Kerr whose guidance gave me the focus to map out my research project adequately. His knowledge of Islamic World and Christian-Muslim relations especially in Sudan made valuable contribution to my understanding of the complex Sudanese situation and through his unparalleled leadership made me to produce this document successfully. I thank Dr. Elisabeth Keopping whose useful suggestions contributed to the quality of this work, Rev. Dr Terry McMullan for his useful comments on the proposal of the book. My gratitude goes to many friends: Dr. Peter Tibi Opi, Dr Wall Duany, Matthew Abur, Michael Mario Dhuor, Stephen Lul Nyak and James Sigin Banak, who provided some information and comments that, have greatly added to the quality of this work. Many thanks to late Revds. John Gatluok Chol, Michael Chot Lul, Stephen Kuony, Elder Gabriel Yoal Dok, Paul M Ayom, Amb. Philip Obong, and Mr, Dhil Chol, with whom I had useful conversations about the subject. Many thanks to the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, Church of Scotland whose financial support made my stay in Edinburgh a success, as well as the Presbyterian Church of Sudan for offering me this opportunity for writing this project – Christian Muslim relations in Sudan, an investment a person could cherish in life. I owe special thanks to Dr. Douglas H. Johnson for his useful material and financial support without which, it would have been difficult to complete the final phase of my research work. To my family their support and prayers; all endured my absence during the period of while writing this book.

Gabriel Gai Riam

ABBREVIATIONS

GLOSSARY

ABSTRACT

This book is about Christian-Muslim relations in Sudan, examined form the perspective of church-state relations in a country where Islam, the majority religion, has increasingly been identified as the religion of the state, and where the state has, since 2000, declared itself to be Islamic Republic. The book therefore, addresses Christina-Muslim relations within the constitutional arena of Sudan’s national identity and integrity.

In order to understand the evolution of Christian-Muslim relations in Sudan, the book examines both the pre-independence period of the Anglo-Egyptian Condominium (1898-1956), and Sudan’s history as an independent state from 1956 to 2005. Within this time-frame, the book examines the main factors that have influenced the course of church-state relations. In the period of the Anglo-Egyptian Condominium, this entails the role of mainly European missionaries and the colonial administration. The five decades of Sudanese independence (1956-2005) have witnessed an almost constant state of civil wars between the north and the south, the effect of which has been to polarize Christian-Muslim relations. This period will be examined in two phases: (a) from independence to the 1973 constitution, the later based on the Addis Ababa Agreement on 1972 that brought a temporary cessation of the civil war; (b) from 1973 to the present in which the state has been progressively Islamized by ideological movements and presidential degrees, and civil war resumed. I conclude with an examination of the 2002 Machakos Protocol, and the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) between the government of Sudan and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement.

The book advances four main arguments: (1) both Christianity and Islam in Sudan have allowed themselves to become polarized by political, ethnic and cultural factors: (2) the policy of successive governments and military regimes since independence has been to deploy Arabisatin and Islamization as means of national unity; (2) Both Christianity and Islam have ethical and theological resources that can contribute to national reconciliation (4) that the African traditionalist have theological resources that can contribute to consolidate peace building mechanisms among the Sudanese communities.

The book is divided into four parts comprising of eleven chapters. Part one deals with church-state relations during the Anglo-Egyptian Condominium. Parts two and three analyses church-state relations in the two periods into which the history of the Republic of Sudan can be divided: 1956-1972/3; and 1973-2005. Part Four discusses resources for a contextual theology of Christian-Muslim relations in Sudan with the aim of contributing to consolidate the peace agreement that has been concluded in January 2005 within the framework of the Machakos Protocol.

The research for this book was based on a combination of primary (archival and secondary sources, and included unpublished as well as published literature and interviews that I have conducted in Sudan and Britain

Gabriel Gai Riam

CHAPTER

ONE

1.1: INTRODUCTION

The aim of this book is to present an analysis of Christian-Muslim relations in Sudan through the perspective of church-state relations in the history from the pre-independence period of the Anglo-Egyptian Condominium (1898-1956), through the five decades of Sudanese independence (1956-2005).

The term church-state relations refer to constitutional dimensions of the history of Christian – Muslim relations in Sudan. The book will examine relationships between the Protestant churches, either as denominations (e.g. the Presbyterian Church or the Episcopal Church) or as ecumenical bodies (e.g. Sudan Council of Churches and the New Sudan council of churches), and the central government. In the pre-independence period this relationship involved churches under missionary leadership on the one hand, and the Anglo-Egyptian colonial administration, led by British colonial administrators, on the other. Since independence, and especially since the Missionary Act of 1962, church-state relations have engaged national Christian leaderships and national government, and have focused on the governments’ policies of Arabization and Islamization as strategies for national unity that have been perceived and experienced by most Southerners as the imposition of Northern colonialism over the South. In this context, and for purpose of this book, church-state relations therefore focus on constitutional, political and social acts of Christian-Muslim relations.

The term Christian-Muslim relations can be applied to a wide range of religious concerns than those of church-state relations. In this book the term is used descriptively to refer to cultural and social that influence relations between the Christian and Muslim communities in Sudan. Based on the analysis of these factors, it will also be used theologically (in part four with reference to the challenges that faces Sudanese Christians and Muslims to find theological resources in their respective religious traditions that can contribute to strengthening and sustaining the current Machakos peace process that was formally concluded in January 9, 2005, bringing an end to the civil war that has raged through the greater part of Sudan’s history as an independent state.

The book seeks, therefore, to analyses the institutional history of church-state relations in Sudan in a wider framework of the history of Christian-Muslim relations, and to identify the challenges that face Sudanese Christians and Muslims at the beginning of the 21st century.

Within this perspective, the book is concerned to identify the complex factors that have contributed to the religious character of the North-South conflict in Sudan as a struggle between: Arab Muslims in the North and African Christians in the South. The term Arab is used as an internal reference Sudan to mean both the Arab immigrants who settled in the North Sudan in early 18th century and Islamised African whose self-identity is shaped through acceptance of, and adaptation to the Islamic region that spread through the regions of present-day Northern Sudan, especially from the 14th century. The term African" Christian refers to the several Nilotic tribes -e.g. Dinka, Nuer, Shilluk - that traditionally lived in the riverain regions of Blue and White Niles, their allegiance to Christianity beginning with the arrival of European missionaries, Catholic and Protestant, in the 19th century. The population of Sudan was about 30 million people: Christian represents 16%, thus constituting the third largest religious group after Muslims (62%) and followers of traditional religions (22%). In the South however Christians are about 48.4%; these figure only refer to baptized Christians and do not take into account the number of displaced people estimated about 4 million refugees since the beginning of the hostilities in 1983¹. In the course of Sudan’s modern history; the regional demarcations between these two major groupings of the population have been blurred by the settlement of Arab Muslims in the Southern towns, and by the displaced African Christian to the North, i.e. internal refugees escaping the military conflict of the civil war that been fought entirely in the South between the forces of the Government of Sudan (GoS) and Sudan People’s Liberation Army/movement (SPLA/M) and other Southern armed resistance groups.

The objective of the book is to contribute to an understanding of the modern history of Sudan by elucidating the complexity of the factors that influence the course of church-state relations, within an analysis of history of Christian-Muslim relations in the pre- and post-independence periods. It is hoped that this will help Sudanese Christian and Muslims to deal dispassionately with their common history, in such ways as will enable them draw lesson that can contribute to the challenge of reconciliation and peace-building among Christians and Muslims within the Sudan as a nation that represent the most important meeting place between Arab and African, Muslim and Christian in African continent.

1.2: SCOPE AND STRUCTURE OF THE BOOK

Parts One to three of the book deal with the history and analysis of church-state relations in pre- and post-independence periods of Sudanese history. Part one focuses on the history of Anglo-Egyptian condominium, established in 1898 when General Kitchener led a combined Anglo-Egyptian army to suppress the short-lived Mahdiyya caliphate created in 1881 by Muhammad Ahmad Al-Mahdi (the Guided One) as a pre-modern Islamic state. Under Anglo Egyptian administration Sudan emerged effectively as British colony, in which the British administered the North and South as quite separate regions, and restricted Christian missionary activities mainly to the South where the missionaries were permitted to Christian the Africa population through education. Part one of the book will examine relations between the missionaries and the colonial administration, with particular attention to the missionaries; vision of the political future of Southern Sudan

Part Two deals with the first period of the history of Sudan as an independent state from 1956 to 11972/3. Following an initial attempt to establish democratic rule (1956-1958) under President Isma’il al-Azhari, this period of Sudan’s was characterized by the military governments of President Ibrahim abboud (1958-1969), and President Ja’far al-Numeiri (1969-1985), both of whom came to power through military coups d’e’tat. In the context of the civil war that broke out in 1955-the final year of British colonial administration – the Khartoum governments struggled to formulate a national constitution that would hold Sudan together as a unitary state. I will show that General Abboud’s attempt to Arabise the South – culturally through the Arabic language and religiously through the expansion of Islam – served to provoke Southern Christian resistance, and resulted in the 1962 Missionary Act that expelled most foreign missionaries from the South. This changed the shape and character of church-state relations; whereas the missionaries had previously represent the church, national Christian leadership now engaged directly with the governments of Sudan and was able to call on the diplomatic bodies.