The issue of religion in Sudan has been caught
up in what can only be described as a propaganda war, with
claims being made that Christians were subject to violent
persecution and were unable to worship within the country.
(1) The reality is actually somewhat different. While Sudan
is an overwhelmingly Muslim country, with Muslims making
up well over 75 percent of the population (2), Christianity
has deep roots within Sudan, some going back into antiquity.
(3) There are active Christian communities in both the north
and south of the country. Christians make up 4 percent of
the national population, and perhaps between 10-15 percent
of the southern population. (4)
The official position in respect of Christianity and freedom
of worship within Sudan is clear. Article 24 of the 1998
Constitution of the Republic of the Sudan states: "Everyone
has the right to freedom of conscience and religion and
the right to manifest and disseminate his religion or belief
in teaching, practice or observance. No one shall be coerced
to profess a faith in which he does not believe or perform
rituals or worship that he does not voluntarily accept."
Article 90 stipulates that the President of the Republic
cannot issue decrees affecting freedom of religion. The
Constitution also makes clear that there are no religious
criteria for elected public office. This built on previous
Constitutional decrees, which, while affirming that "Islam
is the guiding religion for the overwhelming majority of
the Sudanese people", stated that "revealed religions such
as Christianity, or traditional religious beliefs may be
freely adopted by anyone with no coercion in regards to
beliefs and no restriction on religious observances. These
principles are observed by the State and its laws". (5)
In northern Sudan Friday is the day of worship for Muslims;
it is also a day off for Christians, who are also entitled
to two hours off on Sunday to attend prayers. In southern
Sudan, Sunday is the day of worship. In 1994, the present
government repealed the 1962 Missionary Societies Act, legislation
which had previously obliged missionary
groups to obtain an annual licence for their activities.
This decision was announced at a Muslim-Christian Religious
Dialogue Conference held in October of that year.
Sudanese Christians also play a full and active part, disproportionate
to their numbers in society, in their country's political
and social life. A distinguished Christian southern Sudanese
academic, Professor Moses Machar, is Vice-President. A number
of Christians are ministers within the Federal and state
governments. The Rt Rev Bishop Gabriel Rorich, the Anglican
bishop of Rumbek, served as a minister of state for foreign
affairs for several years. Christians serve as ambassadors,
judges and senior army and police officers. Dozens of Christians
serve as members of the National Assembly. All ten of the
governors of southern states within Sudan are Christians
and Christians dominate within government structures in
that part of the country.
Christian churches and denominations are well-established
and well-represented in northern Sudan, and particularly
Khartoum. Denominations active within Sudan include the
Roman Catholic Church, the Episcopal Church, the Coptic
Church, the Coptic Orthodox Church, the Maronite Church,
the Presbyterian Church, the Sudan Pentecostal Church, the
Africa Inland Church, the Greek Orthodox Church, the Ethiopian
Orthodox Church, the Eritrean Church, the Armenian Orthodox
Church, the Apostolic Church, New Apostolic, the Sudan Interior
Church, the Sudan Presbyterian Evangelical, the Seventh
Day Adventist Church, the Sudanese Church of Christ and
the Evangelical Church. The Jehovah's Witnesses are also
present. Christmas and Easter are public holidays within
Sudan.
There are several hundred churches in Sudan, and several
cathedrals, including the Catholic St Matthew's Cathedral
and the Anglican All Saints Cathedral. The Catholic Church
is also a major land owner within Khartoum itself. The Catholic
Church has well over two hundred churches and it is reported
that the Episcopal Church, part of the Anglican communion,
has 400 clergy serving in 275 churches in Sudan. The latter
also claims that "many are being converted to Christianity."
(6) The costs of lighting churches is borne by the Sudanese
government.
Both Pope John Paul II and the Archbishop of Canterbury,
Dr George Carey, have visited Sudan. The Pope was invited
to visit Sudan by the present government, and stayed for
several days in February 1993. A Papal mass was broadcast
live on Sudanese television. (7) Dr Carey visited in 1995
and 2000, and spoke freely and openly about the situation
as he found it in Sudan.
The American government's Annual Report on International
Religious Freedom states: "the government permits non-Muslims
to participate in services in existing, authorised places
of worship". (8) Christians are also able to hold very large
open-air evangelical meetings. From 14-18 January 2000,
50,000 people attended the "Christian Family Convention"
evangelical meetings in Khartoum's Green Square. Thousands
were said to have started "a life following Christ". (9)
Over 200,000 people attended a six-day Easter celebration
addressed by German evangelist Reinhard Bonke in Khartoum's
Green Square in 2000. The first day saw a crowd of 60,000.
The organisers claimed thousands of conversions. In a television
interview, the Sudanese president spoke out against criticism
of the event. (10) Another example of open-air evangelism
was the meeting held by evangelist Sammy Tippit in October
2001 in the Marouda Stadium in Khartoum. Some 20,000 people
attended, and five thousand were said to have embraced Christianity.
(11) 400 pastors, evangelists, bishops and other church
leaders also gathered for daily pastors' conferences from
31 October-4 November 2001. Every year, the Holy Book floating
festival is held on the banks of the river Nile, opposite
the Grand Hotel. This Bible festival is held under the auspices
of the Ministry of Culture. The Anglican church also operates
a literature bureau at Khartoum
central station.
The Catholic Church has reported, for example, that over
6000 adults were baptised in one Catholic church in Khartoum
on Easter night alone in 1995. This statement was documented
by Africa Watch. (12) Several Christian groups have reported
considerable church work and proselytising. The Jesus Fellowship
Church and Dawn Ministries, for example, stated in 1996
that 3.21 million people saw the Jesus film, based on Luke's
Gospel, in Sudan in 1995 alone, after which 1.62 million
people it was claimed "showed great interest in Christianity".
(13) This evangelical mission also stated that "most churches
are growing" and, following a pastors' conference in May
1996, have decided to work together more closely in systematically
evangelising the country. The same publication reported
that a Muslim Imam had converted to Christianity at the
end of 1995. He stated that no-one in his community had
challenged his conversion, and that other Muslims had also
decided to convert. It is also clear that the Government
has acted where necessary to secure religious freedom. In
March 1999, for example, police arrested thirty Muslim extremists
who were causing public order disturbances outside an Orthodox
church in Khartoum. (14)
The teaching of Christianity to Christians in government
schools is mandatory. It is part of the official education
curriculum. The American government has also confirmed that
"[t]he Government requires instruction in Islam in public
schools in the north. In public schools in areas in which
Muslims are not a majority, students have a choice of studying
Islam or Christianity." (15) To graduate from secondary
school, students must pass an examination in religious knowledge,
with Christians taking an examination in Christianity. (16)
The churches are themselves very active in education within
Sudan, and run several hundred schools, a large number of
which are within Khartoum state itself. There are in fact
a number of very prestigious, church-run schools in Khartoum
and elsewhere in Sudan. The government allows churches to
train and provide Christian education teachers to teach
within the school system. Christian syllabuses for schools
are prepared by a special church committee. The Catholic
Church runs several junior seminaries and a teacher training
college and the Episcopal Church, the Presbyterians and
others run theological colleges. Christian training centres
are active. In November 2000, for example, the Ezra Bible
Institute graduated 90 evangelists. The Dean of the Institute,
Moses Zungo, said that the graduation marked another "giant
leap" in the cradle of evangelisation in the Sudan. (17)
Few countries can claim perfect religious tolerance. For
all the negative projections, it is clear that by any criteria
freedom to worship is more firmly entrenched in Sudan than
many other countries.
Appendix
Welcoming Address to His Holiness, John Paul II by the Sudanese
President Omer al-Bashir on the occasion of the Pope's visit
to Sudan, Khartoum, 10 February 199318
"In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate
May I on behalf of the Government and the people of the
Sudan welcome Your Holiness as a messenger of Peace and
Love to this land which throughout its history has hosted
a multitude of civilizations and faiths and, where Christianity
and Islam have flourished and ingrained their values and
ideals in the Sudanese people and endowed them with a sense
of tolerance and peaceful co-existence unprecedented in
the African Continent.
The missions of peace that your have undertaken in different
parts of the world have borne fruit in helping bring about
the demise of materialistic and atheistic communism and
imbibed a feeling of spiritualism and family values in a
world that has become obsessed with consumerism and materialism.
Africa has been undergoing profound social and economic
changes, which have led in their turn to conflicts and human
suffering and the ever-deepening condition of poverty and
deprivation. We have been on our part following with great
admiration the efforts you have been undertaking together
with men and women of goodwill to alleviate the situation
and usher an era of fraternity, goodwill and brotherhood
between the people of Africa. This has been a source of
inspiration to us in the Sudan and a strengthening of our
resolve and determination to deal effectively and humanely
with the causes and roots of our own internal conflict.
We are confident that the peaceful resolution of the problems
confronting this country will be achieved in the near future,
and the Sudan will be able to live in peace and concentrate
the energies of its sons and daughters to the task of rehabilitation
and development.
We are confident that our combined efforts and the efforts
of all men of goodwill will enable us to achieve these cherished
objectives, and the Sudan will once again become a land
of peace, tolerance and of spiritual values as it has always
been through its history.
Your Holiness, Muslims read in their Holy Book everyday
that Christians are the closest to them in love. The Koran
says, I quote: "And nearest among them in love to the believers
will thou find those who say, 'We are Christians', because
among these are men devoted to learning and men who have
renounced the world, and they are not arrogant.." A rapprochement
between and a togetherness of Christian and Muslim spiritual
as well as political leaders and a meaningful religious
dialogue between Christianity and Islam, being the two faiths
with the most following among the faithful can make our
world a better place and an abode of peace.
Your welcome visit, Your Holiness, is a God sent gift for
both of us to share our views on these important matters
and a rare opportunity for Your Holiness to see the facts
for yourself, and to see also how the Sudan, a multi-religious,
multi-racial and multi-cultural society, has devised ways
and means whereby all can enjoy life and live in harmony,
fraternity and tranquillity. I thank you."
Notes
1 See, for example, recent claims by American Christian
leaders that Sudan is the "worst violator of religious liberty"
("Christian Leaders Ask U.S. to Sanction Sudan, North Korea",
'The Washington Times', 2 May 2002. Southern rebels have
even tried to portray Sudan as the "Taliban of Africa",
perhaps unaware that the Taliban did not tolerate a single
church in Afghanistan. Contrast this with a 5 April 1998
'New York Times' article by James McKinley which noted:
"Khartoum's churches on Sunday are filled to overflowing
with Christians, worshipping freely, and those congregations
are growing."
2 See, for example, 'Annual Report on International Religious
Freedom for 1999: Sudan', U.S. Department of State, Washington
DC, 9 September 1999.
3 The Sudan National Museum has as a key display one thousand
year-old Christian frescos relocated from northern Sudan
when the areas in which they had been found were flooded.
The Christian period within Sudan is well documented at
the museum.
4 There is a certain amount of divergence in respect of
estimates of the religious breakdown of the southern population.
Human Rights Watch states that 4 percent of the population
are Christian and that about 15 percent of southern Sudanese
are Christian (Testimony of Jemera Rone, Human Rights Watch,
before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Subcommittee
on Africa, 25 September 1997). The Economist Intelligence
Unit in its report entitled 'Sudan: Country Profile 1994-95'
also puts the Christian population of southern Sudan at
15 percent. The definitive United States government guide,
'Sudan - A Country Study', published by the Federal Research
division and Library of Congress, states that "In the early
1990s possibly no more than 10 percent of southern Sudan's
population was Christian." Muslims may make up a similar
percentage in southern Sudan.
5 'Principles, Regulations and Constitutional Developments
for 1993', Government of Sudan, Khartoum, 16 October 1993.
6 The Anglican Communion, the Inter-Anglican Information
Network, 19 February 1997, available at http://www.quest.org.uk/tour/sudan.html
7 'Middle East International', 5 February 1993.
8 'Annual Report on International Religious Freedom for
1999: Sudan', U.S. Department of State, Washington DC, 9
September 1999.
9 "50,000 Attend Evangelistic Meetings in Khartoum", Dawn
Fridayfax 2000 Number 8, Dawn Ministries, Jesus Fellowship
Church, available at http://www.jesus.org.uk/dawn/2000/dawn0008.html
10 "210,000 Listen to Bonnke in Khartoum", Dawn Fridayfax
2000, Number 21, Dawn Ministries, Jesus Fellowship Church,
available at http://www.jesus.org.uk/dawn/2000/dawn0021.html
11 "20,000 Attend Evangelistic Event with Sammy Tippit",
Dawn Fridayfax 2001, Number 45, Dawn Ministries, Jesus Fellowship
Church available at http://www.jesus.org.uk/dawn/2001/dawn45.html
12 'Behind the Red Line: Political Repression in Sudan',
Human Rights Watch/Africa, New York, 1996, pp. 219/20.
13 "Sudan: Great Openness for the Gospel", Dawn Fridayfax
1996 Number 20, Dawn Ministries, Jesus Fellowship Church
available at
http://www.jesus.org.uk/dawn/dawnabut.html.
14 'Annual Report on International Religious Freedom for
1999: Sudan', U.S. Department of State, Washington DC, 9
September 1999.
15 '2000 Annual Report on International Religious Freedom:
Sudan', U.S. Department of State, Washington DC, 5 September
1999.
16 'Behind the Red Line: Political Repression in Sudan',
Human Rights Watch/Africa, New York, 1996, p. 213.
17 "EBI Graduates 90 Evangelists", 'The Khartoum Monitor',
28 November 2000.
18 See, "Welcoming Address at the Airport By
The Head of State Omar Hassan Ahmed Al Bashir, Khartoum 10
February 1993", in 'The Church in Sudan Journeying Towards
Justice and Peace', Diocese Rumbek, Paulines Publications
Africa, Nairobi, 2001.
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