The road to peace: The role of the Southern Sudanese church in communal stabilisation and national resolution
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Date
2008Author
Brown, Elijah M
Metadata
Abstract
This thesis examines the part played by Christian churches in the communal
stabilisation of three refugee settings and in the national resolution of the second
Sudanese civil war. Based on extensive field research in Sudan and in Sudanese
refugee camps in Kenya and Uganda, the thesis is further underpinned by current
theories on displacement, social identity and conflict resolution. Ranging from
grassroots pastors to Presidential Cabinet Ministers, altogether more than one
hundred fifty church and political leaders were consulted through individual
interviews and focus groups with more than seventy-five recorded hours. Archives
at The Centre for Documentation and Advocacy in Nairobi, Kenya, the New Sudan
Council of Churches’ Archive in Kampala, Uganda, the Sudan Archive at the
University of Durham, United Kingdom and the Hudson Institute in Washington
D.C., United States were also utilised.
The thesis commences with an examination of three grassroots communities
in refuge, Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya, the internally displaced of Hajj Yusuf,
Khartoum and Oliji Refugee Camp in Uganda. In establishing the social impact and
influence of the churches on the respective displaced community, each of the three
local manifestations function as a case study detailing endeavours by Episcopalian,
Presbyterian, Catholic and Pentecostal churches to respond to arisen needs, resolve
political instabilities and reconcile ethnic tensions. Though the exact influence of the
churches differs in each context one overarching theme that emerges is greatly
enhanced communal stabilisation. Alongside the numerical growth and social impact
of the churches at the local level, the ecumenical New Sudan Council of Churches
(NSCC) employed a three-tiered strategy to facilitate national resolution of the
second civil war as is delineated in the second half of the thesis. First, through ‘the
people-to-people peace process’ the NSCC directly mediated grassroots reunification
throughout southern Sudan. Second, the NSCC functioned as the primary channel of
Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) criticism and utilised its
growing clout to pressure the SPLM/A to adopt measures of good governance and
pursue in good faith negotiated settlement with the Government of Sudan. Third, the
NSCC stood behind a successful international campaign that lobbied and secured
engagement from regional and European and American governments critical to the
signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement. By paralleling three local communities and the NSCC national resolution
initiatives the thesis proffers several important conclusions about Christianity and the
civil war in south Sudan including enumerating rationales related to the explosive
growth of Christianity, demarcating several nascent indicators of a Christian influenced
civil religion, highlighting the growing social and political impact of the
churches throughout south Sudan and finally, delineating several general conflict
mediatory keys relevant to the churches’ endeavours. The thesis furthermore clearly
demonstrates that in the midst of civil war the southern Sudanese indigenous
churches bolstered communal stabilisation at a grassroots level, substantively
impacted the emergence of national political resolution and thereby directly
facilitated the road to Sudanese peace.