AFRECS E-Blast: April 27, 2022

Easter Retreat

The Board of AFRECS met in retreat April 22-23 at Virginia Theological Seminary for its first in-person session in two years. (Back, from L.: Phil Darrow, Steven Miles, Tom Staal, Dane Smith, David Jones; Front, from L.: Richard Jones, Larry Duffee, James Hubbard, the Risen Jesus, Jackie Wilson, Anita Sanborn; Absent: Ellen Davis, Fritz Gilbert, Brad Langmaid.)

We affirmed our efforts to strengthen our programs in support of the Episcopal Church of South Sudan and the Episcopal Church of Sudan – including:

• Glow MAPS (Mission Academic Primary School)  the school for war orphans at a displaced persons camp near Juba; it has grown to 500 children  under the direction of Bishop John Gatteck.;
• our partnership on trauma healing with Five Talents and the Mothers Union in Renk and Terekeka;
• the new Episcopal University of South Sudan in Rokon; and
• girls’ education at the Hope Primary School in Kadugli Diocese, Sudan.

Questioning the U.S. Secretary of State on the Sudans

On April 26, AFRECS Executive Director, Dane Smith, wrote to encourage Rep. Gregory W. Meeks (D, 5^th District NY), Chair of the House Committee on Foreign Relations, to question Secretary of State Anthony Blinken “about U.S. policy toward both Sudans, in particular plans to promote peaceful transitions to legitimate government in both countries.”

Holy Week Reflections 

While preparing for Easter in 2022, we invited members of the South Sudanese Diaspora to reflect on death and hope.

Anita Sanborn, Denver, Colorado: 

Some of the practices that are most meaningful in the lives of all faithful Christians occur at the time of death.  This is an intense and deeply felt time. As an American friend, I have observed how the South Sudanese community gather to grieve and to comfort one another, to bear witness to the life of the departed, and to celebrate their homegoing.  Strong emotions are expressed. People spend long hours together.  Great sacrifices are made in order to travel and be with the grieving family members.  Our own practices, when contrasted with these, can appear constrained.

Have we forgotten that tears are prayers?

A great blessing came to us when we began to worship with our brothers and sisters from South Sudan.  We felt along with them.  In spite of the untold suffering all had endured, their separations, and the loss of home, their faith strengthened our own.

Helen Achol Abyei, St.,Louis, Missouri:

I can speak of my experience living a long time in Denver, Colorado. I believe the way we South Sudanese observe funerals is generally the same among Diaspora communities.

When someone dies in the hospital, news spreads very fast. Soon everyone rushes to the hospital to be with the deceased’s family. When Pastor Oja Gafour passed, a few of us were around his bed. In less than thirty minutes, the hospice was full of people. Even those living in Boulder and far counties arrived in no time.

We hug each other while crying, and soon the crying turns to hymns, until the body is taken to the mortuary. We then go together with the family to their home and continue praying, weeping, and singing. People continue to come and pay their condolences to the deceased’s family. Anyone who arrived from different states, even days after, would hug and cry with the family members.

When we got the news that my husband had passed away in Juba, our house was full of people in less than half an hour. I had to leave for Juba that day, but my children were not left to grieve alone. Because we believe the power of our presence to console the mourning person is vital, some women would spend the nights with the family for the first few days. We do not allow the bereaved to suffer alone. Women are always around to serve the guests who come to pay their condolences throughout many days. Women cook and bring food from their homes to where the funeral is held. People contribute water, soda, tea, sugar, and other supplies in order for the family to serve all the people who come.

The community will then contribute money to support the family financially. Chipping in is significant, especially when the family decides to take the body back to South Sudan. The body’s repatriation plus the ticket of the accompanying relative is very expensive for the family to handle alone. Community members are always willing and ready to help. Some people are taken further — to their hometowns. In that case, the body would be flown on from Juba to its final destination, which also costs a lot. Funerals bring the community together. We forget tribal and political differences and rush to console and uplift each other. Any dispute would be overlooked and not brought up again.

Traditionally, funeral prayers are held three to four days after the burial. After that, those who spent the nights with the family can go back to their homes. Another ceremony is held forty days after the passing; some people change their black mourning clothes during this time. (Direct family members, especially the elders, do so after the first year’s memorial service.) We usually cook and eat together after such services. We do not let the family do the cooking alone. Instead, the women gather to cut the meat and vegetables, and each one takes something to cook and brings it to the church to be served after the service.

Community elders encourage the family and the whole community to keep the legacy of the departed one clean and alive during these services. People would pass by during the first month; just to visit and see how the family members are coping. The visitors still pray and speak words of encouragement if the family members or anyone still feel down. Losses affecting other families are shared to encourage the grieving person, primarily if that family handled theirs with solid faith.

We always use verses from the Bible, such as Psalm 46:.

God is our hope and strength, a very present help in trouble.
Therefore will we not fear, though the hills be carried into the midst of the sea…

Be still then, and know that I am God.

Kwathi Akol Ajawin, Fairfax County, Virginia:

South Sudanese African Christians live by their ethnic communities’ diverse cultures, but they were influenced by the Arabized-Islamic rule of Sudan. South Sudanese have borrowed from the dominant Sudanese culture when it comes to the funeral.

The currently popular observation of a forty-days memorial service has little to do with many South Sudanese cultures. The common condolence expression “Kapara” comes from Sufi Islam. This one is very troublesome because it may mean accepting the death of a loved one as an atonement for sins. Though South Sudanese use this expression at death, it is widely used in the Sudanese culture after an escape from a serious incident or a loss of valuable material property.

The South Sudanese community is a loose umbrella of many underlying cultures, but it unites in funerals – particularly in raising funds for funeral expenses, whether for burial in diaspora or sending the body to South Sudan. Many prefer sending the body back, especially the communities that have relative peace in their home states.

The majority of South Sudanese have no life insurance. For some there is the economic constraint of low income. Some consider insurance taboo, and there may be some Catholic influence too. But when death occurs, most people of any of the sixty-four tribes of South Sudan raise funds to help the bereaved family with burial and reception expenses. Many give generously.

The preparation of the body is done by elderly women in most of the South Sudanese cultures, but the majority of Diaspora are young people who might know very little of this tradition.  Many people follow the church and funeral home directives, with no reference to traditions.  In participating in many funerals from Georgia to Portland, Maine, the question of observing traditional burial rituals surfaced only twice.
Once we were burying a young man who died in a tragic tractor-trailer accident. Firefighters struggled for over one hour to put out the fire before they could remove the body. The body burned beyond recognition. Maternal uncles raised the issue of “Sibir”, the word for cultural tradition in Juba Arabic. Their culture requires certain restrictions in case of a tragic death, in order to avoid a curse, or the spirit of death.  South Sudan, however, is culturally diverse, and when cross-cultural marriages are added to being in Diaspora, the culture takes a back seat.

During a funeral of a South Sudanese church elder in North Carolina, a family member approached me and asked that certain cultural burial rituals should be observed. It was too late to accommodate this. The deceased was a Shilluk. One of their rites to scare the spirit of death requires the immediate relatives of the deceased to take dirt and throw it into the grave before the grave is closed. One day later, the Shilluk community leaders in the United States conducted a meeting about the burial ritual, and I as a pastor was asked to advise. One ritual they wanted to observe was circling the grave with the casket four times before putting the body in place for the graveside service, also allowing the family to throw dirt on the casket immediately after lowering the casket. The east-west axis arrangement of graves in many cemeteries meets a requirement of some South Sudanese.

Funerals very much unite the South Sudanese Diaspora  — at least in the financial portion of the process. Most of the cultural requirements are dropped. Many are buried in diaspora, with few repatriated for burial back home, although many consider this more dignified for elderly people. Some communities will take the remains, or some dust from the graves, of those who are buried in diaspora for a reburial home in South Sudan. The spirit belongs there, around its homestead.

An Easter Prayer

Almighty and everlasting God, who in the Paschal mystery established the new covenant of reconciliation: Grant that all who have been reborn into the fellowship of Christ’s Body may show forth in in their lives what they profess by their faith; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Director’s Update

The Vatican has announced that Pope Francis will visit South Sudan July 5-7.  We understand that he will be accompanied by Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby.  You will recall that President Kiir and Vice President Riek Machar met in the Vatican in April 2019, where the Pontiff dramatically kissed the shoes of both while imploring them to reconcile.  We are praying that South Sudan will be positively moved by the presence, messages, and inspiration of these visitors.

Meanwhile political tensions have increased.   The Troika – US, UK, Norway – condemned an attack by the South Sudan Peoples’ Defense Force (at one time the SPLA) on an opposition position in Upper Nile State March 23, an event which an SPLM/IO spokesperson characterized as risking a return to civil war.  The US State Department reported to Congress April 1 that failure by the Government of South Sudan to implement key milestones in the 2015 Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of Conflict in South Sudan (R-ARCSS) means that the US Government will continue to impose costs on those who perpetuate the conflict.

The World Food Programme (WFP) has stated that South Sudan faces its worst ever food crisis. Over 8 million are facing extreme hunger.  The Ukraine crisis has reduced grain and sunflower oil exports to Africa. (Both Ukraine and Russia are major global suppliers.) Relief agencies like WFP are facing shortages.  Without some improvement in availability, tens of thousands could starve in South Sudan.

On the parallel COVID-19 crisis, an unconfirmed World Health Organization study estimates that two-thirds of all Africans have already contracted the virus — almost a hundred times more than reported.  It is widely believed that the youthfulness of African populations has thus far averted the anticipated catastrophe resulting from weak health systems and the general unavailability of vaccination.  Those factors may help explain why South Sudanese society no longer seems to be treating COVID-19 as a crisis.

In Sudan, the impasse continues between the military leaders, who dissolved the transitional government in October, and continuing protests by civilians, often suppressed with deadly force.  Some members of the old regime have been released from prison and reportedly reappointed to senior positions in the intelligence service. Violence in Darfur has dramatically increased. Over 200 were killed in attacks by Arab militias on farmers in west Darfur in early April, sending new waves of refugees into Chad.  Poor harvests, rampant inflation, and a shortage of foreign exchange are contributing to a looming hunger crisis.

Executive Director