Nubian Christianity Refounded in Muslim Sudan

Archaeologists have excavated a historic Christian Church in the lands of Ancient Nubia.

Nestled in the region that once was known as Nubia and Kush, Sudan and South Sudan are part of the historic continuum of ancient Oriental Orthodox states.

You may not know it today from the largely Muslim Sudan, and the largely Western Christian South Sudan, but at one point, the kingdoms that made up Ancient Nubia were home to their own Coptic Orthodox churches, and this lasted from the 6th Century to the 15th and 16th Centuries. 

It was our Christian Faith that supplanted the Ancient Egyptian religions and soon the Kingdom of Kush would turn into three Christian kingdoms: Nobatia, Makuria, and Alodia.

They had their own renaissance and experienced lots of gender equality between men and women.

These Nubian Christians became a center of Christianity during this period of time. And while Christian Egypt would fall to the Arabs and become Islamized and Arabized in the 7th Century, the Nubian Christians held off Muslims and Arabs for many centuries.

But, in the 15th and 16th centuries, Sudan suffered from increasing Islamization from Arabs, Barbers, and others, eventually transforming this ancient territory into an Islamic nation.

In the 19th and 20th Centuries, the British began to play a major influence in Sudan as well as Egypt, and the British and Egypt would eventually take control of Sudan.

The British sent in Christian missionaries and made southern Sudan a place where Christians would rule and Christianity would be encouraged. 

The people in southern Sudan had mostly their own traditional beliefs and never were Christianized like those in the north. So these missionaries transformed Southern Sudan into a Christian homeland, but in Catholicism and Protestantism instead of Oriental Orthodoxy.

In the North, Islam would rule and be encouraged.

The two would have their own autonomy and rule separately from each other for most of this colonial era.

When Egypt and the UK gave up their control of Sudan, they were going to have two separate Sudans.

But, this did not happen and their plans changed.

Southern Sudan began to be ruled by Sudan.

As an independent Sudan (1956) became increasingly Islamist, implementing Sharia Law, neglecting South Sudanese needs, and becoming an Islamic terrorist safe haven nation, this pushed the largely Christian South Sudan to seek independence.

This led to a very horrific civil war with tons of refugees and lots of killing.

Eventually, South Sudan became an independent sovereign country in 2011.

But, this history is often not well-known to the casual reader and therefore, not many people know of northern Sudan's Christian past, and just know of South Sudan's current love for our Faith.

Sudan was so important for Christianity during the Middle Ages. 

And this is what the researchers from Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski University (Poland), University of Khartoum, the University of the Nile Valley, and other Sudanese archaeologists found with an ancient Church in 2021, and they now have fully uncovered it in August this year. 

They are finding unique Christian architecture such as two small side naves and over 1,000 year old cave paintings with paintings of the Virgin Mary.

These findings help Sudan to remember their Christian past. The country is still slightly above 5% Christian mostly of the Oriental Orthodox Church, while South Sudan is a majority Christian and a plurality Catholic at around 40%, followed by Anglicans.

This story of the two Sudans displays how one day, the Muslim Sudan can regain their Christian roots, just how the South Sudanese have become Christian. 

Currently though, Sudanese laws make it very difficult to come out as Christian. They also make it very difficult for Christians to live in their nation. And this history of Christian persecution is very long.

So much of Sudanese discrimination is based on resources and a sense of religious nationalism. The resource conflict is more of a diplomatic and military issue, but the religious nationalist aspect is relevant to these archeological finds.

The reasons it is relevant is because many Sudanese see their nationality as one based in Islam and if they can continue to see more displays of their glorious Christian past, they will be more likely to see Christians in a better light and Christianity as uniquely Sudanese as well, if not even more Sudanese than Islam.

In fact, despite the Muslim takeover in the 15th and 16th centuries, a widespread Coptic Oriental Orthordox population existed up until the very Islamic regime of the 1880s. 

But, not only are the Muslim authorities from the North continuing to steal the natural resources of the Christian South, the Muslim Authorities are also persecuting the Christians in their own southern part of their country that have been forced to stay in Sudan despite their wishes to be in South Sudan.

However, if the Sudanese could see that their identity and history is entrenched into Christianity and that a Christian Sudan is what kept their independence of their various kingdoms against the conquering Egyptians from the north, the nationalist Sudanese would be more willing to include the Christians into their nation.

Therefore, this archaelogical find is important for Christians in Sudan because it further rei-ntroduces Sudan to their Christian background and further dismantles the Islamist identity within some factions of their society.