Jubilee in the Nuba Mountains

["Nadia & Giovanni" <nadia.joe@tiscalinet.it>]

Central Sudan
Jubilee in the Nuba Mountains
Commentary
By Cathy Majtenyi
Despite the winding up of the Jubilee Year by Pope John Paul early this
month, there is a place where Jubilee values - love of neighbour, respect
for the environment, welcoming the stranger - thrive. Africanews' managing
editor Cathy Majtenyi recently spent five days trekking through the Nuba
Mountains of central Sudan and offers these reflections.


With the turning of the clock to 2001, the world is wrapping up its Jubilee
celebrations. Caretakers in Rome are sweeping the steps of St. Peter's
Basilica with the knowledge that special Jubilee Masses and events have
ended. Social justice workers are searching for a new theme on which to
organise their work. The moment has passed.

But there is a place where time stands still and is actually irrelevant, a
place where God and relationships with one another and the environment form
the core of peoples' existence. Every year is a Jubilee year in the Nuba
Mountains of central Sudan.

This thought struck me repeatedly as I visited the Nuba Mountains from
December 27 to January 1 with a group of Italians, Germans, and Kenyans. We
had come at the invitation of Fr. Renato Kizito Sesana, a Comboni Missionary
with many years' experience in the Nuba Mountains.

Says Father Kizito: "The idea for this trip came to me some time ago in
Rome, when a journalist asked me: 'Father, how will you celebrate the
Jubilee?'," I answered, 'The Pope in his letter on the Jubilee has written
that a worthy way to celebrate the Jubilee year is to go towards the poor
and suffering who represent Christ in a special way. So I think I will go to
celebrate my Jubilee with the Nuba, who are victims of all kinds of
oppression... Sudan is a place where the suffering, crucified Christ is
present in a special way. My Jubilee will be a sign of peace, a sign that a
different Sudan founded on justice and respect for human rights is
possible."

The one million or so people in the Nuba Mountains - which consists of 30,00
0 square kilometers of agriculturally and minerally rich land in the
Southern Kordofan region in Central Sudan - are certainly a persecuted lot.
They are being bombed by air and raided on the ground by the Sudanese
government, which wants to turn them into Muslim Arabs. They are cut off
completely from all contact from the outside world - we ourselves were not
supposed to be there. We had to walk hours through the mountains and bush to
reach the villages we were visiting.

Materially, the people we met had almost nothing. Their houses and
possessions consist almost entirely of items they have made from the
surrounding environment. There is not a scrap of garbage anywhere. I felt
like I was in the Garden of Eden, a pure, pristine cradle of humankind from
which we sprang and proceeded to contaminate the world physically and
spiritually.

Yet, despite the dangers of war and the lack of material possessions, the
people of the Nuba Mountains have a peace and hospitality that is seldom
seen elsewhere. Everywhere we went people greeted us, their eyes overflowing
with love and kindness, their smiles exuding a warmth and patience that
touched my heart. In the face of repression the people sing the most
beautiful melodies and they don masks, beads, and colourful headgear as they
dance their traditional dances. The air is punctuated by the sounds of
horns, flutes, bells, and whistles.

But it wasn't always like that. When the Arab colonisers came, they
denounced Nuba culture and civilisation, and informed the Nuba that they
would all be sent to hell unless they adopted Arab culture and religion,
Yacoub Kaluka, training officer with the Nuba Relief, Rehabilitation, and
Development Organisation told me. For a long time after that, the Nuba were
ashamed of who they were and tried to be Arab. (As he was telling me this, I
recalled with a certain amount of anxiety how the Catholic church has used
similar methods in our own past).

However, a new consciousness eventually arose in the people. Kaluka recalls
how his Muslim uncle responded to a group of people who were harassing and
laughing at him for praying in his mother tongue of Tira. "He said, 'If you
believe that God is not listening to my words because they are in Tira, then
this God is not for us. Let us wait for our God. This God should be for the
white people and the Arabs - ours has not yet come. But if you believe that
God is for everybody, then He knows all languages."

I was deeply moved by the peoples' unshakable faith in the goodness and
mercy of God and His love, leading me to believe that the God who Kaluka
referred to "has come" to the area. The Catholic missionary, catechist, and
lay people I interviewed told me stories of how, despite the bombings and
raids, people would risk their safety to gather to pray and read Scripture.
Despite the lack of priests in the area - people in the village of Kerker,
for instance, have access of Mass once a month on average - catechists and
laity have continued to spread the faith. Catholicism "is alive and well,"
says Maryknoll missionary Fr. Tom Tiscornia. "It's basic, but alive and
well."

Also alive and well is a revitalisation of Nuba identity, which people
realise is key to their survival. There is a concerted effort by the NRRDO,
the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLA) and others to bring back the
cultural practices that were almost wiped out, says Kaluka.

Kaluka's words made me realise in a very powerful way that cultural
expression is a gift from God, that the Tira and all people of the Nuba
Mountains and beyond represent the richness and diversity of God's
handiwork. In addition to freeing people from the shackles of monetary debt,
the Jubilee is also about eradicating the bonds of materialism and religious
and cultural domination so that people can be who God created them to be,
fully alive, in relationship with Him and others. In this regard, the people
of the Nuba Mountains are freer than anyone I have ever met.




_______________________
Perciò, ecco, la attirerò a me,
la condurrò nel deserto
e parlerò al suo cuore.
Le renderò le sue vigne
e trasformerò la valle di Acòr
in porta di speranza.
Là canterà
come nei giorni della sua giovinezza,
come quando uscì dal paese d'Egitto.
 - Osea 2,16.17 -