Judeo-Christian History of the Nile Valley
THE HISTORY OF SUDAN- the Biblical Cush or Ethiopia -ANCIENT TIMES TO THE PRESENT - The Bible or the Axe
Thine eyes have seen my unformed substance; and in Thy book they were all written, The days that were ordained for me, When as yet there were not one of them. -Psalm 139:16
Introduction: The Judeo- Christian History of the Nile valley I don’t believe in accidents. Even in the most tragic moments of human history, I believe that God’s hand has been at work in the lives of men and of nations. In that sense, I believe that all true stories are “His” story. In times of war and poverty, as well as in times of peace and prosperity, God always has a plan and a purpose for His children. There are moments, of course, when God’s plan doesn’t seem to make any sense. When the Lord Jesus was mocked, scourged, and crucified, it seemed as though Satan had won. Even Jesus’ disciples couldn’t understand God’s purpose that awful day. But out of the tomb came victory that had been ordained before the foundations of the world! Thus, the darkest page in the book of history became the masterstroke of God’s redemptive plan. Similarly, recent acts of brutal persecution against Christ’s Body, the Church, have been very difficult to understand. Even so, the suffering of the Church does not lead us to defeat; although on the surface things may look grim. We must not doubt that the battle belongs to the Lord. All of the evil this poor world can muster is nothing compared to God. He is able to take it, turn it upside down and use it to further His kingdom. That is the hope that sustains me.
God has written the book of my days so that I might serve Him in such a time as this. There is no army that can snatch me from the grip of His care or alter one single day of His plan for my life. And so it is with gratitude that I am able to relate to you my story- just one tiny part of “His” story.
As both a Messianic Hebrew and a native of the war-torn nation of Sudan, I have been given the privilege of seeing God at work in the histories of both my people and my country. Sudan, the land of my birth, has been home to my people and my tribe for thousands of years; it is a part of who I am. Emerging from the shadow of Egyptian antiquity, the great Nubian kingdoms of Sudan birthed an early Christian dynasty that lasted for nearly ten centuries. Through Roman persecution, Arab conquest, and British rule, Sudan has been “struck down, but not destroyed.”7 It is the land of a remnant preserved by God through the millennia. The recent history of my people in Sudan has been incredibly painful. Intense religious persecution and bitter civil war have ended the lives of millions of people over the past twenty years. Only the Holocaust of WWII has exceeded the scope of the genocide. Political analysts throw up their hands and declare that the situation cannot be resolved. In the eyes of the world, Sudan has reason only for despair. But God has a plan, and I am blessed to be a part of His work in that part of the world. God has called me to serve my persecuted Christian brothers and sisters in Sudan and to reach out in love with the message of the gospel to those who persecute. Even now, God is in control of history, as He has been from the very beginning. And in the very beginning, according to the Bible, God touched the heart of Africa.
Cush, son of Ham, made his home near the joining of the Blue and the White Nile Rivers sometime after the great deluge-and long before the written history of man was first set to stone or papyrus. But Cush was not the first to settle there. The second chapter of Genesis tells us that this land inhabited by Noah’s grandson originally contained the western boundaries of Eden. If that is the case, it is possible that Adam and Eve once walked in Africa. Modern archeologists now have evidence suggesting that the first human beings originated in Africa, lending scientific credence for the first time to her Edenic origins. Certainly, in the days before the biblical flood, people had settled near the fertile river valleys of the Nile system. The Bible says that the River Pishon encompassed all the lands of “Havilah.” Havilah is the name of one of the sons of Cush, who probably settled near his family of origin. Plentiful gold, bdellium, and onyx-minerals that have been found along the banks of the river that the Romans later called the White Nile-enriched this land. The River Gihon “compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia,” and most likely refers to the Blue Nile. Although the names of Pishon and Gihon have been lost in antiquity, the biblical references strongly suggest that these Edenic rivers were indeed the same rivers that flow through present-day Sudan. Fertile ground and abundant resources in the Nile River valleys would have encouraged antediluvian society to flourish in prehistoric times; and Cush’s progeny filled the region after the flood. The land was, in a very real sense, a cradle of ancient civilization. Great societies of antiquity can trace their roots to the land of Africa. In the days before Nimrod became a mighty hunter, and before the great ziggurat at Babel thrust a defiant stairway to God’s heaven, the land that is now Sudan was home to established civilizations. As Nimrod’s clan migrated north to Assyria, his Cushite forbears remained and prospered in Africa.
The Hamites inhabited the region to the north of Cush known as Egypt. In the days of Egypt’s Old Kingdom, from around 2755- 2255 B.C, the Land of Cush was heavily influenced by her more powerful neighbor to the north. Cush provided Egypt with rich natural resources such as gold, ivory, and human slaves. By the year 1570 B.C, Cush was largely an Egyptian province. Although this was a time of great wealth and culture, the Hamites and Cushites had all but forgotten the Creator God of their ancestor Noah. The pharaohs were revered as gods during their lives, and their days were spent preparing for the journey to an afterlife of their own creation. Fabulous tombs and mummified remains of these ancient pharaohs give us a good idea of the religion of that period. Idolatry ruled the lands that once cradled Eden; but God’s eternal plan of redemption began to take shape in the second millennium before Christ.
Joseph and the sons of Shem were first cousins to Cush, now a dozen times removed through the lines of Arphaxad, Shelah, Eber, Peleg, Reu, Serug, Nahor, Terah, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God’s people-my fathers-were to become a great nation in the land of Egypt, and the worship of the One True God would ultimately spread down the Nile River valley into the land of Cush. The “apiru,” or Hebrew peoples, were Semitic tribes of “foreigners” who settled in northern Africa sometime around 1,500 B.C to escape famine. At first, the nomadic tribesmen were welcomed by the Egyptians, but as the Hebrews flourished, they became a threat to the rule of the pharaohs. The Egyptian rulers responded to this threat with oppression and slavery. But God intended all of this for good. The Hebrew peoples were eventually delivered from bondage, and the laws and practice of the worship of Yahweh were finally formalized and recorded. The stage was being set for the coming of the Messiah who would be for all people. Africa figured prominently in the history of Israel and in the life of Christ. The Nile River valley was very important in the ancient world. It provided a waterway from the African interior to the Mediterranean Sea, providing contact with both Europe and Asia. The proximity of her settlements to the Red Sea and thus the Sinai Peninsula permitted regular interaction with the Middle East. Egypt, Greece, Rome, Syria, and Arabia traded influence, wealth, and warfare with the prosperous kingdom of Cush.
By the eighth century B.C, Cushite wealth and power was great enough to eclipse that of the Egyptian Pharaohs. In fact, the “Black Pharaohs” ruled both kingdoms for a time. These Cushite pharaohs arose from the kingdom of Napata, which had been established by King Pianki. This same kingdom extended uninterrupted into the era of the kingdoms of Meroe and Makuria, and ultimately into the great Nubian Christian Kingdom.
The “Ethiopia” of Bible times extended from Aswan and the Nubian Desert in the north to the region of modern-day Khartoum, Sudan in the south; and of course, it extended eastward into the horn of Africa. Although the name of Cush is commonly associated with what is now modern-day Sudan, sometimes the term “Ethiopia” was used to refer to the entire area south of Egypt. This cosmopolitan region was also home to Jews of the Diaspora and proselytes who embraced monotheism. The Hebrews gained their name in Africa and have been a continuous presence in that continent ever since. Waves of new Hebrew immigration occurred after the Assyrian conquest of Israel in the eighth century B.C and again after the fall of Jerusalem some two hundred years later. There is evidence that Judean priests migrated to the Aswan region of the Nile around the time of the destruction of Solomon’s temple. Archeological evidence of an ancient Jewish presence in the region still exists in the region of the Aswan Dam. A replica of Solomon’s temple existed across the river from Aswan on Elephantine Island from around the time of the Babylonian conquest until the year 410 B.C, when it was burned by local pagans. It has been alleged that the priests from that temple fled to Axum, Ethiopia, bearing the Ark of the Covenant with them. Axum would have provided a haven for the fleeing priests, because an even more ancient Hebrew group resided there in the horn of Africa. It is not clear where these Hebrews came from, but according to the legend of the Kebra Nagast (Glory of the Kings), the great King Solomon fathered Menelik I, the first king of Ethiopia, by the Queen of Sheba. It is
possible that this line of royal descendants produced some of the earliest Ethiopian Jews. Certainly there were close ties between Ethiopia, Yemen, and Israel in those days. Worshippers from Africa and Arabia often traveled up to Jerusalem; and merchants as well as royal envoys provided a vital exchange of news and goods. The Bible indicates that Christianity was originally received in the Land of Cush in the first century, AD. By this time, the Roman Empire exerted considerable control in the region. The Book of Acts describes a meeting between the apostle Philip and a royal eunuch who was returning home to Africa after a pilgrimage to the city of Jerusalem. The eunuch was reading a messianic prophecy from the book of Isaiah when Philip explained its meaning- and its fulfillment in the life of Jesus Christ, the Messiah. Immediately, the eunuch stopped his chariot and asked to be baptized in a nearby body of water.
“And when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away; and the eunuch saw him no more, but went on his way rejoicing” (Acts 8:39 RSV).
It isn’t clear whether the Ethiopian eunuch was a Jew by birth or a proselyte, but the Holy Spirit certainly chose him for a very unique encounter with God. He was an important man-in charge of the treasury of Queen Candace. The title of “Candace” was given to all the Queens of Ethiopia in those days. This eunuch would have been headed to the capitol city of the kingdom of Meroe, located on the Nile River just north of the confluence of the Blue and the White Niles, in the heart of present-day Sudan. No doubt this influential man brought the good news of the Messiah back to the courts of Queen Candace and to the synagogues of the region.
Originally, the message of the Messiah was taken only to Jewish groups, and they were the first Christians. The first church, which is also referred to as the “Old Church,” or “Kanisa Ajuza,” in Arabic, was born in Dunqulah, the capitol city of ancient Meroe. Tradition holds that many of these very early believers were converted based on the testimony of the Ethiopian eunuch. It is certain that they helped form the kernel that developed many years later into the Nubian Christian Kingdom.
The new faith called Christianity spread quickly throughout northern Africa in the first century AD. It was an African, Simon of Cyrene (modern-day Libya), who carried the cross of Christ. There is some speculation that he was an important early convert to Christianity. He may be the “Simon the Black” (Acts 13:1) who later laid hands on Paul and Barnabas to commission them to bring the gospel to the world. By the end of the second century A.D, the majority of northern Africa was Christian, producing such early church fathers as Origen, Tertullian, and Augustine. It was Tertullian who was credited with the famous quotation: “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.” He was well acquainted with martyrdom, because the Romans at the time were killing African Christians at an alarming rate. Despite persecution, the Church grew steadily over the next three hundred years.
Eventually, Nubian royalty declared Christianity the “state” religion. The Nubian Cushite kingdom was predominantly Christian from AD 350 until AD 1500, when Muslim conquerors established Islam as the official religion. The Cushite Christians, famous for their skills with the lance, had held off the Islamists since 649 AD, when the Arabs conquered Egypt. They formed an uneasy truce with the Arabs for several centuries, maintaining the peace with an annual tribute of slaves.
During the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, Arab invasions hammered away at Christian resistance. Great numbers of Nubians were killed or sold into slavery, and the remaining Christians hid in remote areas without any communication with other Christians or the world at large. African Hebrews were also increasingly isolated; some had retreated during Nubian Christian rule and more sought remote haven as the Muslims advanced. As the Nubians fled, Arab settlers claimed the land and converted church buildings into mosques. The remaining Nubians were absorbed into the new culture through intermarriage and conversion.
In 1315 AD, a Muslim prince, born of Nubian royal blood, claimed the throne in Dunqulah. This led to a splintering of Nubian leadership and spawned the “dark age” of professional slave trading in the region. The Arabs changed the name of the land of Cush to “Sudan,” meaning “the land of the Blacks.” Christians and Jews who refused to convert to Islam scattered into the African interior. They ended up in Southern Sudan and parts of the modern Ethiopia, Libya, and the horn of Africa, where they maintained their faith and their African heritage within tribal groups. Finally, in approximately AD 1500, all traces of the Nubian Christian kingdom vanished.
After the Muslim conquest of the Christian kingdom of Nubia, several Islamic dynasties arose and fell. In 1504 AD, the Black Sultanate (As Saltana az Zarqa) was founded by the Funj, a confederation of Islamic tribes. They controlled Al Jazirah and districts from the rainforests of the south to the third cataract in the north.
Later, Islamic tribes called the Fur controlled the area Darfur. The economy of the Funj and Fur sultanates depended on the slave trade. The Muslims, both Arab and African, from the sultanates raided the African tribal villages regularly, stealing their neighbors to sell as slaves.
During the period of the Funj, the Ottoman Turks wrested control of Egypt from the Mamluks. Soon after, Sudan also fell under the expanding Islamic domination of the Ottoman Turks. In 1820, Turko-Egyptian rule under a Turko-Albanian general named Mohammed Ali Pasha swept over Sudan, eliminating the loosely affiliated Afro-Islamic confederations of sultanates. At this point, even remote churches and synagogues operated underground, because by then, a strict Islamic orthodoxy held sway. The Turkiyah were greedy and ruthless, exacting exorbitant taxes, ransacking ancient pyramids, and pushing the slave trade into high gear. Africans who were captured by Arab slave traders were sold to Europeans on the island of Zanzibar, off the coast of the modern country of Tanzania. These slaves were exported to Arabia, Europe, and the Americas for forced labor and other abuses.
By this time, slavery had become a destabilizing crisis in Africa. Finally, though, some anti-slavery voices were beginning to be heard in the western world. William Wilberforce, an influential British man in the House of Commons, was an important figure in the anti-slavery movement. He was a devout Christian, and he challenged the logic behind men selling men for profit. He concluded that slavery was an “evil adventure” that must be eliminated at all costs. But money speaks louder than morality in our fallen world, and there was a great deal of resistance to the idea of freedom for the slaves. Eventually morality prevailed through the courts of law in Great Britain and through war in the United States. Slavery was officially abolished in the western world, but not in the Islamic world, and not in Sudan.
In 1869, a British explorer, Sir Samuel Baker, made the first attempt via Egypt, Sudan, and Uganda to explore the sources of the Nile. He reported to the British authorities about his findings, which led to British interest in colonizing the Nile Valley and in ending slavery there as well.
In 1881, on the island of Aba on the Nile River near the modern town of Gezira, a small Islamic group led by a Sudanese Muslim named Mohammed Ahmed Mahdi rose up. Mahdi claimed to be “the awaited guide” sent by Allah to prepare the people for the Second Coming of the Prophet Isa (Jesus). He was not only opposed to Christians and Jews, but also to Turkish Islamic rule and British colonialism. He believed in jihad and the expansion of Islam by force into Africa, not unlike the beliefs of the modern Al Qaeda terrorist groups. He said he was strictly following in the footsteps of Mohammed of Mecca, and he felt he had a mandate to kill anyone who stood in his way. The Mahdi authorized the burning of all books of pedigrees, law, and theology, because he felt that hindered the progress of his new order. Between 1881 and 1884, the Mahdists had successive victories over the Turks and Egyptians in Sudan.
The British general, Charles Gordon, returned to the Sudan in 1885 to discuss the British role in Egypt and Sudan and to help Egypt deal with the Mahdists. He had governed Egyptian Sudan between 1877 and 1880. General Gordon was something of a hero to the Sudanese, because of his efforts to end the slavery that persisted in that nation. While he was in Khartoum, the city fell under siege from the Mahdists. He requested troops from Great Britain, but the British did not want to get involved in the conflict. His superiors demanded that he return to Britain to save himself, but he refused. Gordon was a man of convictions and felt honorbound to defend the Sudanese people.
Unfortunately, the Mahdi dervishes killed General Gordon before help arrived from a hesitant England. His death triggered a thirst for revenge among the common people of Great Britain. Thirteen years of war between Anglo-Egyptian forces and the Mahdist Islamic Movement of Sudan followed the fall of Khartoum. Mohammed Ahmed Mahdi died shortly after Gordon was killed and his successor, the Khalifa ruler of the Mahdists, died in battle in 1899. By that time, the majority of Sudanese people welcomed his death and the subsequent demise of the Mahdist movement. Almost half of the entire Sudanese population had died during the Mahdist regime due to persecution, war, famine, and diseases. The economy was in shambles, and most of the orthodox religious leaders of the various faiths had disappeared entirely.
A coalition of Egyptian and British forces took control of the Sudan in the 1800s. Great Britain was mainly concerned with the preservation of its interest in the Suez Canal, which linked the English to their most valued colony, India. The British immediately saw the problem of religious and ethnic conflict between the North and the South, and they set about to stop it. During colonial rule, the North and South were strictly separated, and Arabs were not allowed into the southern territories. Slave raiding was ended.
It was then that missionaries were sent into the South to establish schools, churches, and medical clinics. When European missionaries finally penetrated what they had in ignorance called “the Dark Continent,” they found the fragile remnants of ancient African Christians and tribal Jewry alive and well and living in the Sudan. As the Europeans worked among previously isolated tribal groups, they found very pious people-even though the influence of orthodoxy had been gone for centuries. Literacy had faded, but oral tradition remained. Many of these people, descended from Christian or Hebrew families, were very receptive to the gospel. After all, both Christianity and Judaism had flourished in Africa hundreds of years before the message of the Church had ever reached the remote and somewhat barbaric peoples of places like Great Britain. The “new” message of the missionaries was already understood at some level by many of the Sudanese. It may be due to the legacy of the slave trade that Westerners today are largely ignorant of the spiritual and cultural heritage of the African people. One widely propagated lie during the time of European slave trade was that Hamitic blacks of Africa were cursed by God and destined for slavery. If anyone at that time had bothered to read their Bible, they would have discovered that it was not Ham who had been cursed, but Canaan, one of his sons (Genesis 9:25). No Canaanites remain in modern times, so that curse cannot be applied to any living people group. Even so, the myth of the curse persisted-probably because some people wanted to believe it and so to justify their immoral actions.
My family came from an African Hebrew tribal group. We traced our ancestry to the priestly line of Levi, and we had survived for hundreds of years in isolation-with an amazingly well preserved system of Levitical law and traditions. Circumcision took place on the eighth day, marriage was in the Levitical tradition, and many of our words were Hebrew in origin.
Most of our history had been handed down through the years by oral tradition. From our tribe and from others like ours emerged a new and vibrant Messianic Jewish population that came to know Yeshua for the first time. But even though a tiny remnant of God’s people had been preserved to greet the western missionaries, all was not well with the spiritual life of Africa. Violent Islamization and tribal witchcraft had taken a terrible toll. A great war was being waged in the invisible realm for the souls of the African people. It was with this great sense of the history of my people-descended from the ancient Hebrews-and the Great Commission of my Lord Jesus Christ that I was raised. With humility and awe I trace the interwoven cords of God’s purpose through the Scriptures. My land and my people are found in the Genesis account, and both find the beginning of grace in the book of Acts. Perhaps I shouldn’t be surprised that the enemy is waging one of his most bitter battles in my homeland, among my people. While there is indeed a terrible physical battle going on, the heart of the battle is supernatural-and it has been raging there in the cradle of Eden since the fall of Adam.
The serpent of old has been at work from Cain’s fratricide to modern-day genocide, trying to stamp out the people of God’s covenants. In doing so, he hopes to defeat the plan of Christ. But the outcome of the conflict has been predetermined, and I am determined to be on the Lord’s side. That is God’s purpose for me. Note: This brief chapter only scratches the surface of Sudanese history, which dates from prehistoric times. Scriptural, scholarly, and legendary sources were used. Historical information taken from