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Lost Boys, Found Church: Dinka Refugees and Religious Change in Sudan's Second Civil War

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 January 2017

JESSE ZINK
JESSE ZINK*
Affiliation:
Cambridge Centre for Christanity Worldwide, Westminster College, Cambridge CB3 0AA; e-mail: jz353@cam.ac.uk
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Abstract

The experience of young male Dinka refugees during Sudan's second civil war (1983–2005) illustrates the connections between religious change, violence and displacement. Many of the ‘unaccompanied minors’ who fled to camps in Ethiopia and then Kenya moved decisively towards Christianity in the years during which they were displaced. Key variables were the connection between education and Christianity, the need for new structures of community, and the way in which the Church offered a way to make sense of the destruction of civil war. As the war ended, many former refugees returned to their home regions as Christian evangelists, leading to further religious change. Their case parallels other mass conversion movements in African Christian history but takes place in a post-colonial context of civil war.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Ecclesiastical History , Volume 68 , Issue 2 , April 2017 , pp. 340 - 360
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

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References

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