TRANSFORMING AFRICA'S RELIGIOUS LANDSCAPES: The Sudan Interior Mission (SIM), Past and Present

This book tells the story of the collaborative efforts of missionaries of the SIM, an international Christian mission founded in North America, and African Christians to evangelize in the wider Sudan (generally meaning countries spanning from Senegal to Ethiopia). In 1893, when SIM was formed, the Sudan home to Islam, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, and African traditional religions had seen little Protestant Christian evangelism. Within ten years, most of the region came under the yoke of European imperialism, and, over the next several decades, missionaries flooded this little-touched mission field. Yet the story of the SIM, perhaps the most widely active mission in the Sudan, stands apart because it was not attached to any imperial power or state church, such as the Church Missionary Society of the Anglican Church. The SIM was an interdenominational society sending missionaries from North America, Australia, and various European countries to the Sudan. This book is the first to provide case studies exploring the SIM and African initiated efforts to confront political, cultural, religious, technological, and social challenges to spreading the Christian gospel and ministering to human needs. In the process, the SIM and African Christians transformed not only the nature of modern missionary work, but also relationships within African societies. This book gives readers a broad sampling of the history and present activities of the SIM and related African churches and shows their importance in critical transformations in modern Africa, from the abolition of slavery to the development of African-led missionary movements, and the efforts to contain outbreak of Lassa and Ebola fevers. The originality of this volume is not only its historical content but also the several essays discussing contemporary African developments. The dynamism of African Christianity is widely acknowledged, but few scholarly works connect the history of Euro-American missions to current religious transformations in Africa. This book explores SIM s continuing connection with African churches from Liberia to Ethiopia and sheds light on two themes of significant contemporary interest that Christian missions were crucial in introducing: communications technology and medical infrastructure.