HOME FROM THE SUDAN

Southland Times, Issue 19515, 15 May 1922, Page 5

HOME FROM THE SUDAN

MISSIONARIES RETURN SLAVERY UNDER BRITISH FLAG There are at present in Invercargill two miaaionariee of the Sudan United Mire ion, Mr and Mrs W. L. Mills, who are at present on furlough after nine years work in the mission fields. They come from a part of Africa that is little known and which i* still resisting the advancing "tide of civilization that during the past fifty years hae poured into most of the unknown places of the earth. During the course of an interview with Mr and Mrs Mills on Saturday a reporter gleaned some interesting details of this vast but comparatively unknown stretch of country, with 40,000,000 inhabitants, and the pioneering work both political and religious that is being carried out there. They explained that the Sudan United Mission was inter-denominational and embraced workers from all the principal denominations. The vast extent of the country and the work that has been done and still is to be done could be guaged by the fact that their station which is 1500 miles south of Cairo is 2000 miles on the west from the next mission station, 500 on the north, and 160 on the east and 5000 miles on the south. The Nuba mountains province in which they are stationed contains no other real dent white people, but British officials engaged in the government of the country. In 1920, the year before the British Government sent an expedition into the country to bring the people under it* rule, they were joined in the work in Sudan by Mr and Mrs McDairmid, the latter being formerly Miss P. Harrington of Pahia, Southland. The natives, said Mr Mills, appear to be very responsive to the Christian teaching which in that particular part of the country was in the pioneer stages. There was a hospital at a place called Shilook under the auspices of the Mission which assisted them considerably in the work and at which they had from 30 to 40 patient* per day. The language of the people was entirely a spoken one and the task of reducing it to writing was one of their first objects and one they still were occupied with. Mr Mills said he thought thia people had come into contact with the early Nubian Church in North Africa and they had many of its custom*. They were at the present time surrounded by Moslem influences—in the dry season of the year the Arabs came down into the country and the danger cf the people going over to Mohammedanism was ever present, which besides being a menace to Christainity was a menace to the Empire. It could be seen therefore that there was political as well as religious significance about their work. At the present time the work of Mr and Mrs Mills is more in the nature of preparing the way for the teaching of Christianity, in gaining a thorough knowledge of the language with the ultimate object in view of translating it in written form, in building bouses and visiting the people. Mrs Milla was the first white woman ever aeen there. In their work the two missionaries have found the British Governor of the province, Major Northcote, very sympathetic and the Anglican Bishop of Khartum and Egypt besides being an advocate of the work, is favourable to church union. The Nuba Mountains Province in which the missionaries work is about a* big as the North Island and there is only the one mission station there. The people are a tall race, the majority of them being over 6ft in height. They are quite good agriculturists and grow dhurra, the staple grain of the country, sesame, a small grain rich in oil, and great crops of peanuts. Mr Mills added with a smile that the natives were fond of rats, cntorpillare, wild cat*, ant*, monkeys and even snakes. Mosquitoes were very troublesome and malaria was quite prevalent. The natives, however, became imifiune from the disease in their own district in time but this was not so with white people. The missionaries travelled by means of horses hired from the Arabs who come down to trade with the natives. All kinds of wild animals abounded but as a rule they did not attack people, though if cornered there wa* an altogether different story to tell. The exceptions were old lions which were too old to hunt. These had been known to break into hut* and carry off the natives. The missionaries said that when they went into the country they were rather surprised to know that slavery existed umier British rule. This was so, however, natives being slaves to Arab masters and every person born in slavery was the property of the master. If a slave ran away and married, his master, if he discovered his whereabouts, could get the man with his property and family back with Government assistance. In the south there were settlements composed of fllavea who had run away and formed villages in which they lived beyond to the reach of their old masters. If a slave wished to secure his freedom he had to serve in the service of the Government for a year before he was free. There were odd cases of slave raids. Mr Mills said slavery was allowed probably because the authorities considered its sudden abolition would upset Arab custom and cause trouble with these people. This evening Mr Mills will deliver a lecture on his experiences in the Sudan in.the Y.M.C.A. rooms.