The Fur People of Sudan
[ *source - www.orvillejenkins.com]

Population: 744,000 (Operation World 1995)
Religion: Animism and Islam
Status: World A, <1% Christian

Location: The Fur people live mostly in the Sudan, in Darfur province, named for them. The homeland of the Fur is what was known in the 16th century as Southern Nubia. Fur oral tradition attributes ancient ruins to a mysterious people called the Torra. After the Torra, the Daju ruled the area, based in Jebel Marra, then the Tunjur, based in Dar Furnung.

The Fur are the largest ethnic group in the Darfur region of western Sudan. They are also sometimes referred to by the names Fora, Fordunga, Furawi, Konjara or Kungara. They are an active agricultural people and may also herd cattle. Some Fur families who have accumulated a substantial cattle herd developed a more nomadic lifestyle like that of their herding neighbors, the Baqqara (Baggara) Arabs. Culturally, those cattle-herding Fur are now considered to be Baqqara.

Language: The Fur speak a fairly uniform Nilo-Saharan language also called Fur. Though they may speak Arabic in order to relate to their Arabic neighbors and the Sudanese central government, they very much retain their traditional identity.

Political Situation: Until 1916, the Fur were ruled by an independent sultanate and were oriented politically to peoples in Chad. Though the ruling dynasty before that time, as well as the common people, had long been Muslims, they have not been arabized. They are now incorporated into the Sudan political system.

The Fur had been basically independent from the 1600s, and under self- administration even when conquered by the Funj, then the Ottoman Turks in 1874. The Fur were involved in the Mahdist revolts from 1882 to 1916. After British reconquest in 1899, the British approved the re-establishment of the Fur Sultanate, assumed by Ali Dinar when the Mahdist movement crumbled. Mahdist revolts continued to break out in Sudan until 1916. The fall of Darfur was actually decided, however, when Ali Dinar declared loyalty to the Ottoman Empire in World War I. The British abolished the Fur Sultanate in 1916, after Dinar died in battle.

Education: Education has depended on Arabs or Muslim immigrants from West Africa to build mosques and teach boys. At age eight to ten, every boy not in the government's formal school system will begin a four-year Quranic school, leaving their families to live with a faqi (Islamic teacher) in another village and help till his fields.

Increased education has become important to enable Fur to compete economically and politically with the dominant Arabs. While attempting to identify with the Arab elite and compete with them on their terms, Fur have tried to develop a political base in their Fur ethnic identity.

Religion: The Fur are listed as over 99% Muslim, but their religious practices are actually largely animistic. Large-scale conversion to Islam from their traditional religion did not begin until the reign of Sultan Ahmad Bakr (1682- 1722), who imported teachers, built mosques and compelled his people to become Muslims.

The Fur were influenced by the Mahdist movement, a religious revolution of Arabic-speaking Sudanese against the Ottomans. The Mahdi captured Darfur in 1882, capturing the Austrian representative of the Egyptian Khedive in Cairo, who had been the first Egyptian-appointed governor of Darfur Province. Primary cultural values, expressed in mystical symbols, are solidarity, trust and support within the Fur community. This is symbolized by the color white, representing mother's milk. The phrase bora fatta (white milk) is a positive, unifying theme, also applied to porridge.

The opposite value--betrayal, associated with competition or conflict--is associated with the color black, and expressed in witchcraft beliefs and accusations.

There is a complex of mystical symbols and social expectations associated with bora fatta. Competition--a negative value--in its extreme is killing, and the victim's relatives are proscribed from eating with the killer. Any relative breaking this taboo is described as kowa, "leprosy."

They also believe in the power of a rival's evil eye, common throughout the Arab world (called "hot eyes" by the Fur). This leprosy sanction also serves as a constraint against including strangers in the community.

Christianity: More than 700,000 Fur people live in Western Sudan, yet they have no Bible, radio broadcasts, Gospel recordings, relief work or missionaries. In ancient times the Fur were a Christian people. At this time there are no known believers in Christ among the Fur.

The Fur became Muslims after the invasion of North Africa by Arabs, who spread the Muslim faith widely as they conquered and settled among indigenous peoples. There are a few Christians among the Fur today. The "kowa sanction," makes it difficult for a Christian of another ethnic group to live among the Fur.

How to pray for the Fur...

• Pray for the success of Mike and Marlene Rupp and their family as they beging to minister through water irrigation efforts while sharing Christ through their witness.
   
• Pray that many other Christian workers will go and share the Gospel with the Fur people.
   
• Pray that as the Fur become increasingly religious in their practices, they will be dissatisfied with Islam and will seek and find the Truth of Jesus Christ.
   
• Pray that God will raise up many intercessors to pray for this group that is so essential to reaching western Sudan.
   
• Pray for the land of Sudan, which has faced war and economic turmoil for over a decade.
   
• Pray for strength, encouragement and peace for the Christian laborers who are already working in Sudan.
   
• Pray for the speedy development of Christian resources in the Fur language.
   
• Pray that God will open the hearts of Sudanese government officials so that missionaries can more easily enter the country.

For more info on the Fur, go to:

www.orvillejenkins.com

www.joshuaproject.net

www.peoplegroups.com