The Spiritual Dimensions of Exile

“You have mismanaged the light. The Lord gave the South Sudanese independence and freedom, but in this period of peace, you turned away from God. You turned to money, you bought things and vehicles, and forgot the gift that our Father had given, you forgot the light that God had given.

Written by Liz Storer

Mar 31, 2018

Bishop Allison Theology College, Pajulu S/C, Arua, Northwest Uganda. KATIE G. NELSON

Much mainstream war reporting on African conflict has tended to invoke barbaric portrayals of those perpetrating violence on the one hand, and those displaced and helpless, waiting for the assistance of interveners, on the other. Yet these simplistic portrayals do not seem reflect lived experiences of war, or displacement.

Recent academic research has revealed the spiritual, magico-religious entanglements involved in leading and waging war, and in coping with its effects. Of course, faith, religion and tradition are dynamic, flexible constructs. But they can provide a malleable nexus upon which leaders can construct legitimacy and mobilize support to wage war. Simultaneously, they can also provide important everyday idioms for daily-life in exile. Failure to account for these intimate understandings of responsibility, or collapsing motivations for war into rationality complexes, fails to fully portray the dynamics through which battlegrounds are navigated, as much as the ways in which understanding war constitutes lived experience.

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About the Author

Liz Storer

is a PhD candidate in the Department for International Development at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

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The Spiritual Dimensions of Exile