How was Christmas celebrated in Kajo-Keji (South Sudan) in 1940? Eunice Kerr, the wife of Reverend William Dermot Kerr, offers us a glimpse through her heartfelt reflections. The Kerrs lived in Kajo-Keji from 1940 until 1945, when Eunice tragically passed away due to illness. While her letters reflect the colonial attitudes of the era, they also reveal her deep affection and admiration for the Kuku people.
“We are in a very beautiful part of the Sudan – right in de South, close to the Uganda border on the Lat. 4. All around our house we can see wooded hills streching far into the distance. You would appreciate the lovely sky effects, especially at sunrise & sunset. [-]
I wish you could have been in the simple dignified little Church here on Christmas Day. It was packed with people from the surrounding districts and during the service hundreds sat on the grass outside. This is possible as the Church, although raised up a little from the ground, is quite open to the three winds of heaven. It is not quite finished yet and the people at present sit on rows of bricks. The Holy Table has a simple brass Cross which gleams out amazingly in the distance thro’ the dim Church as you approach it from outside.
We enter by stone steps, the font, a simple white cement affair, (with an alabastor cooking mortar for the central bowl!) stands at the West end. The church has great big square stone-&-mortar pillars whitewashed, and the usual thatched roof with a very simple wooden Cross on the East end.
There were nearly 300 for the Communion on Christmas morning, and how you would have loved to see the reverent black hands streched out to take the Bread and Wine. Although they are supposed to be a very rough tribe, the Kukus, we are both struck with the reverend demeanour of the Christians.
That afternoon we had sports for about 1000. I had to give away the prizes, which consisted of the contents of a box given to Dermot for his work abroad: cretonne bags, patchwork quilts, beads, notebooks, pencils, etc. [-]”
[First Impressions of Kajo Kaji, S. Sudan (January 1940), a letter written by Eunice Kerr]