Young American Black Man Changed by Serving in Africa

AKOT, Sudan—Jermaine Edwards throws his shirt over his shoulder and jumps into the dancing, following the rhythm of the drums.

“I just couldn’t hold it in anymore,” he says during a break from the jumping. “… just had to get out there and move.”

Edwards, a missionary with IMB, is in the middle of a Dinka cattle camp celebration. Hundreds of cattle camps are scattered throughout the southern Sudan landscape and are used as bases for cattle keepers in search of water. During the day the cattle are moved to the river or nearest water source. At night the cattle keepers drive the cattle by foot back to the camp, where each cow is staked to the ground for the night. 

This celebration is to honor Edwards and his missionary colleagues, though the Dinka dance often to just have fun. The youth jump backwards to the beat of a drum in a competition to see who can leap the highest. 

As Edwards continues jumping, the women and men on the outskirts of the group point and laugh at his attempts. Despite this teasing, the camp has accepted him.

Edwards, a 26-year-old black [man] from Cleveland, Ohio, has lighter skin than the Dinka, whose skin is extremely dark even by African standards.

The day before, as the sun set on the cattle camp, the dung smoke used to keep away mosquitoes and other bugs, hung heavily in the sky. Edwards easily joked with the Dinka warriors and cattle keepers as he moved through the camp looking at the cattle.

At first they were curious about him, thinking he was from Uganda or Kenya, but once he started speaking Dinka, explaining he is from America, they knew he was different and warmly welcomed him into the camp.

“The Dinka open up to him,” says one of Edwards’ supervisors,[ed.] who has worked in southern Sudan for nine years.

“There are [few] black Americans going to Africa,” says Edwards, who’s serving a two-year journeyman term with IMB. “I was like, ‘Cool, I’m all for going to Sudan.’ I wanted to go where they need help the most. Plus, who doesn’t want to go to the motherland to find out where your people come from?”

His friends thought he was crazy, but he was convinced Sudan was where God wanted him.

Edwards, who attended Cuyahoga Community College in Cleveland, talks about his friends back home keeping him informed on all the new musicians and videos coming out. “I used to be going crazy over new music artists, but that’s not me anymore,” he says. “I’ve got more concerns now -- feeding starving people, the fighting, people getting shot for no reason, and trying to change the hearts of these people.”

Edwards, a member of Mt. Calvary Baptist Church in Cleveland, says the reason he came to Africa was to “serve God in a major way.”

God has definitely used him. In one instance, a local pastor was falsely accused of a crime, and with Edwards’ help, he was freed. When the pastor left the jail, he said he had shared the stories of Jesus told to him by Edwards, and the prisoners wanted to know more.

“We have nothing to do with what happens out here,” Edwards says. “It’s all God.”

He and the pastor now try to visit the prisoners weekly, together sharing the Gospel.

Edwards also passionately shares stories from the Bible with the Dinka cattle keepers.

The rough guys intently listen, following Edwards’ every gesture. During the next couple of months, Edwards plans to return to the camp and stay for several days at a time.

Later, as he strolls through the camp, a young Dinka cattle keeper grabs Edwards by the hand. He proudly shows Edwards his big cow with long, sculpted horns.

“One on one with the Dinka is cool,” Edwards says.

At the camp, Edwards uses all the Dinka words he knows to talk with the young cattlemen. The cattle camp guys have gotten used to the shorter, lighter-skinned black [man] walking among their cattle.

Edwards says eventually “they let me into their lives and I get to see who the Dinka people really are. My skin color does help. Africans have two ways of living, public and private. I get to see both.”

IMB missionaries like Edwards are funded through the Cooperative Program and the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for International Missions. For avenues of giving and other ways to get involved, visit imb.org.