In Memory of Congressman Donald M. Payne

We at The Institute on Religion and Democracy mourn the death of U.S. Representative Donald M. Payne (D-NJ-10) on the morning of Tuesday, March 6, after a months-long battle with cancer. Please keep Mr. Payne’s family, friends, and staff in your thoughts and prayers as they grieve the loss of this good man.

Our closest connection with Congressman Payne was, of course, in advocacy for the vulnerable and persecuted people of Sudan. We may have differed with the Congressman on some other issues, but we were united in this. He was a long-time defender of human rights and freedom in Africa’s largest nation, as well as many other countries on the African continent. Along with some of our other Sudan heroes in Congress, he visited both Sudan and the refugee camps of the Darfurians in Chad, choosing to spend his time shining light on evil and encouraging the beleaguered and marginalized by his presence and concern.

From the time that IRD launched its Church Alliance for a New Sudan in 1994 while the Khartoum regime was waging a genocidal jihad against the people of South Sudan, Nuba Mountains, Blue Nile, and elsewhere, we knew we could always count on certain members of Congress to speak the truth, cut through the nuance, and work on behalf of the victims of Khartoum. Representative Payne was one of them. Usually a soft-spoken gentleman, Congressman Payne reserved his most scathing and fiery speeches for the Islamist regime in Khartoum and its enablers. He did not hesitate to state the connection between the Sudanese government and global terrorism.

Congressman Payne did not grow weary in the fight, but emerged as one of the House of Representatives strongest advocates against the genocide in Darfur, as well. And in most recent days, Mr. Payne, along with his colleagues on both sides of the aisle who care about Sudan, was again helping to expose the Khartoum regime’s renewed genocidal jihad that began in June 2011 against the people of the Nuba Mountains and Blue Nile State, and realized that marginalized and oppressed people groups were throughout Sudan.

As both the Chair and as the Ranking Member of the Africa Subcommittee of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and as one of the co-chairs of the Sudan Caucus, Mr. Payne used his position and influence to hold hearings on Sudan that exposed the human rights atrocities, the agenda of the Sudanese government, and the often inadequate U.S. government response. He was a co-author of the 2002 Sudan Peace Act, which led the way to the Comprehensive Peace Agreement that gave self-determination and, in 2011, freedom, to the people of the Republic of South Sudan.

We have lost a great friend and ally in Congressman Payne. We challenge the United States Congress members who have not made Sudan a passion and a priority to pick up the fallen mantle and continue the work that Mr. Payne was doing. For Donald Payne, the battle is over, and he is now hearing the words of his God, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

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