Name Marc Nikkel Role Author | Died 2000 | |
Education General Theological Seminary Books Why Haven't You Left?: Letters from the Sudan | ||
The Rev. Dr. Marc R. Nikkel (1950–2000) was an American Episcopal priest, artist, author, teacher, missionary to the Sudan, and advocate for the Dinka ("Jieng") people of South Sudan.
"Marc Nikkel" was born to Mennonite parents in Reedley, California, and studied at the California State University School for the Visual Arts and at Fuller Theological Seminary before becoming an Anglican.
In 1981, Nikkel began teaching at Bishop Gwynne College in Mundri, Sudan. From 1984–1985, he studied at the General Theological Seminary of the Episcopal Church in Chelsea, New York, being ordained to the diaconate by the Bishop of Southwestern Virginia and to the priesthood on his return to the Sudan.
Nikkel was kidnapped by the Sudanese Liberation Army in July 1987 along with several other Americans. He was later released in northern Kenya. From 1987-1988, he taught at Saint Paul's United Theological College in Limuru, Kenya. He then left Africa to begin doctoral studies at the Centre for the Study of Christianity in the Non-Western World in Edinburgh, Scotland.
After completing his doctoral work, Nikkel served as an advisor to several Sudanese Anglican dioceses, working in partnership with the Church Missionary Society of England and the Episcopal Church in the U.S.A. His primary work was in theological education among the Dinka people of the Nile basin in South Sudan.
In Kenya, Marc Nikkel also co-founded Kakuma Refugee Camp with Bishop Nathanael Garang of Bor Diocese, South Sudan. There at Kakuma, Marc Nikkel named the young Dinka survivors "the Lost Boys."
Marc Nikkel was diagnosed with cancer in 1998, and died in California in 2000. Nikkel's greatest legacy exists among the many lives he saved, taught and inspired.