The Pleasing Aroma of Christ

An Analysis of Sudanese Bakhor

Abstract

Around the world where Christianity is imported along with external art forms and cultural values, local folk arts may be missed or excluded from faith and practice. When this happens, it is to the detriment of a rich, contextualized expression of faith. This article analyzes one such passed-over cultural art, called bakhor, or Sudanese incense. Using Brian Schrag’s seven lenses and GOMAP’s cultural traits as frameworks, bakhor is analyzed as an art form and a cultural fixture, respectively. Bakhor and its uses are then paralleled with Scripture’s own framework of the purposes and meanings of incense. The analysis finds that bakhor carries a great cultural weight Christians can leverage to build the Kingdom of God, and concludes with a cursory sample of Sudanese believers’ responses to bringing their cherished art into worship for the first time.