**BAHR el-GEBEL, APOSTOLIC PREFECTURE OF.**
- In Anglo-Egyptian Sudan; the prefecture currently occupies the south-eastern area between the 4th and 6th parallels, and is traversed from north to south by the river of the same name, from which the mission itself took its name. The area covers 156,251 sq. km., and the population numbers 400,000 inhabitants, divided into several tribes: Bari, Madi, Acioli, Katuko, Loyota and others, all animist in religion, though not without a certain belief in a Supreme Being who, however, takes no interest in humanity. The prefecture was established on 14 July 1927, when the part of the Vicariate (then Prefecture) of the Equatorial Nile lying within Sudan was detached. This measure was also prompted by the fact that, since Sudanese authorities had isolated the territory of Uganda, where sleeping sickness was raging, missionaries of the sole Equatorial Nile mission could not freely communicate between the Sudanese and Ugandan zones. The prefecture inherited from the mother mission the stations of Rejaf, Torit, Loa, Lerua and Isoke, all of recent foundation, between 1919 and 1926.
Rejaf is the central station, where missionaries, in accordance with British policy which makes the opening of mission stations dependent on the establishment of schools, carry out a precise educational programme, with primary, intermediate and secondary schools for future government employees; all are subsidised by the government, which later also demands a vocational school. The intermediate school is used by the mission for the education of its seminarians (1928).
At the same time, the outward movement of expansion was begun, a movement that has intensified in recent years, especially in two centres: at Okaru, among the Lokoya (1928), where, given the favourable location, the intermediate school was transferred, and in 1938 the seminary; and at Kapoeta, at the eastern extremity of the mission, among the Tapossa and Dodinga peoples, strong raiding tribes only subdued by the government in 1923. In 1933, given the promising start of the apostolate, the prefecture was relieved of its northern part, namely the civil province of Upper Nile, with which a new autonomous jurisdiction was formed.
At present the prefecture has 31 Fathers and 4 indigenous priests, 16 Brothers, 30 Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth, 248 catechists and 120 teachers. The 72 primary schools have 2,946 pupils, the intermediate school 119 and the vocational school 57. Charity is exercised in 9 dispensaries and 2 small orphanages; in 15 main and secondary stations, the Catholics number 2,418, with 5,511 catechumens.
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