In July 2011, South Sudan was granted independence and became the world’s newest country. Yet just two-and-a-half years after this momentous decision, the country was in the grips of renewed civil war and political strife. Hilde F. Johnson served as Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of the United Nations Mission in the Republic of South Sudan from July 2011 until July 2014 and, as such, she was witness to the many challenges which…
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CSRF Research Repository
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South Sudan: Post-Independence Dilemmas is an interdisciplinary collection of essays which engages with the failure of the newest African State to transition itself successfully to a state and nation after its independence in July 2011. The contributors explore the prospects for new modes of politics capable of simultaneously healing and reconciling the divided communities while moving the country beyond divisive ethnic identities. As they focus on the political, historical, legal, or cultural challenges presented in…
This chapter argues that preventing mass atrocities in Africa requires addressing the root causes of conflicts. It focuses on the experience of Sudan–South Sudan, which is, in many ways, a microcosm of Africa. The chapter argues that a crisis of identity lies at the heart of conflicts in the two Sudans, reflecting their failure to manage diversity constructively. As in all such conflicts, the root cause is not the mere existence of differences, but the…
Sudan from which South Sudan split in 2011 has been known for its years of political and social upheaval since the end of the British colonial rule. The two countries are intimately linked to one another by their history that anyone writing about what has become known as the Sudans cannot hope to provide a meaningful context without reference to that shared past. This is what the author has done in this volume of his…
This chapter takes the case studies of Sudan and South Sudan where China has played a significant if sometimes controversial role. Investigating the shifting policy positions and response to crisis engendered by Chinese multilateral engagement and its commercial interests in the region, the constraints and obstacles to constructive involvement are highlighted through this study. Link to publication
After decades of civil war, the people of southern Sudan voted to secede from the north in an attempt to escape the seemingly endless violence. On declaring independence, South Sudan was one of the least developed places on earth, but with the ability to draw upon significant oil reserves worth $150 million a month, the foundation for a successful future was firmly in place. How, then, did the state of the new nation deteriorate even…
Africa’s newest nation has a long history. Often considered remote and isolated from the rest of Africa, and usually associated with the violence of slavery and civil war, South Sudan has been an arena for a complex mixing of peoples, languages, and beliefs. The nation’s diversity is both its strength and a challenge as its people attempt to overcome the legacy of decades of war to build a new economic, political, and national future. Most…
Expanded third edition of this key text on the complex underlying conditions of the civil war from the 1960s to the present day, including a new chapter on the current wars in Sudan’s new south and South Sudan. Sudan’s post-independence history has been dominated by political and civil strife. Most commentators have attributed the country’s recurring civil war either to an age-old racial divide between Arabs and Africans, or to recent colonially constructed inequalities. This…
This book chapter brings together many of the issues around local and national belonging through looking at the dynamics of citizenship and belonging for those within and from Sudan. It looks at the intersection between citizenship and displacement in the context of those living on the margins in Khartoum; and those who were displaced from their homeland of Darfur and found themselves living on the ‘wrong’ side of the border—that is, in South Sudan—at the…
South Sudan is the world’s youngest independent country. Established in 2011 after two wars, South Sudan has since reverted to a state of devastating civil strife. This book provides a general history of the new country, from the arrival of Turco-Egyptian explorers in Upper Nile, the turbulence of the Mahdist revolutionary period, the chaos of the ‘Scramble for Africa’, during which the South was prey to European and African adventurers and empire builders, to the…
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