The scale and complexity of the current crisis in South Sudan challenges description. The advocacy of journalists and non-governmental organisations – whilst generally based on good intentions – often relies on statistical descriptors, explanations of ‘inter-ethnic violence’, and impersonal stories of victimhood which serve to flatten this heterogeneous emergency. In short, many of these current accounts actually tell us little about the many ways in which new South Sudanese refugees are striving to live in dignity and manage exile.

In response to this discursive challenge, the ‘Beyond the Statistics’ workshop was hosted on the 26th May at the National Museum of Uganda. The primary aim of the workshop was to present some diverse commentaries – visual, textual and oral – on the historical and present dynamics of conflict, and create a space for South Sudanese citizens to present papers and debate. The event brought together an audience of over 80 members of South Sudanese communities, academics, and regional activists to discuss various ways of seeing the long

history of violence and displacement.