Analysing South Sudan’s politics of taxation from 1899 to 2023, this article argues that the ethos of taxation in the region has been and remains primarily oriented around predatory and coercive strategies of rule. Patterns of taxation and their origin are presented by considering taxation practices in colonial, post-colonial rebel-led, and independent South Sudan, to showcase how these practices continued to be yielded as a technology of rule, of coercion, and to fulfill the interests…

This policy brief identifies how three different eras of tax practices continue to inform extractive governance outcomes in South Sudan. The first commenced during colonial occupation of the country from 1899-1956. The next emerged during waves of coercive rebel and Khartoum-led tax practices from 1956 to 2005, and the present era of fragmented taxation and governance outcomes emerged from 2005-onwards. The contemporary legacy of these tax regimes is that taxes do not meaningfully contribute to…

By focusing on the case study of the negotiations over social service tax in Northern Bahr el-Ghazal state, this article provides insights on state formation processes, inter-governmental negotiations and citizen-state relations in South Sudan. This is achieved by considering the economic and political developments that have shaped local and state level negotiations, such as the 2010 elections, the 2012 half of oil exploration and the 2013 decline into civil war. The analysis is further enriched…

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