Contemporary South Sudanese Nuer prophets play powerful roles in interpreting the moral limits of lethal violence and weighing the legitimacy claims of rival government leaders. Their activities remain largely invisible to external observers investigating the making and unmaking of fragile states. Focusing on South Sudan’s tumultuous 2005–14 period, this article reveals these hidden dynamics through analysis of the two most-powerful living western Nuer prophets. Link to publication
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CSRF Research Repository
The CSRF Research Repository aims to support greater contextual knowledge for policy makers, programme managers, and implementers by providing a searchable repository of research, analysis, and resources, and providing periodic updates on new research and analysis.
This paper focuses on Nuer civilians who are fighting on the side of the SPLM/A-in-Opposition in the current civil war, popularly known as the White Army. Doing this the report challenges some prevalent misconceptions about the White Army. Download
This briefing (2012) discusses various sources of insecurity in South Sudan. Persisting insecurity is according to the author threatening the fragile state of political unity, in particular once it adopts ethnic fault lines.
This Policy Brief draws on the findings of field research carried out as part of a larger project on the social, economic and political consequences of urbanisation in four cities in Sudan, Juba, Nyala, Port Sudan and Khartoum. This document presents findings from Juba.
This article discusses a specific Dinka Agaar practice alongside existing discourses on the social aspects of violence, thereby arguing how it cannot be judged against any universal human rights standard, devoid of local context or of an overarching meta-narrative. These events highlight conflicting subjectivities, ethical norms, and the painful difficulties inherent to advocacy in areas of conflict. Viewed from the perspective of the larger social unit, it is easy to see how violence was required…
This briefing looks at the underlying drivers of the increased insecurity in Southern Sudan during 2009. It also suggests a number of measurements to counter them. Download
The majority of those living in the border region of Kenya, Sudan, and Uganda are pastoralists, whose livelihoods are dictated by the upkeep and size of their herds. Harsh environmental conditions force pastoralists to migrate in search of water and pasturelands during the dry season. With limited access to water and competing rights to land, inter-tribal conflict arises when pastoralists from one tribe enter the territory of another. The increased availability of small arms in…
In this book, Jok Madut Jok delves deep into Sudan’s culture and past, isolating the factors that have caused its fractured national identity. He describes how Sudan is a country in turmoil, ravaged by civil war, plagued by roaming gangs of rebel and government militia. Because government propaganda, tales of state-sponsored murder, genocide and humanitarian crises are rife, he argues that there is a real need for a measured investigation which carefully examines the causes…
This report investigates the 1998 food crisis in Sudan and reveals how the fault lies primarily with Sudanese government and militias and opposition forces that precipitated the famine and deliberately diverted or looted food from the starving or blocked relief deliveries. Download
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