Are “Griefs of More Value than Triumphs”?: Power Relations, Nation-Building, and the Different Histories of Women’s Wartime Contributions in Postwar South Sudan

Abstract

In this article, the author examines the roles of women during the second civil war of South Sudan (1983–2005) and how their contribution to the liberation struggle led by the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) is advertised by the new state in the postwar era. Pinaud analyzes the reasons behind the promotion of the women’s battalion’s history in the postwar era by the state, in contrast with its disregard for camp followers. Highlighting the different categories and socio-ethnic origins of female actors in the war, she subscribes to the idea developed by other authors that advertised myths and official state history are the products of an ideological selection operated by the group dominating the state. This article illustrates how, by silencing the history of the camp followers (particularly in the Equatorian region), the state effectively censors the wartime experiences of an entire segment of the population. The state fails to engage a negotiation of beliefs, which is formative of a collective memory that shapes a group’s sense of shared experience and identity. The article thus brings new material to reflect on the social and political dynamics behind the formation of state history, collective memory and nationhood in South Sudan, a relatively new stream of research.