South Sudanese Refugees in Sudan: A Transition toward a Diaspora Community

Abstract

South Sudanese people shifted from being disadvantaged internally displaced people (IDPs) in Khartoum before the session of South Sudan from Sudan in 2011, toward a semi-refugee status or the ambiguous category of “returnees” after returning back to Khartoum following South Sudan’s civil wars beginning in 2013. This article argues that South Sudanese communities in Khartoum are developing many characteristics of becoming a “diasporic” and “transnationalistic” community, broadly defined. The South Sudanese diasporic community developing in Khartoum is commonly characterized by their strong feelings of anger, sadness, and disappointment over what happened to their long-awaited dreams of an independent South Sudan, and also by a strong feeling of belonging to a distinctive South Sudanese identity in Khartoum, both of which are a continuation of old South Sudanese identities developed in the shantytowns of Khartoum since the 1960s. While transnational relations and networks extend strongly between Khartoum and many different areas in South Sudan, the impact of South Sudan’s post-2011 violence and political negotiations between different warring parties has strong resonance in South Sudan’s communities in Khartoum. Moreover, the experience of being displaced after independence, back to old South Sudanese diasporic homes, has fundamentally shaped a new self-identification as diaspora and a transnational community.