People Of South Sudan Research Articles

THE IMPLICATION OF STATE FORMATION ON STATE INSTITUTIONS IN INDEPENDENT SOUTH SUDAN

State formation as a process at the international level has aroused interest and controversy among scholars of the African state and states elsewhere. While the states outside Africa have been shown as having gone through a different course of formation many still believe that the state in Africa especially Sub-Saharan Africa had not experienced the process which the state in Europe and elsewhere had gone through. What is interesting is that many scholars from outside Africa want to study the African state from the time of colonialism as if Africa had no past before European colonialism. This therefore many times leads to concern for many who want to study the state in Africa before colonialism where some authors depict pre-colonial Africa as having no form of polity but quasi or decentralized societies with no form of statehood. This part of history is ignored and therefore it becomes hard to explain the consequences of the way the state was formed in form of institutions formed, conflict and security. The people of South Sudan have historically known more war than peace because of the institutions that were formed during colonial times and later bequeathed to post-colonial leaders. South Sudanese believe now that they are their own nation; it’s time to teach people how to build strong institutions which can protect the citizens and their state through indigenous institutions and constitution. Currently, the institutions in South Sudan are weak, wrecked by corruption and Nepotism. The people in these institutions do not see themselves as belonging to one state where everyone should have equal rights and most importantly, these institutions are a threat to human and national security of the state of South Sudan. This scenario cannot be explained minus the history of the colonial impact over Sudan where South Sudan was a part. The colonialists could not build indigenous institutions, they were not concerned with democracy and a constitution, but built a ruthless army against the indigenous Sudanese including those in southern Sudan who later seceded to form the new state of South Sudan. The breakaway of South Sudan is an interesting area of how states in Africa were formed and the institutions that have become a liability to South Sudan which can be explained by the state formation process which needs to be investigated.

PROBLEMS AND CHALLENGES FACING THE NEWLY SPLIT SOUTH SUDAN STATE

This paper seeks to explore the possible problems and challenges facing the fledgling South State. It is this impartial approach to addressing such an issue that sets the current study as unique and exclusive. The people of South Sudan have finally managed to establish their own nation state after almost two-decade of internecine civil war. In fact wars between the North and South were fought ever since the dawn of independence, and even before. The newly independent State of the South Sudan has to be prepared to put up with lots of agonies partly seen and predictable and partly not. There are myriad of models of split States across the globe, however the reality of the Southern State is enormously different. The South has for decades been a battle ground for several wars and hardly ever a developmental program started there was fully accomplished as it was planned, no matter how vital was the nature of that project. The South is a land housing a multitude of ethnicities who disparagingly have their different set of cultural and social values with very slender common ground. The South, by its very tropical nature, provides a hospitable milieu for accumulation of diverse diseases. Positive aspects of independence as they shall form the future of the newly emerging nation shall receive their due analytical weight, as well. KEY WORDS: split, corruption, social maladies, ethnicities, cultural and social values, hygienic awareness, newly independent

Almost at Home in South Sudan: International Christian Humanitarians and the Theopolitics of Recognition

In this study, we examine the experience of international Christian humanitarian aid workers and who work in South Sudan. From interviews with thirty people in east Africa and north America, we derive a relationship between Christianity as our participants understand it, and their modalities of encountering “the other” – the people of South Sudan, who may seem different and unfamiliar, yet who must be met as part of religiously motivated life and work. In terrain of South Sudan, we argue that our participants enact a theopolitics of recognition, in which their emotional and practical connections to the people they serve are triangulated through God. This theopolitics operates almost entirely at the individual level, as personal encounters and work are mediated by the assumption of a shared relationship to God. The people of South Sudan are recognized as both familiar and strange, because they share a posited connection to the divine with humanitarians from the global north. We argue that this recognition is different from other ways of encountering the other found in literature ranging from feminist theory to international development. This study thus adds to scholarly knowledge of faith-based organizations and global humanitarianism. We also argue that while the theopolitical modality makes possible certain kinds of ethical action, it may close off other forms of action based in broader political critiques of global relations of power.

Wailing of the people of South Sudan from oil contamination (overview of oil production and effects on people health)

Wailing of the people of South Sudan from oil contamination (overview of oil production and effects on people health)

Finding Balance between Human Need and Global Stewardship

Finding Balance between Human Need and Global Stewardship

South Sudan: Too Young to Consider a WTO Membership?

South Sudan becomes independent in a world where states are interconnected and interdependent on one another. Its history and current challenges make it the most vulnerable country in the world. The country is very rich in natural resources, has fertile land, shares the different fish varieties of the River Nile and has a government that wants to be different from that of the North. However, it has a limited market and its agricultural sector is archaic. Can a WTO membership help? This presentation aims to stimulate a debate that will help the people of South Sudan to see the benefits and challenges of being a sovereign state in a globalized world.

South Sudan and the pitfalls of power

For the people of South Sudan, the promise of independence is saddled with challenges similar to those witnessed by post-independence Africa in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Then, the euphoria was short lived as several African countries lapsed into a state of authoritarianism, corruption and instability. The question is, what went wrong and can South Sudan learn from Africa's past? This update observes that there are differences in context between South Sudan and post-independence Africa, but maintains that South Sudan faces similar dangers: independence could easily turn into disenchantment and come to haunt the leaders of Africa's newest state should they fail to take concrete measures to transform institutions to be accountable, inclusive and responsive to people's needs.

The Sudanese Bill of Rights

In January 2005, a Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) brought one of the longest conflicts in Africa – the so-called Sudan north–south conflict – to an end. The CPA seeks to resolve the root causes of Sudan's conflict by providing a six-year temporary solution aimed at laying the foundation for a country that is based on pluralistic democracy and rule of law by granting Southern Sudan autonomous status and fixing a timetable on the question of the right of self-determination for the people of Southern Sudan. It establishes a dual legal system (a Sharia system in the north and a secular system in the south) and a comprehensive Bill of Rights to be enshrined in the National Interim Constitution (INC). This paper examines how the Bill of Rights addresses the root causes of the Sudan conflict. The Bill of Rights is only 3 years old; it is too early to present an analysis and evaluation based on actual practice. This paper attempts to offer textual analysis; that is, what the law says should happen if the provisions of the Bill of Rights are to work properly; and it attempts to provide a background to the Sudanese Bill of Rights. The contents of the Bill of Rights is reviewed briefly. How the Bill of Rights addresses the underlying causes of the Sudan conflict is considered by looking at the religious rights, ethnic and cultural diversity and the right to self-determination of the people of south Sudan. The application of the Bill of Rights and the way it protects fundamental rights and freedoms is examined by focusing on the constitutional review of the legislative and executive actions of the State. The interpretation of the Bill of Rights and the problems regarding its interpretation are considered. The paper then examines the limitations clause of the Bill of Rights, and concludes by reflecting on the preceding sections.

Self-Determination: A Solution to the Sudan Problem

Self-Determination: A Solution to the Sudan Problem Sam L. Laki Central State University, Ohio South Sudan is different from North Sudan in nearly every aspectethnicity , culture, history, religion and geography. It was misguided for the British colonial administration, under pressure from Egypt, North Sudan, and Britain, to annex South Sudan to North Sudan arbitrarily. Since Sudan's independence from Britain in 1956, the people of South Sudan have been subjected to racial, social, and religious discrimination. They have been relegated to second-class citizenry in their own country. North Sudan's sectarian parties have a vision of the country deeply rooted in sharia (Islamic) law, and correspondingly have pursued vigorously the policy of Islamicization and Arabization of South Sudan. The current National Islamic Front (NIF) government of Lt. General Omer El Bashir brags openly of its success in the application of the sharia law that has brought misery and immense suffering to the African population of Sudan. It is my contention that future changes of leadership in Khartoum will not bring any improvement to the conditions of the people of South Sudan. I would like to make it clear at the outset that the 'Sudan problem' is unique and has no comparison or similarity whatsoever with any local, regional or national problem in any African country. Precolonial Period The people of North Sudan are Muslims who lay claim to some form of Arab descent, and the South Sudanese are Africans who practice their own African beliefs mixed with Christianity. The diverse population speaks 400 different languages. This ethnic, religious, and racial mixture has been the root cause of the identity crises in Sudan.©Northeast African Studies (ISSN 0740-9133) Vol. 3, No. 2 (New Series) 1996, pp. 7-20 8 Sam L. Laki Before the advent of the Anglo-Egyptian colonial era in 1898, the Arabs and Africans lived apart with nothing in common. The TurcoEgyptian administration (Turkiyya), from 1820-1881, and the Mahdi administration (Mahdiyya), from 1881-1898, never attained any measure of control over South Sudan. South Sudan remained a theater of war between the intruders and the indigenous populations. The legacy of the notorious slave trade poisoned the relationship between the people of South Sudan and North Sudan to an extent that the relationship between the Arabs and Africans had been characterized by hatred and violence. The Arabs plundered South Sudan looking for ivory and slaves. It is fair to say that the only contact the two peoples had was through the slave trade, when the North Sudanese Arabs made many incursions into South Sudan in search of loot and people to enslave. North Sudanese retainers and slave traders pillaged and disrupted life in South Sudan. This invasion of South Sudanese territory by the Arabs was conducted with the tacit approval of the Islamic leadership. It suffices to say that the Sudan is an artificial creation of Britain, Egypt and elites of North Sudan. The people of South Sudan have never been a party to it. The Condominium Period The British colonial policy was to foster Islamic culture in North Sudan and indigenous African culture in South Sudan. Keeping the two nationalities separate was an honest recognition by the British of the distinct difference in culture, religion, peoples and geography. The 1918 closed districts and passports ordinances sealed off South Sudan from Arab influence until the reversal of the "Southern policy" in 1947. The governor-general, Sir Harold McMichael, was responsible for the institution of the "Southern Policy," meant to keep the Africans separate from the North Sudanese. This policy had been designed to close South Sudan from the external Arab influence with the ostensible intention of preserving indigenous African customs, traditions and beliefs. The policy was a total failure because the Anglo-Egyptian colonial administration also never engaged itself in any form of social, political, or economic development of South Sudan. Self-Determination: A Solution to the Sudan Problem 9 As mentioned above, North Sudanese claim Arab ancestry and identify with Arab culture, and South Sudanese have African ancestry and identify with African culture. The distinct difference between the African Sudanese and the Arabs has given birth to the "nationality question" at the core of...