Spotlight on South Sudan
“It is not in our interest, I suppose, to let South Sudan fall under the category of the burdened societies. We must be critical about our own actions if we want to move forward as a nation proud of its immense diversity.”
― Duop Chak Wuol, the editor-in-chief of the South Sudan News Agency (SSNA)
South Sudan, deemed the youngest African nation, is a small country teeming with diversity and culture within its borders. The land mass spanning 644,331 sq km holds savannas, rainforests, wetlands and many places of interest such as the Imatong Mountains, Lake Ambadi and the Bengangai Reserve. The varying land is home to the rare animals such as cranes, rhinoceroses, and the Abyssian, the oldest cat breed in the world. With a population size of 13 million the nation boasts ethnic diversity relative to its size, with over forty ethnic groups and languages. The Dinka people comprise about 36% of the population followed by the Neur people at about 16%. With English as the primary nation, Arabic, Dinka and Neur are amongst the others spoken in the region. The majority of the people subscribe to Abrahamic religions with Christianity being the majority (70%) followed by indigenous beliefs such as animism (20%) and Islam (6.2%).
South Sudanese culture is rife with art and storytelling oral traditions relaying folktales, legends, chants, and epics. The majority of music is heavily inspired by jazz, reggae, afrobeats, and zouk; all of which are primarily written in English, Kaswahili and Juba. Many cultural practices such as tattooing, facial scarring and particular braiding styles have been maintained through the generations. South Sudanese meals, gaining inspiration from Arabian and various East African palettes, generally consists of meat/fish stews and a side dish. There are many dishes such as the protein rich Shaiyah, the supple ful medames fava dish and the perfect blend of sweets that can be found in the Khak dessert cookies. The primarily agrarian nation places wheat, corn, and other grains at the center of its diet, resulting in gurassa and kisra bread, porridge and goat being big parts of the South Sudanese diet. South Sudan is a sustenance farming and livestock dependent nation; so much so that wealth can be determined by the number of livestock a family owns. While the country is rich in gold, diamond, tungsten and petroleum, which back the South Sudanese pound, livestock can also act as forms of currency.
STATE OF AFFAIRS
Now modern day south Sudan, once ruled over as a British colony of Equatoria in 1870, had been released from direct colonial rule at the turn of the 20th century. Britain during this transition and wave of colonial abolition prepared the colonies for independence. the imperial power decided to combine the politics of the British colonial administration that had stayed in Sudan and the missionaries that were in power by having the juba conference of 1947. after nearly a decade, Sudan gained independence in 1956 under the leadership of the Arab Khartoum government. the newly formed Sudan had developed a sociopolitical split between the big northern region and the smaller southern region, so the leaders of the country had made promises to give the smaller southern Sudanese region adequate political power. unfortunately, failures on the promises made by the government started two 20 year conflicts spanning from 1955 to 2005 affecting over 2.5 million civilians.
January of 2005 marked the Comprehensive Peace Agreement when the south was granted a six year time period for autonomy to hold a referendum for the possibility for succession. Salva Kiir Mayardit after rebel leader John Garang died in a helicopter crash. In January 2011 the region had a 98% vote for severance and after official independence on July 9th, 2011 the nation of South Sudan has had to deal with political strife. As the last African country to gain independence, there became an elected president and vice president, with powers being dispersed between the National Legislative Assembly and the Council of States. A civil war erupted in 2013 resulting in food shortages, the displacement of millions of people and a halted oil production had been stopped due to political disagreement. A transitional government was established in April 2016 consisting of members of the NLA and rebel groups (overseen by rebel leader rebel leader Machar) but the fight that broke out between two major/significant dignitaries put the nation back into political anarchy. The cumulative effects of the years of conflict has required a humanitarian response and foreign intervention to destabilize the situation. Abdalla Hamdo, the prime minister of Sudan, planned to take members of his cabinet into South Sudan to inspire peace talks.
CALL TO ACTION
The consequences of political instability and discourse can be felt at every level of the sociopolitical structure of South Sudan. Sudan’s President Salva Kiir and Chief of Justice Chan Reech Madut, under a peace treaty signed in September 2018; at that point the civil war had killed over 400,000 people and facilitated Africa’s biggest refugee efflux since the 1994 Rwandan genocide. The leaders had postponed deadlines to form a unified government at the time, however, the former rebel leader Riek Machar was sworn in as South Sudan’s first vice president in February 2020. While this is a significant first step attaining socio-political and economic stability, there is still a long way to go for the nation and its people to recover from the effects of the civil war. The government’s mishandling of the nation’s resources has led to the nation having one of the highest inflation rates on the planet. While the nations’ leaders are making strides for peace keeping and political stability, about 7% of the population remains in severe poverty, facing adversity in the country’s rural areas having poor infrastructure and sanitation. These conditions have led to 4.3 million people to be displaced, millions of people being killed and millions more are fighting for their next meal. The systemic issues that are plaguing the nation will take time to be assuaged but can be resolved. This would require a combined effort across multiple fronts to first address the nation’s most pressing dilemmas. Assistance does not have to be in a monetary form as you could sign a petition, volunteer with an organization or donate supplies.
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