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List of contents
Introduction
PART ONE: Origins: The Southern Sudan as People, Polity and “Problem” (c. 1821-1983)
Conquest and Colonisation Independence and Rebellion
PART TWO: The War Continues: The Fight for Nation and State (1983 – 2002)
War and New Leadership Inner Turmoil
PART THREE: Independence and Civil War: Building a State, Forgetting a Nation (2002 – 2015)
Negotiating and Implementing Peace Freedom, Fragility and Fragmentation
Conclusion
About the author
Sonja Theron is a part-time lecturer in the Department of Political Sciences, University of Pretoria and a researcher at the Centre for Mediation in Africa, University of Pretoria, South Africa.
Summary
For over fifty years, the people of South Sudan fought for the right to be citizens of an independent nation-state. When this goal was finally achieved, however, it quickly became evident that the South Sudanese nation was not nearly as cohesive as hoped. The result has been a catastrophic civil war. Spanning South Sudan’s nation-building struggle from its inception up until the current civil war, this book challenges the notion that the continued violence of this process can be reduced to either identity difference or the fault of individual leaders. Rather, it uses the leadership process to understand the complex progressions and relationships that have characterised South Sudan’s nation-building trajectory. The book argues that the core driving force behind the current conflict in South Sudan can be found not in ethnicity, the “resource curse” or power struggle, but in a set of destructive relationships that have fueled violence and oppression in the country for the better part of a century. This cyclical leadership process has entrapped the country in an increasingly destructive and contradictory nation-building process that continues to spiral and disintegrate.
Foreword
A searing academic analysis of the failures of South Sudan's drive for stable democratic independence
Additional text
This is an important contribution to scholarly work seeking to understand why South Sudan has been unable to build a nation that sustains peace. It also makes for stark reading for those working on peacebuilding efforts in the country and beyond. Theron skilfully interrogates South Sudan’s chaotic and destructive leadership patterns and processes and how these have prevented any chance of peace. Her book untangles the complex realities of how nation and state-building efforts, whether in South Sudan or elsewhere are held hostage to the violent competing visions of a country’s political elites. Theron’s book comes at an opportune time in the arduous effort to secure a viable future for South Sudan after the painstakingly crafted 2018 peace agreement. Her insights are a reminder of what is at stake for this young country: if dangerously repetitive leadership patterns of relying on coercion, rewards and identity to create state and nationhood are not replaced with societal trust, mutuality, or collective responsibility – key ingredients for peacebuilding – fragmentation, violence and war will continue to mar the South Sudan’s progress.
