The politics of South Sudan is a fast moving arena. Two books under review take up the challenge of providing a timely analysis of independence and the process of state building. Although both went to press before the outbreak of an internal conflict in December 2013, they are valuable additions to the growing literature on South Sudan and will also be of interest to scholars working on the politics of secession and liberation movements. Grounded in academic research, both books aim to inform a wider audience about one of the most troubled parts of the world.
South Sudan: from revolution to independence by Matthew LeRiche and Matthew Arnold is a guide to the creation of South Sudan as an independent state. It covers the history of Sudan's second civil war (1983–2005), the six-year transitional period leading up to the referendum (which resulted in a landslide vote in favour of separation) and the political process of founding the new state. The account revolves around one question in particular: why did a civil war result in the secession of South Sudan, when the insurgent Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) claimed to be fighting for a national political revolution, a ‘New Sudan’, not independence?
This book is an excellent introduction to the history and politics of the SPLM/A – rebel movement turned ruling party. The historical overview of the civil war and the SPLM/A's internal politics, such as the 1991 split and its bloody aftermath, will be extremely useful for anyone trying to understand the complex political and military crisis that propelled the new state into civil war in 2013. As LeRiche and Arnold make clear, one of the greatest challenges for the new state is that the civil war in Sudan was never simply ‘North verses South’. The conflict shredded the social and political fabric of the South, exacerbating existing grievances and creating new divisions that continue to penetrate every level of society.
Moving through the interim period to independence, there is an engaging discussion of how, after the sudden death of its charismatic leader, John Garang, the SPLM reoriented its political objectives towards securing a referendum that could guarantee South Sudan's independence. There is a systematic summary of post-independence institution building and the foreign relations of the new state. Here too are insights of continuing importance, for example on how the new administration attempted to deal with armed groups opposing the SPLM/A following the end of civil war in 2005. The administrative and security services were used to bring as many people into supporting the government as possible, by offering posts and salaries. While temporarily managing political instability, this strategy undermined effective institution building and vast amounts of public finances were swallowed up as salaries. As the outbreak of civil war in 2013 attests, this failed to resolve effectively the divisions within South Sudanese politics.
The book's main focus on the SPLM/A is welcome: one cannot begin to understand contemporary South Sudanese politics without a basic grounding in SPLM history. But there is a delicate line to tread between explaining the importance of the SPLM to the creation of South Sudan and reproducing the SPLM's own narrative as ‘liberators’ of the nation. LeRiche and Arnold highlight widely made criticisms of the SPLM/A, such as brutality to the civilian population and political dominance. Yet the almost exclusive focus on the post-1983 period results in a foreshortening of South Sudanese political thought.
This focus on the SPLM also excludes other important voices. The introduction promises to explore what kind of future South Sudanese want to forge for themselves. However, there is an absence of South Sudanese perspectives in this book, beyond high-level SPLM politics (and even here the most cited interview is with a foreign aid worker). The conclusion that Garang could not convince Southerners (who voted overwhelmingly for secession) of his vision for a ‘New Sudan’ because of their ‘conservatism’ and ‘introverted and reactionary tendencies’ (p. 233) does an unfortunate disservice to the aspirations of this extraordinarily resilient population. What may appear, on the surface, as ‘conservatism’ is part of a set of strategies used by local communities to manage violent and predatory administrations, including that of the SPLM/A.
Post-Referendum Sudan, edited by Samson Wassara and Al-Tayib Zain Al-Abdin Muhammed, is a more specialist book. It is the outcome of a CODESRIA conference of the same title held in Nairobi in 2011. The chapters are divided into three parts: Sudan–South Sudan and regional relations; the prospects for nation building in the new state; and South Sudan's economy.
The first and largest section addresses the political consequences of South Sudan's independence, with a particular focus on the implications for the Horn of Africa, a region that has now witnessed two incidents of secession (in Eritrea and South Sudan). A major strength of this collection is that it draws on a diverse range of interpretations. For example, to Kassahun Berhanu, the referendum on South Sudan's independence was a constructive solution to ‘the super-imposed merger of North and South Sudan’ (p. 53) in the mid-1950s. However, Hamed Omer Hawi expresses concern that secession will not address the core political problems of the former Sudan, namely the ability of the central state to equitably manage diversity. He points to other marginalized areas of Sudan, such as the transitional zones along the new international border that are now experiencing internal conflicts.
The immense challenges of nation building in South Sudan are the second core theme of the book. The impression given is of a problematic early period of nation building. Christopher Zambakari, for example, argues that the SPLM's decentralized administration, and particularly the alignment of administrative units with ethnic identities, has exacerbated local conflicts rather than promoting cohesion. He suggests that John Garang's vision of a ‘New Sudan’ is still relevant to both countries as an inclusive model of citizenship that is based on national equality. Throughout the entire volume there is much reflection on the complicated histories of violence and cooperation between Sudan and South Sudan. Concerns about the effects of war on social and political relations within South Sudan are raised but could be developed further. For example, Mahmood Mamdani cautions that not enough attention has been given to resolving violence in the South and Samson Wassara points to a worrying pattern of using violence to resolve political differences and as a route to power. This internal violence has proved the biggest threat to South Sudan's nation-building project.
Several years after publication, some once pressing questions have been resolved or have evolved into new dilemmas. On the economy, chapters by Benaiah Yongo-Bure and Andrew Ssemwanga argue for the best way of introducing and managing a new currency in South Sudan. Although useful for historians of economic planning, readers concerned with ongoing events will find these concerns eclipsed by new economic problems, particularly the acute crisis in foreign exchange since 2015 and the falling price of oil.
The contributors to this book raise many questions; rather fewer answers are provided. Given the timing of the collection, on the eve of South Sudan's independence, this is an honest position to take. Nevertheless, there are many insights in both Post-Referendum Sudan and South Sudan that will give scholars, practitioners and South Sudanese much to reflect on as the new state attempts to resolve its own internal conflicts.
