In December 2013, less than three years after joyful celebrations of South Sudan’s independence, a new civil war broke out and continues today. Despite widespread media attention, considerable oil-reserves and a massive international engagement promoting statebuilding, the new state collapsed in weeks. How was this possible? What is the relationship between statebuilding and collapse in South Sudan? This panel discussion will explore such themes from local perspectives.
Panel Speakers
Dr. Cherry Leonardi is a senior lecturer in the Department of History, Durham University. Her research specializes on South Sudanese history, especially on the history of local justice and chiefships. Her book, Dealing with Government in South Sudan: Histories of Chiefship, Community and States, was published by James Currey in 2013.
Ferenc David Marko is a PhD candidate, Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology, Central European University. His dissertation, ‘Red Tape Theater: The Creation of Citizens and Sovereignty in South Sudan’, is an ethnography of a state bureaucracy. He spent 2013 observing the daily routine of the Directorate of Nationality, Passport and Immigration, South Sudan’s citizenship office in Juba.
Nicki Kindersley is a PhD candidate, Department of History, Durham University, and a former Coordinator and Researcher on the South Sudan National Archives, in collaboration with the Rift Valley Institute. Her dissertation, ‘The Political Identification of Southern Sudan Migrants in Khartoum, 1972-2012’, focuses on community organization and political debates among southerners in Khartoum. She conducted fieldwork in 2012-13 in Khartoum and Aweil, Northern Bahr el Ghazal State.
Sarah Marriott is a PhD candidate, Department of History, Durham University. Her dissertation, ‘Development Narratives in South Sudan since 1945’, focuses on the successes and failures of agricultural development-schemes in South Sudan, with a particular focus on the Zande Scheme. She is combining long-term fieldwork in Yambio, Western Equatoria State, with archival research.
Moderator: Dan Large, Assistant Professor, CEU School of Public Policy, and director, Rift Valley Institute Sudan Open Archive.