The argument of the thesis begins with the question of how Christianity became the main religion in South Sudan. It is crucial to search for the connecting point between Christian mission and the South Sudanese. Although South Sudan and Christianity had been directly opposed due to the image of Christianity as a part of the colonial power and Western imperialism, the two disparate groups came together through a particular historical moment that united them. The connecting point that linked South Sudan with Christianity was the dynamic movement of Christian missions in responding to the socio-political and historical needs of South Sudan. The junction between Christianity and South Sudan was strongly connected to missionary work in southern Sudan from the 1920s to the 1950s. This is the period in which the educational work of Christian mission reached its zenith. Moreover, southern Sudan, now South Sudan, had struggled with Arabic Northern Sudan, present-day Sudan in order for the federation policy to separate from Northern Sudan. Therefore, the thesis focuses on how the educational work of the missions influenced the formation of the nationalism of South Sudan. In particular, this research will be laid out in three sections: the historical background of the socio-political chasm between Southern Sudan and Northern Sudan; the educational work of the missions in Southern Sudan from the 1920s to 1950s; the nationalism of Southern Sudan in connection with the educational work of the missions.

Esse trabalho propõe-se a uma investigação histórica do longo processo que originou o Estado do Sudão do Sul, tornado independente em 2011 após plebiscito. Para tanto, buscamos traçar uma longa história do Sudão, do bilad al-sudan oriental aos dias atuais. Nos apoiamos, principalmente, em algumas obras da extensa historiografia do Sudão para desenhar esse quadro contextual de nosso objeto de estudo. Apresentado o palco, buscamos interpretar os eventos, as relações políticas e sociais e mudanças econômicas e culturais a afetar o Sudão, depois Sudão do Sul em sua intricada relação com seus vizinhos regionais e as potências globais. Terminamos nosso trabalho apresentando algumas notas e reflexões acerca de temas mais precisos, como “construção nacional”, “uso político da identidade étnica”, e o “papel das elites” no Sudão do Sul, dentre outras. / This work is the result of a historical investigation of the long process that originated the State of South Sudan, independent in 2011 after a national referendum. We sought to draw a long history of Sudan, from the eastern bilad al-sudan to modern days. We based our work mostly on some of the broad historiography on Sudan, from which to develop a contextual idea of our object of study. Having set the stage, we sought to interpret the events, political and social relations and economic and cultural changes that have affected Sudan and later South Sudan in their intrincate relation with regional neighbors and global powerhouses. Our work concludes presenting some observations ad reflections concerning specific issues, such “nation-building”, “political use of ethnic identity” and the “role of elites” in South Sudan, among others.

The main aim with this thesis has been to understand how the resilience process could be enhanced for South Sudanese unaccompanied and separated children, USC, resettling in Nairobi, Kenya. The aim has further been to provide primary empirical data in order to bridge the gap on resilience research specifically related to this target group, within a non-western refugee context. The research has been carried out using a single case study design, with qualitative methods including an extensive literature review, and semi-structured interviews, as well as a questionnaire for qualitative purpose with 16 South Sudanese youth, arriving in Kenya unaccompanied or separated. Within this thesis, the concept of resilience has been approached from mainly a childhood perspective, focusing on research from the field of child psychology. As a complement, one specific model from the salutogenic research field on health promotion has also been used.   Through the case study, a variety of internal and external protective factors were identified, that could enhance the resilience process for South Sudanese USC. The most occurring were: a belief in God; focus, hard work and discipline; the desire to help family and people in need of support; education; support from others; and to understand and accept the new culture. In addition, the senses of meaningfulness, comprehensibility and manageability worked as important tools to further understand the protective factors that had enhanced resilience for the South Sudanese participants. The findings of this research have also included risk and vulnerability factors that could challenge the resilience process for the target group, including severe human suffering and stressful events; violence; lack of basic needs; loss of family and relatives; lack of mentor/advisor; and separation from family. The thesis ends with providing practical recommendations for humanitarian and development actors on how they best can support South Sudanese USC in the East Africa region.

Esse trabalho propõe-se a uma investigação histórica do longo processo que originou o Estado do Sudão do Sul, tornado independente em 2011 após plebiscito. Para tanto, buscamos traçar uma longa história do Sudão, do bilad al-sudan oriental aos dias atuais. Nos apoiamos, principalmente, em algumas obras da extensa historiografia do Sudão para desenhar esse quadro contextual de nosso objeto de estudo. Apresentado o palco, buscamos interpretar os eventos, as relações políticas e sociais e mudanças econômicas e culturais a afetar o Sudão, depois Sudão do Sul em sua intricada relação com seus vizinhos regionais e as potências globais. Terminamos nosso trabalho apresentando algumas notas e reflexões acerca de temas mais precisos, como “construção nacional”, “uso político da identidade étnica”, e o “papel das elites” no Sudão do Sul, dentre outras. / This work is the result of a historical investigation of the long process that originated the State of South Sudan, independent in 2011 after a national referendum. We sought to draw a long history of Sudan, from the eastern bilad al-sudan to modern days. We based our work mostly on some of the broad historiography on Sudan, from which to develop a contextual idea of our object of study. Having set the stage, we sought to interpret the events, political and social relations and economic and cultural changes that have affected Sudan and later South Sudan in their intrincate relation with regional neighbors and global powerhouses. Our work concludes presenting some observations ad reflections concerning specific issues, such “nation-building”, “political use of ethnic identity” and the “role of elites” in South Sudan, among others.

This research explores the tensions between non-formal land access, violence and urban land policy in the post-conflict city of Juba in Southern Sudan. It departs from the conventional notion of rights to land based on property rights to a broader concept of ‘access’ to investigate the means, processes and relations within society, or ‘mechanisms’, by which individuals attempt to gain and maintain access to non-formal settlement land, how this is controlled and the connections to violence. Moving beyond current dualist frameworks used to understand informality, this research aims to unpack the formal and non-formal institutions in the city whose interplay results in unequal opportunities for individuals to access urban land and how violence is both a mechanism and outcome of this. Using a mixed methods methodology, the research was carried out in Juba and three of its non-formal settlements that have emerged at different times during the city’s approximately ninety-year history. It used mainly in-depth interviews, group discussions, participant observation, structured settlement surveys and semi-structured key informant interviews. As the ‘new’ capital of a multi-ethnic region that has experienced decades of civil war, Juba provides fertile ground to explore these issues. Firstly, by tracing the evolution of the region’s political economy the research shows how, rather than being a new phenomenon, exploitation by government and violence have been integral features of urban land management in the region. Secondly, by considering Juba’s development it shows how violence underpins contemporary settlement patterns in the post-conflict period. Thirdly, by providing case studies of three non-formal settlements it details the evolvement from a sense of community to more segregated practices where land access is becoming highly ethnicised, reflecting broader tensions in the region. Finally, it shows how both ethnic tensions and unclear legislation are being instrumentalised by a web of powerful actors who, whether through coercion, deception or violence, are undermining urban planning in the post-conflict city for their own benefit, and hence the ability of non-formal inhabitants to access land. The research concludes that partly due to the formative nature of institutions controlling urban land access, violence has not ended in the post-conflict period but remains integral. Nevertheless, whilst approaches to non-formal settlements may be seen as a consequence of the persistence of dysfunctional institutions, it also relates to the post-conflict political economy that is emerging in Southern Sudan and the extent to which urban land access is facilitated by connections with the urban political or military elite. As a result, for hundreds of thousands of internally displaced persons, returnees, combatants and ex-combatants the ‘peace dividend’ is compromised. In an urban environment hostile to their presence, they have no choice but to settle in non-formal settlements that, rather than being a solution to their shelter needs, leave them exposed to exploitation by a range of powerful actors.

This research seeks to study the peacebuilding strategies used in South Sudan. It is interested in the interaction between the liberal peacebuilding framework and the “local turn” as manifested in the strategy adopted by peacebuilding organisations in Africa. The local turn and local ownership only enjoy rhetorical acceptance and prove to be challenging to operationalise. This research critically analyses the ideological policies and implementation impact of strategies used, especially relating to the inclusion as well as the exclusion of “the local”. As local ownership in peace processes is essential in ensuring sustainability, the research is interested in the position that the “local” voices and “local” peace actors occupy in post-independence peace strategies and policies employed mainly through the liberal framework in South Sudan. It is in the light of the top-down liberal peacebuilding framework that this research provides an analysis of the bottom-up strategies that can be identified in the case of South Sudan. The research will thus identify types of discourses, beliefs, practices and ideologies that have been adopted in South Sudan’s peacebuilding interventions by both the local and external actors and their implications. Using the different strategies employed by the external and internal peace actors as a unit of analysis, the research will aim to find out how the peace strategies employed in South Sudan include “the local” approach, how local and external actors interact and the implications of this relationship for peace in South Sudan. This research employs a critical theory approach to analyse the inclusion of “the local” in peacebuilding and the existing relationship between the liberal peacebuilding framework and the local turn. This will be done using a qualitative approach and a phenomenological design. Since the current strategies do not exist in a vacuum, historical process tracing will be conducted to understand and evaluate the effect and the change of strategies employed by external and internal actors in the past and possible current implications. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2019. / Political Sciences / PhD / Unrestricted

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The essay uses secondary research, and comparative methodology. The aim of the essay is to establish if natural resources plays any role in the conflicts experienced by regions which have continuously seen civil wars, and if so, to what degree. The two cases examined in this thesis are of South Sudan and Gambella in Ethiopia. A comparative analysis is used due to the approaches in political science studies, especially for cases that show huge differences or huge similarities as well as data sources in use of literature reviews. The results show a trivial effect of expertise as what previous scholars established had been confirmed. Furthermore, it proves that equal sharing and usage of natural resources is crucial for preventing conflicts. This study emphasizes the need to understand the relationship between natural resources and the risk for civil conflict, along with the scholars previous findings.

This thesis focuses on GBV against women and girls in conflict and post-conflict societies with a particular emphasis on South Sudan. It notes that women and girls are disproportionately affected by gender-based violence, and other consequences of war, including displacement and loss of livelihood. The generally weaker social capital that women tend to possess is often a precursor to wanton abuse at the hands of both friend and foe. A United Nations Human Rights Commission situation report on South Sudan, the country has had an incredibly difficult experience for the people who were the victims of conflict as violence has completely eclipsed the rule of law. Women and girls continue to encounter gender-related violence in form of rape, defilement, sexual slavery and very many other human rights abuses such as forced prostitution, domestic violence and sex trafficking. Coupled with this, their needs are undermined and not adequately addressed by duty-bearers and state actors. This is the case despite the availability of national legal provisions that declare the protection of women and girls as a guiding principle. This study aims to provide an in-depth understanding of GBV against women and girls in South Sudan. To achieve this, the study offers an understanding of the nature and architecture of South Sudan as a conflict and post-conflict state, and the causes and contributing factors of GBV against women and girls in South Sudan. It also identifies the consequences and effects of GBV against women and girls in South Sudan and examines the legal framework for the protection of women and girls in South Sudan.   The study engages the feminist framework to place the study into perspective. It argues that the main factors leading to GBV against women and girls stem from the patriarchal nature of South Sudanese culture, which is further evidenced in the institutional structures. The study engages a qualitative research approach that is based on a descriptive analysis to offer a normative reflection on how conflict shapes societal attitudes towards women and girls. Being non-empirical, the study uses a library research method of investigation to incorporate available sources with relevant unpublished sources. The findings show that South Sudan is characterized by divided loyalty to two publics namely formal institutional structures and traditional cultural structures. It indicates that the strong formal and informal patriarchal institutions and practices grounded in violence and misogyny still exist giving men a hegemonic status which promotes aggressive behaviour and devaluation of women whilst serving to legitimize GBV against women and girls and prevent access to justice. The study shows that the prevailing laws in South Sudan are not sufficient to protect women and girls in South Sudan from GBV since many of these laws are enacted and enforced by men who oftentimes are the perpetrators of violence against women and are protected by patriarchal cultural and formal institutions. Finally, the study proposes adopting a human rights approach in an ethnically plural state, institutional reforms, legal reforms and increased resource allocation to GBV prevention.

The question regarding what makes child trafficking persistent in conflict and post-war settings has been subject to intense debate. The human trafficking literature makes general conclusions that trafficking is a by-product of civil wars, and in the process child traffickers exploit the breakdown of the rule of law. As such it is perceived that the governance of the problem of child trafficking can be effective whenever peace and stability is realised and when legal frameworks for protecting children are in place. Prompted by these assertions, I conducted a field study in South Sudan, a country emerging from one of Africa’s longest running and most brutal civil wars fought between the government in Khartoum and Sudanese Peoples Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A). The Sudan’s civil wars ended after the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in 2005. Whilst the termination of the war raised expectations that the international anti-trafficking conventions, treaties and customary laws protecting children would have enforcement powers and would guarantee the rights and safety of the child, the peace failed to deliver on these expectations. Based on empirical data obtained through an intensive micro-level qualitative research conducted in South Sudan over three months, the research findings reveal that a number of challenges pose serious difficulties in enforcing international counter-trafficking legislations and child protection instruments. These challenges are compounded by the interplay of the emerging socio-economic and political development in the post-independent South Sudan.