https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3220-5302
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ABSTRACT
This article argues for a better understanding of the market foundations of ‘elite’ autocracy, and for a re-centring of the construction and exploitation of labour markets, in histories of economic and political power in South Sudan. Based on conversations with residents and migrant workers on the borders between north-western South Sudan and southern Darfur in Sudan over 2017 to 2019, it explores how cycles of wars, displacement, resettlement and reconstruction since the 1980s have rapidly monetised and commodified working lives, land and relationships. This has precipitated rapid class stratification, cash debt and worker exploitation, and sharp controls on the emerging cheap cash labour pool via border violence, wage depression, land alienation and rents, and the construction of a private educational market, which have all undercut older forms of collective work and mutuality. These changes have been encouraged and exploited by growing classes of private landowners, commercial farmers and military entrepreneurs, and been supported by the development and humanitarian system’s investment in market forces and individual self-reliance.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank Anna Rowett, Head of the South Sudan Office of the Rift Valley Institute, for her strong support for this research and giving us the opportunity to work with the Institute over the last five years. We thank Marko Dut Garang, Santino Garang Akot, Paulino Dhieu Tem, Asunta Abuk Deng and Samuel Nicola Kornelio for their work on this research over the years, and their ideas and enthusiasm. We would also like to thank Anna, Mimi Bior, Alex Miskin Simple, Machot Amuom, Mark Bradbury, Eddie Thomas, Cedric Barnes and all the other national and international researchers affiliated with the Rift Valley Institute – too many to name here – who supported us in this work. Nicki would like to thank the Harry F. Guggenheim Foundation for their support and encouragement during fieldwork and writing. We dedicate this research to the memory of our friend and fellow researcher Santino Garang Akot.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1. In Dinka, this final phrase is ‘piir acuɔp cum kuc riɛl ku pir ee duööt kuëc ɣɛn’.
2. Interviews and group discussions were undertaken in Wanyjok, Malualkon, Warawar and Majok Nyinthiou towards Kordofan (Aweil East); in Gokmachar, Ariath and Kiir Adem towards Darfur (Aweil North); in Nyamlel and Wedweil (Aweil West); in Aweil town, Apada and Alel to the West of Aweil town (Aweil Centre); and in Malek Alel and Pan-Jap (Aweil South). Additional interviews were conducted in Juba’s Custom and Gudele markets, and in the Juba suburbs of Jebel Dinka, Referendum and Mia Saba; and in Khartoum, in Haj Yousif and Jebel Aulia, with South Sudanese migrant workers.
3. Their accounts are made pseudonymous here for their safety.
4. The X-Border Local Research Network, a component of the FCDO’s Cross-Border Conflict Evidence, Policy and Trends (XCEPT) programme, funded by UK aid from the UK government. The Network carries out research to better understand the causes and impacts of conflict in border areas and their international dimensions. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the UK government’s official policies. This research was conducted by the Rift Valley Institute, which works in Eastern and Central Africa to bring local knowledge to bear on social, political and economic development: http://riftvalley.net/projects/x-border-local-research-network.
5. We want to thank Anna Rowett, Mimi Bior and staff of RVI Juba for their support and strong ethical principles.
6. Interview with executive chief from Abiem, Juba, 17 August 2017; interview with elderly paramount chief in Nyamlel, 19 August 2017.
7. Interview with deputy paramount chief, Wadweil, 24 August 2017.
8. This work was unevenly spread across the region, reflecting the uneven impact of the war’s devastation and displacement.
9. Peter, interviewed in a cattle camp in Alel, 9 September 2019.
10. Manyang, interviewed in Warawar, 13 December 2018.
11. Garang, interviewed at Maper chiefs’ court, 4 September 2019; Mel, interviewed with friends at Maluil Akoong, 5 September 2019.
12. Wol, interviewed in Kalakla in Khartoum, 28 September 2019.
13. Regina, interviewed in Maper Market outside Aweil town, 9 December 2018.
14. Winnie Joanne, ‘What it means to be that child.’
15. Ngor, interviewed with friends at Akuem market, 4 September 2019; Angelina, interviewed on her rented farm in Alel, 30 August 2019; Garang, interviewed at Maper chiefs’ court, 4 September 2019.
16. Martha, interviewed at her church in Maper village, 9 December 2018.
17. Athian, interviewed in Ariath village, 10 December 2018.
18. Dut, interviewed in Maper, 29 August 2019.
19. As described by Cleto, interviewed at Kalakla-Guba, Khartoum, 24 September 2019; and by John, interviewed at Jebel Aulia, Khartoum, 29 September 2019.
20. Yual, interviewed at Chamanguei, 3 September 2019.
21. Athian, interviewed in Ariath village, 10 December 2018.
22. Aher, interviewed in a cattle camp in Alel, 9 September 2019.
23. Cattle camp elders, interviewed at Maker near Wadweil, 12 December 2018.
24. Peter, interviewed at Udhum market, 7 September 2019.
25. Dumo, interviewed on his farm at Nyalath, 15 December 2018.
26. Nyibol, interviewed at Majok Nyinthiau border post, 14 December 2018.
27. Along, interviewed in Maper market, 8 December 2018.
28. Samson, interviewed in central Khartoum, 24 September 2019.
29. Monde Lual, ‘Untitled.’
30. Michael, interviewed with other teachers at Nyamlel, 12 December 2018.
31. Akuin, interviewed with friends at Malek Alel, Aweil South, 6 September 2019. Our emphasis.
32. Luciano, interviewed in central Khartoum, 25 September 2019. Similar analyses were made by Cattle camp elders, interviewed at Maker near Wadweil, 12 December 2018; and by All, a market stall worker interviewed at Nyamlel market day, 12 December 2018.
33. Thiel, interviewed in Aweil town, 2 September 2019.
34. These take various forms, such as the national security sector’s monopoly on fuel distribution across Juba; SPLA and SPLM/A-IO sale and taxation of teak plantations and artisan gold-mining across the Equatorias; and the armed control of charcoal production and/or trade and taxation across the country.
35. James, interviewed in Jebel Aulia, Khartoum, 2 October 2019.
36. Ibid.
37. Deng, interviewed in Juba, 25 September 2019.
38. Adhal, interviewed at Majok Nyinthiau border post, 14 December 2018; Bol, interviewed with friends at Akuem, 4 September 2019; Abdalla, interviewed at Jebel Aulia, Khartoum, 24 September 2019.
39. Dheifallah, interviewed at Warawar border checkpoint, 12 December 2018.
40. Heading to Uganda or Kenya requires significant money for long-distance travel and preferably some English language skills. On the border with Sudan, more people speak some Sudanese Arabic.
41. William, interviewed at Malek Alel, 6 September 2019.
42. Manyang, interviewed at Warawar, 13 December 2018.
43. Samson, interviewed in central Khartoum, 24 September 2019.
44. Ibid.
45. Luciano, interviewed in central Khartoum, 25 September 2019.
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Nicki Kindersley
Nicki Kindersley is Lecturer in African History at Cardiff University, and formerly the Harry F. Guggenheim Research Fellow at Pembroke College, University of Cambridge. She works on histories of labour, migration and political thought in South Sudan and its borderlands.
Joseph Diing Majok Majok
Joseph Diing Majok Majok is a lead researcher at the Rift Valley Institute, South Sudan, and a Catto Scholarship holder at the Centre of African Studies, Edinburgh University. He is a historical anthropologist of gendered labour systems.