The Second-Generation Liberation Movement in Southern Sudan: Anti-Colonialism as a Set of Practices

ABSTRACT

A remarkable feature of the Southern Sudanese liberation movement during the First Sudanese Civil War was its use of anti-colonial discourse and tactics. Soon into their struggle, the Southern Sudanese came to depict their situation as colonisation by the Muslim-Arab elite in Khartoum. As this article argues, this adoption of anti-colonial identity was the outcome of Southern Sudanese interaction with neighbouring Arab and African first-generation liberation movements, through which the future leaders of the Southern Sudanese liberation movement observed and absorbed the practices used against European colonialism. When the Southern Sudanese launched their liberation struggle, these practices shaped their struggle.

Acknowledgments

The author wishes to thank the editors and two anonymous reviewers for their feedback. The author would also like to thank staff at the South Sudan National Archives for their help.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Here a historiographical debate must be addressed: The prevalent perception of the Sudanese civil war is that it started in August 1955, with the outbreak of the Equatoria Corps’ mutiny in Torit (Johnson 2003, Poggo 2009). Recent studies of the conflict have challenged this view. Øystein Rolandsen (2011a), for instance, maintains that the war only broke out at full scale in 1963 and that the preceding period witnessed low-intensity violence and disturbances, but not a war. The period of 1956–1962, Rolandsen maintains, was a period of low-intensity violence and disturbances, but not war. Therefore, had Khartoum addressed the grievances of the Southern population, the war might have been prevented (See also Rolandsen and Leonardi 2014). While this is a persuasive case, this article follows the assertion that the Southern Sudanese liberation struggle could be traced to 1955. This is because ideas about self-determination became growingly popular among Southern Sudanese already in the second half of the 1950s. The violence in 1963 was a culmination of this process.

2. While it is true that the Southern Sudanese were divided throughout the conflict, and that no single group or organisation represented the Southern claim to self-determination, we can still speak of a broad group acting to achieve a political goal, even if vaguely-defined.

3. This information is based on interviews conducted by Leonardi, as well as from Rumbek District Monthly Report, January 1937, SRO EP 57.D.10; Minutes of the first meeting at Wau of the Bahr el Ghazal Province Council, 12–13 November 1948, SRO EP 1.C.2; and Bahr el Ghazal Province Intelligence Report, December 1955–January 1956, NRO UNP 1/20/168.

4. SSNA ‘Meeting at Kaka between Shilluk and Arab,’ UNP box 289 [hereafter UNP/289], WNP.66.B.48, 31 December 1933; SSNA ‘Shilluks in Kosti District,’ UNP/289, SD.66.B.4, 3 May 1934; SSNA UNP/289, SDK.66.B.8&10, 26 May 1938; SSNA, ‘Shilluk in White Nile Province,’ UNP/289 SDK.66.B.4, 20 May 1938.

5. SSNA, ZD/70, ZD.36.A.1.2 vol. 1, 25 January 1960.

6. SSNA, BD/44, BD.50.J.1, 4 March 1957.

7. Report on the Southern Provinces, FO 371196853, no. 29, 23 February 1952. In Johnson (1998b, pp. 99–100, doc. 240).

8. Unity of the Sudan, FO 371141363, no. 18 May 2121, 1944. In Johnson (1998a, p. 44, doc. 21).

9. Dr Muhammad Adam Adham and the Black Bloc, FO 371/69209, no. 20 February 8221, 1953. In Johnson (1998a, p. 347, doc. 169).

10. Kuyok mentions Benjamin Lowki’s contacts with the bloc’s founder, Dr Adam Adham (Kuyok 2015, entry: Benjamin Lowki).

11. Southern Sudan, FO 371196917, no. 564, 23 December 1952. In Johnson (1998b, pp. 177–178, doc. 274).

12. SSNA, ‘Tawsiyyat al-lajna al-wizariyya li-shu’un al-Janub,’ MD/18, MD.SCR.36.B.1, 26 March 1956, 1.

13. British Policy in the Sudan, FO 3711102746, no. 269, 20 February 1953. In Johnson (1998a, p. 214, doc. 298).

14. Letter from Samwele Kajivora to the Governor General, FO.7311028 January 2747, 1953. In Wawa (2005, p. 93).

15. SSNA, ‘Summary No. 1, July 1955,’ TD/77, MI.SCR.36.B.15.1, 27 September 1955.

16. Ibid.

17. Ibid.

18. Southern Mutiny, FO 3711113614, no. 116, 13 August 1955. In Johnson (1998b, p. 429, doc. 389).

19. These numbers may have been inflated, but they indicate a sense of alarm among the Southern leadership. Voice of Southern Sudan, ‘O.A.U to Examine Southern Sudan’s Question’, 2, 2 (1964), p. 9.

20. SSNA, ‘Taqrir al-‘amn al-sirri li-marakiz gharb al-Istawiyya,’ MD/20, MD.36.D.2, 16 June 1961, p. 4.

21. SSNA, ‘Taqrir al-‘amn min shahr Nofermber 1960 li-gharb al-Istawiyya,’ MD/20, MD.36.D.2, c. November 1960, p. 1.

22. The Southern Sudan Today: A Test Case in Afro-Arab Co-Operation II’, Voice of Southern Sudan 1, no. 3 (1963), p. 22.

23. For detailed analyses of the history of the civil war see Poggo (2009); Johnson (2003); Rolandsen (2011a, 2011b); Rolandsen and Leonardi (2014).

24. Rolandsen, ‘False Start,’ p. 106.

25. Voice of Southern Sudan, ‘The Southern Sudan Today’, p. 15.

26. SRO, ‘The Political and Administrative Principles for the Southern Sudan by E.K. Mayom,’ ZD/SCR.36.B.1, 12 October 1957. In Wawa (2005, p. 155).

27. ‘A Letter from William Deng to General Ibrahim Abboud’, c.1961. SOA, at http://sudanarchive.net/cgi-bin/pagessoa?a=pdf&d=Dvgrgd1_24.1.1&dl=1&sim=Screen2Image, accessed 22 November 2015. The use of the term ‘virtually’ is interesting here. Perhaps it indicates the discomfort that Deng felt when applying this concept to the state he had endorsed only a short time before, and would continue to endorse later, when he returned to support the idea of federalism in 1965 (Johnson 2014, pp. 15–16).

28. ‘Letter from William Deng, N. Loro and Peter M. Biet from SANU to the African Liberation Committee’, 5 December 1963. In Wawa (2005, p. 177).

29. ‘A Petition by the East African Students in the United Kingdom and Ireland to General Abboud’, 21 May 1964. SOA, at http://sudanarchive.net/cgi-bin/pagessoa?a=pdf&d=DwmrgdN13_23.1.1&dl=1&sim=Screen2Image, accessed 2 December 2013.

30. For example, SANU reported the sending of a delegation led by its Secretary of Information, M.G.A Kwanai, to the Mediterranean Colloquium, which discussed subjects such as colonialism and repression of minorities. The Sudanese government, according to the report, refused to send a delegation. Voice of Southern Sudan, ‘S.A.N.U for Talks on Human Rights’, 2, 2 (1964), p. 12.

31. SSNA, ‘Anyanya Headquarters in the Bush: Neo-Colonialism Now Settled in the Southern Sudan’, TD/75, TD/SCR/36/A1, 18 August 1963, p. 2.

32. ‘The Southern Sudan Today: A Test Case in Afro-Arab Cooperation’, Voice of Southern Sudan 1, 1 (1963), p. 15.

33. ‘The Southern Sudan Today: A Test Case in Afro-Arab Co-Operation II’, Voice of Southern Sudan 1, no. 3 (1963), p. 16.

34. ‘Southern Sudan Today’, pp. 7–8.

35. Southern Sudan Liberation Front, Delegation to the United Nations, 23 November 1970.

36. ‘The Juba Conference, 2^nd Sitting’, 19 October 1954. In Wawa (2005, p. 131).

37. Ibid., p. 134.

38. SSNA, ‘Taqrir al-‘amn li-yawm al-jum’a,’ UNP, box 130, UNP.36.A, c. November 1964, 3.”

39. SSNA, ‘A Report on the Visit by Joshua Dei, Secretary of the Minister of Transportation, to the Nasser Region’, UNP, box 134, UNP.SCR.36.M.1, 1965 (n.d.).

40. SSNA, ‘No title (a petition by Dinka and Shilluk to the Ministry of Southern Affairs)’, MSA, box 11, MSA.SCR.1-H-3 [in Arabic], (n.d., c. late 1960s).

41. SSNA, ‘Letter sent to Emilio Tafeng’, TD, box 77, TD.SCR.36.A1, 26 March 1964.

42. SSNA, ‘Nishat al-mu’allimin bi-Tumbura’, High Executive Council (HEC), box 28, SG.HEC.36.G.1, 21 April 1973.

43. SSNA, ‘Summary Meeting with Intellectuals’, SG.HEC.36.G.1, 20 October 1974, p. 1.

44. South Sudan Resistance Movement, The Anya-Nya Struggle: Background and Objectives. SOA, 1971. Accessed 23 November 2013. http://sudanarchive.net/cgi-bin/pagessoa?a=pdf&d=Dpdrgd22_6.1.1&dl=1&sim=Screen2Image p. 16.

45. ‘Letter from Sudan African Closed Districts National Union to Milton Obote, Concerning the Persecution of Africans in the Sudan and his Visit to the Same Country’, n.d. 1963. In Wawa (2005, p. 157).

46. Ibid (p. 159).

47. As cited in Wai (1981, p. 133).

48. Southern Sudan Provisional Government. South Sudan Dialogue with President Nyerere (Juba: SSPG, 1968), p. 3.

49. Ibid., pp. 8–9.

50. OSA, ‘The Minutes of the First Annual Meeting of the Students’ Union of the Southern Sudan in Europe,’ March 26–8, 1966, p. 7.

51. For example, Aquila Manyoun, an Anya-Nya commander, was trained in Congo (Kuyok 2015, p. 227).

52. Lagu (1971).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Leverhulme Trust [ECF-2013-179].

Notes on contributors

Yaniv Voller

Yaniv Voller is a Lecturer in Middle East Politics at the School of Politics and International Relations, University of Kent