The making of the Anya-Nya insurgency in the Southern Sudan, 1961–64

Abstract

Political tension, local violence and government suppression escalated in the Southern Sudan in the late 1950s and early 1960s. During this period of increasing international acceptance of “freedom fighters” and “wars of liberation”, groups of politicians in exile together with militarily trained Southerners progressively focused their efforts towards launching a rebellion; in exile, they sought international support and established political organisations. They also founded the Anya-Nya rebel movement and built military power. Their activities, combined with violent reprisals from the Government of Sudan, explain how the Southern Sudan gradually entered a state of civil war during 1963 and 1964. This process was fundamentally influenced by contingencies, unfulfilled expectations, and a lack of capacity and co-ordination, which preclude a formulaic and linear account. This article contributes to a multi-faceted and empirically grounded history of rebellion in the Southern Sudan, and challenges the common assumption that the first civil war started in 1955. The article exposes weaknesses related to a strict analytical dichotomy between “war” and “peace”. Theory–driven, comparative studies of civil war need a clearer focus on the dynamics of escalating violence and on individual and group agency.

Keywords:

• Sudan
• civil war
• insurgency
• exile politics
• conflict escalation

Acknowledgements

Research for this article has been generously supported by the Research Council of Norway (Grant No. 163115/V10) and by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs funded project “Micro-Macro Issues in Peace Building”. The author is grateful for comments on earlier drafts from Endre Stiansen and Helge Pharo. Gratitude is also due to supportive colleagues at the PRIO, to a number of people who have assisted in excavating written sources, and to individuals and organisations in the Southern Sudan, in particular informants and research assistants.

Notes

1. Lagu, Sudan Odyssey, 110.

2. See for example, Poggo, The First Sudanese Civil War; Deng, War of Visions; Wai, African-Arab Conflict. For exceptions, see Howell, “Political Leadership”; Arou, “Regional Devolution”. See also fragments of Storrs McCall's unpublished and untitled manuscript in different collections in the Sudan Archive in Durham, UK (SAD): SAD (Collins) 919/6/85-209; SAD (Parr) 827/2/34-128; SAD (Luce) 830/4/26-102.

3. Johnson, Root Causes; Passmore Sanderson and Sanderson, Education, Religion & Politics; Albino, The Sudan; Daly, “Broken Bridge”; Rolandsen, “A False Start.”

4. The Journal of Conflict Resolution and Journal of Peace Research are important outlets for this type of studies.

5. Sambanis, “What Is Civil War?”

6. Research has been conducted in the Southern Sudan, Khartoum, UK, Italy, USA and Canada during the period 2005–2010, and primary sources include archival material, interviews, government reports and publications by the politicians in exile.

7. See for example, Beshir, Southern Sudan; Abd al-Rahim, Imperialism and Nationalism; Deng, War of Visions; Lesch, Contested National Identities.

8. Sharkey, “Arab Identity.”

9. Rolandsen, “A False Start.”

10. Passmore Sanderson and Sanderson, Education, Religion & Politics; Daly, Imperial Sudan; Leonardi, “Knowing Authority.”

11. Collins, Shadows in the Grass; Rolandsen, “A False Start”; Reining, The Zande Scheme.

12. Passmore Sanderson and Sanderson, Education, Religion & Politics.

13. Rolandsen, “A False Start.”

14. Albino, The Sudan, 88–96.

15. This is a summary of findings in Rolandsen, “Civil War Society?,” 109–37. Intended for publication in a future issue of JEAS.

16. See for example, Poggo, The First Sudanese Civil War.

17. Reno, Warfare in Independent Africa.

18. Poggo, The First Sudanese Civil War; Rolandsen, “Civil War Society?”

19. See for example, Archivo Comboniani Roma (ACR), A107/1a/Fr. Saturnino to Fr. Bartolucci, 3 March 1962.

20. Reno, Warfare in Independent Africa.

21. McCall Archive (MCA), McGill University, Toronto/2A/2606. Osmanczyk and Mango, Encyclopaedia of the United Nations, 29, lists one meeting of heads of state with the Monrovia group from January 25–30, 1962 and the first African and Malagasy Union (UAM) conference to have taken place in Bangui, March 25–27 1962; “The Creation of SANU,” SAD (Collins) 919/6/101v-2, states that Father Saturnino and Oduho attended the “All African People Congress in Lagos (the ‘Monrovia Group’)” in February 1962

22. “Minutes of SANU Executive Meeting – February 19–20, 1964,” MCA/2B/53.

23. Public Record Office (PRO), Kew Garden, UK, FO 371/165683/ 36, December 27, 1962 (letter dated 10 December, Geneva).

24. SACDN, “Petition”; SAD (Collins) 919/6/102.

25. The two students were George Kwani, SACDNU/SANU Information Secretary, and Alphonse Malek (supposedly the President of the Southern Sudanese Plebiscite supports in Ethiopia), Voice of Southern Sudan 1, no. 3, 13–4.

26. PRO, FO 371/165683, “Unrest Spreading in the Sudan,” The Scotsman, December 20, 1962; “Refugees ‘Flee After Clashes in Sudan,’” The Observer, December 16, 1962.

27. PRO, FO 371/165683, “‘Agitators’ blamed by Sudan,” The Observer, December 30, 1962.

28. Oduho and Deng were the official authors, but Father Saturnino was involved in preparing the manuscript. See Gray, “Christian Involvement,” 119–20. See interview with Deng in the Arabic-language “Life Magazine,” December 1967 [translated and re-published interview in the Monthly Bulletin of the SANU Youth Organ, January 1968 (Issue IV), 18–24]. On its reception in Khartoum, see El Thawra, June 1963, commented in Leo Kurr, “‘The Problem of the Southern Sudan:’ Origin of Sudan Government Violent Attack on Great Britain and the Institute of Race Relations,” Voice of Southern Sudan 1, no. 3, 3–4.

29. SAD (Collins) 919/6/102v

30. Wai, African-Arab Conflict, 90–1.

31. MCA/2B/53.

32. PRO, FO 371/178813/ 26, copy of memorandum by R.W. Stookey “Southern Sudan Problem – Situation as of February, 1964,” April 29, 1964, 4. See also FO 371/173230/61, “Summary of Present Situation in Southern Sudan” (handwritten minutes), October 1963.

33. Poggo, The First Sudanese Civil War, 145–51.

34. [Verona Fathers' Mission], Black Book.

35. MCA/2B/53.

36. PRO/ FO 371/173230/ 67, “Enclosed Study from Washington on the Situation in South Sudan,” October 28, 1963; Poggo, The First Sudanese Civil War, 155–61.

37. PRO/FO 371/173230/ 67.

38. Supposedly reported in Africa South of the Sahara, 31 December 1962; Sudan African Closed Districts National Union, Petition to United Nations.

39. E.g., Letter to Milton Obote from SACNU [sic], Juba reproduced in Voice of Southern Sudan 1, no. 1, 1963.

40. On early Southern politics, see Howell, “Political Leadership,” 103–81.

41. Howell, “Political Leadership,” 190; Wakoson, “Anya-Nya Movement,” 183–4.

42. The following reassessment is based on SCA files kept in MCA section “U.”

43. President of Sudan Christian Association Ibrahim Nyigilo's letter to “Heads of Christian Churches, Head of African States, Sec-General, U.N.,” reproduced in Voice of Southern Sudan 1, no. 2, 1963.

44. ACR/A160/13, Deng to Gen. Ibrahim Abboud [open letter?], Dar es Salaam, 1961.

45. MCA/1M/2604.

46. “The Free Southern Sudanese,” September 19–21,1962.

47. SAD (Collins) 919/6/102.

48. Sudan African Closed Districts National Union, Petition to United Nations, 1.

49. Poggo, The First Sudanese Civil War, 114–5.

50. MCA/2B/54.

51. See for example, Holt and Daly, History of the Sudan, 154. See Howell, “Political Leadership,” 192; SAD (Collins) 919/6/102v.

52. PRO/FO 371/165683, Mr. Kitching (the British Embassy in Khartoum), “Short Tour of Equatoria, October 28 – November 6,” December 4, 1962; SAD (Collins) 919/6/99-101; Passmore Sanderson and Sanderson, Education, Religion & Politics, 368–9; Atem, “Why the Southern Students Leave School,” 6–9; Akol, Go the Distance, 178–9.

53. Verona Fathers' Mission, Black Book, 24; Passmore Sanderson and Sanderson, Education, Religion & Politics, 366–7, 378 (n4), 402. Another official explanation was that students at Juba Commercial School resisted corporal punishment from an Arab teacher and the strike spread from there - see PRO, FO 371/165683

54. Passmore Sanderson and Sanderson, Education, Religion & Politics, 403–7.

55. Passmore Sanderson and Sanderson, Education, Religion & Politics, 368, 383 (n72).

56. SAD (Collins) 919/6/102v.

57. SAD (Collins), 919/6/117-18; Wakoson, “Anya-Nya Movement,” 141; Passmore Sanderson and Sanderson, Education, Religion & Politics, 369, 402.

58. SAD (Collins) 919/6/102v, 106. Dada was earlier known as Vitorio Logungu.

59. PRO, FO 371/165683; PRO/FO 371/173183/1, “Annual Review for 1962,” 1 January, 1963

60. SAD (Collins) 919/6/102v.

61. Lagu, Sudan Odyssey, 94–5.

62. Lagu, Sudan Odyssey, 92.

63. SAD (Collins) 919/6/128.

64. Wakoson, “Anya-Nya Movement,” 141.

65. Lagu, Sudan Odyssey, 104.

66. SAD (Collins) 919/6/106 (from Oduho); Arou, “Regional Devolution,” 49–51; Lagu, Sudan Odyssey, 105–7; Fuli Boki Tombe Ga'le, Free Southern Sudan, 235–7; Poggo, The First Sudanese Civil War, 70–1.

67. Lagu, Sudan Odyssey, 106.

68. “In the 1930's [sic] there occurred in Madi County a very serious outbreak of poisoning by Madi witches. The poison was made from snakes and rotten beans, and was given the Madi name Inya-Nya,” SAD (Collins) 919/6/106.

69. Lagu, Sudan Odyssey, 104.

70. Southern Record Office (SRO), Juba/ ZD/SCR/36.B.1/Vol. 1, Zande District (dated: “Headquarter in the Bush, 18 August, 1963”) [Reproduced exactly from original].

71. PRO/FO 371/173230, Prideham to FO, “Enclosed Osman's Report of his Tour of South Sudan,” November 9, 1963

72. Lagu, Sudan Odyssey, 106–7.

73. Here, it referred to mutineers who had hid in the forest since 1955, but it is unlikely that they called themselves Anya-Nya in 1955.

74. SRO, Juba/ ZD/SCR/36.B.1/Vol. 1.

75. Voice of Southern Sudan 1, no. 4, 2.

76. PRO/FO 371/173230/ 67, “Enclosed Study from Washington on the Situation in South Sudan,” October 28, 1963.

77. Yangu, Nile Turns Red, 108.

78. SAD (Collins) 919/6/117v-118; Alusjo Louis Ohoro Loyie confirms attacks on Nimule, Katire, Parajok, and in addition, he mentions Yei and “Obbuale” (possibly Obba). Interview, Torit, February 2, 2007.

79. SAD (Collins) 919/6/108v-109, from Oliver Albino, who allegedly participated in the attack himself.

80. See for example, Sudan African National Union, Memorandum.

81. SAD (Collins) 919/6/112-5v; Arou, “Regional Devolution,” 49–51; Interview with Stephen Ogut, Bor, April 25, 2007; Poggo, The First Sudanese Civil War, 70–1, 80–2; Wakoson, “Anya-Nya Movement,” 141–5.

82. Interview with Stephen Ogut.

83. PRO/FO 371/173230, K.R.C. Prideham to FO, “The Sudan airforce claim to have made three successful air strikes in the Pachalla area in the last few days,” 9 November, 1963; SAD (Collins) 919/6/114; Interview with Stephen Ogut.

84. Passmore Sanderson and Sanderson, Education, Religion & Politics, 427.

85. SAD (Collins) 919/6/128.

86. MCA/5B/2608, October 14, 1963.

87. The account below of the Bor attack is based on: SAD (Collins) 919/6/128–128v; Lagu, Sudan Odyssey, 114–5

88. PRO, FO 371/178813/ 26.

89. Beshir, Southern Sudan, 84; Wai, African-Arab Conflict, 92.

90. Kalyvas, Logic of Violence; Weinstein, Inside Rebellion; Kriger, Zimbabwe's Guerrilla War.

91. Group interview, Torit, February 27, 2006; Sudan African National Union, Memorandum, 9; Rolandsen, “A False Start.”

92. Passmore Sanderson and Sanderson, Education, Religion & Politics, 399–400, 404.

93. See Deng, War of Visions, 145.

94. PRO/FO 371/173230/76, 2.

95. SAD (Collins) SAD 919/6/119.

96. Lagu, Sudan Odyssey, 107.

97. Interviews in Aweil and Twic East, February and April 2007.

98. PRO/FO 371/173230/76, 3–4 [Reproduced exactly from original].

99. Lagu, Sudan Odyssey, 116. This was also practised in Eastern Equatoria. Group Interview, Torit, February 27, 2006; Group interview, Birra village, Ikotos County, 12 February, 2007.

100. Thompson, English Working Class, 8.

101. Cramer, Civil War; Richards, “New War.”