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ABSTRACT
This article looks at the history of post-war state-building in South Sudan through a study of one of the region’s many return migration projects. South Sudan was arguably the subject of the first state-led mass repatriation campaign of twentieth-century Africa, after the first civil war that escalated in 1963 and ended in 1972 with the Addis Ababa Agreement. Using archival material from the newly reformulated South Sudan National Archives in Juba, this paper examines this comparatively forgotten post-war return and reconstruction project in South Sudan from 1969 to 1974. In this period, civil war ideas, staff, and techniques were recycled into an apparently benevolent and ‘peace-building’ project of Relief, Repatriation and Rehabilitation. The returns management project set out where the returning citizens of Sudan should go, how they should settle, live, and relate to the state. This study argues that this project developed and entrenched particular wartime state ideas of its imagined South Sudanese population, and the nature of its compact with its society. It argues for a longer view of the continuities of war- and peacetime population control, as a way to explore postcolonial ideas of ‘good government’. The return and resettlement period also demonstrates the South Sudanese populations’ expanding repertoire of engagement as post-war citizens: return migration and resettlement projects are good opportunities for people to reformulate their skills and tactics of negotiating, approaching, cheating, and avoiding a ‘new’ state.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Øystein Rolandsen for a series of fruitful collaborations and conversations over 2015 and 2016 which have informed this work. An earlier version of this paper was presented at ‘The Ethnographic Archive’ conference, held at Durham University in September 2016; I am grateful to the panelists and audience, particularly Sharon Hutchinson, Martina Santschi and Cherry Leonardi, for their comments and suggestions.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
1. Hunter, “Introduction.”
2. Leonardi and Vaughan, “We are Oppressed.”
3. Plewa, “The Effects of Voluntary Return Programmes”; Easton-Calabria, “From Bottom-Up to Top-Down.”
4. Geiger and Pécoud, “International Organisations.”
5. This body of literature still primarily focuses on factors influencing return migration, or the economic impacts and experiences of return and reintegration: see Carling, Mortensen, and Wu, “Systematic Bibliography on Return Migration” and Crisp, “Forced Displacement.”
6. Crisp, “Forced Displacement,” 17.
7. Rolandsen, “The Making of the Anya-Nya”; Poggo, The First Sudanese Civil War.
8. Under the Al-Khalifa, Mahgoub, and al-Mahdi civil and military administrations. Gordon Muortat, in a circulated statement, dates amnesty declarations to 1964: British National Archives (NA) Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) 39.1154, 25 July 1972.
9. Arou, “Regional Devolution,” 83; Poggo, The First Sudanese Civil War.
10. Arou, “Regional Devolution,” 87.
11. See Sudan National Archives (SSNA) Ministry of Southern Affairs (MSA) 15.A.2 7123; MSA 15.A.2 7144–146; MSA 36.B.2 6175–6.
12. Save the Children Fund Archives Birmingham (SCF) A173 Sudan, 1972 January–June, 8, Address by HE Sayed Abel Alier, Vice President and Minister of State for Southern Affairs, to the Relief and Resettlement Conference, Southern Region, 21 February 1972.
13. SSNA MSA 15.A.2 47, letter from Santino Deng Teng, Liaison Officer for Peace, to the Minister of Interior, Major Farouk Osman Hamadalla, 13 January 1970.
14. SSNA MSA FF III 4977, report by Cleto H Rial, on a visit to DRC, 5 January 1971.
15. MSA FF 1970 4961, letter from Minister of Southern Affairs to Under Secretary, Ministry for Financial Affairs, Khartoum, 4 May 1970 (their emphasis).
16. For a history of this incident, see SCF A00072, UNHCR Bulletin No. 10, 10–11; Comboni Archive Rome (CAR) A107 Busta 7 doc. 3, anonymous letter to Fr. Bresciani; CAR A104 Busta 10 Doc. 10, letter from Baroco to Professor, n.d. 1970.
17. MSA 50.O.1 116, letter from John Athor Kuol to Ombudsman, Khartoum, 5 July 1971.
18. MSA 15.A.2 230, ‘Peace and security reports in Bahr el Ghazal Province 1970’, May 1970.
19. MSA 15.A.2 182–4, letter from Santino Deng Teng, Peace Officer for Aweil, to Commissioner of Bahr el Ghazal Province, 21 January 1971.
20. See Poggo, The First Sudanese Civil War.
21. MSA 36.B.3 1–3, letter from Franco Garang, Regional Representative to Bahr el Ghazal Province, to MSA, 1 February 1971.
22. Equatoria Province (EP) 35.A.2.1 III 474, Rajab Guma Wani, ‘Handing over note of returnees work’, for Local Government Inspector Juba District, 22 October 1972.
23. SSNA High Executive Council (HEC) 92.A.1.1 III, 8.
24. See SSNA project file EP 35.A.2 I 33; and SCF A00072 Oxfam 1965–72, ‘Director’s report to the executive committee’, 21–22 June 1972.
25. Amounting to $3.45m. and a total budget of $13.47m. today; Arou, “Regional Devolution,” 215–6.
26. SCF A173, UNHCR document, 19 October 1972. Funding is haphazard and hard to trace: see SSNA Equatoria Province (EP) 35.A.2.1 1972–73: 6717, letter from Toby Gooch, Field Director for Oxfam East Africa, to Peter Gatkuoth, Advisor General to MSA, 11 April 1972. UNICEF committed $3.3m. (today $18.99m.) over four years: SCF A173, UNICEF cabled statement Appendix D, June 1972.
27. HEC 92.A.1.1 III 234, Budget for 1 July 1972 to 30 June 1973 (today $101.947m.).
28. SCF A173, UNHCR report, 19 October 1972; SCF A173, SCF internal notes on Pink Book.
29. For a discussion of this term, see Willis, “The Southern Problem.”
30. By early 1964, many southern officials had been transferred northwards: see FCO 371 VS1017.15, SANU pamphlet, ‘Imminent genocide in South Sudan,’ 6 March 1964.
31. For a demonstration of this changing use in a single report, see the internal MSA document at SSNA MSA 15.A.2 7216, 230.
32. This is not a new idea; very low levels of literacy and formal education, particularly since the civil war disrupted schools, left the southern administration with a small and closely knit group of local ‘elites’ to draw on. See Leonardi and Vaughan, “We are Oppressed.”
33. Willis, “The Southern Problem”; Schneider, “Colonial Legacies,” 107–8.
34. Mamdani, Citizen and Subject, 26.
35. NA FCO 93.720, report, ‘Political and economic conditions in the Southern region of the Sudan: mid-1975’, 24.
36. Peterson and Taylor, “Rethinking the State,” 68.
37. EP 35.A.2.1 6727, letter from V.N.G. Loro, Inspector of Local Government Juba District, to Chairman of RRRC, 13 May 1972. Also see EP 35.A.2.1 6721, Plan of Action of Lino Girikpio Wandu, Peace Officer for Tembura, 22 April 1972.
38. MSA FF 1970 4969, letter from Ambrose Wol to Brigadier Omer Mohed Said, Undersecretary for Ministry of National Guidance, ‘Regional national guidance officers in the South’, 18 July 1970.
39. Betts, “Zonal Rural Development,” 149; Harrell-Bond, Imposing Aid, 10.
40. HEC 35.C.2 II 58, RRRC report, ‘Repatriation of Refugees from Uganda’, 21 August 1972.
41. EP 35.A.2.1 III 187, meeting minutes of RRC office, 5 May 1972; EP 35.A.2.3 II WFP 1973 173, Handing over notes from Khaham Mohmed Kharam, Inspector for Local Government Juba District, to Sayed David Koak of the WFP, 14 April 1973.
42. A critique of the processes of the RRRC is not within the remit of this article; for this, see Kibreab, Reflections.
43. This is a common standard for current policy on repatriation and demobilisation. See Heimerl, “The Return of Refugees” and Pantuliano, “Going Home,” 3.
44. For a discussion of this colonial and postcolonial concern over the ‘drift to towns’, see Leonardi, Dealing with Government, 7, 75.
45. EP 47.A.2 142, People’s Executive Council Local Order on Idlers, 1971.
46. EP 35.A.2.3 II WFP 1973 173, Handing over notes from Khaham Mohmed Kharam, Inspector for Local Government Juba District, to Sayed David Koak of the WFP, 14 April 1973.
47. EP 35.A.2.1 1972–1973 354, letter from Commissioner of Equatoria Province to RRRC Chair, 10 April 1973.
48. EP 35.A.2.1 1972–1973 363, letter from Commissioner of Equatoria Province to RRRC Executive Director, 26 April 1973.
49. The idea of peace villages has a longer and broader history than can be detailed here. For lists of villages, see EP 35.A.2.3 I 1967–70 WFP 20–21, letter from Equatoria Province Headquarters to Executive Director of the Dag Hammarkjold Foundation, 25 November 1967; and HEC 35.C.2 II 70.
50. CAR A85/9 6, Sudan Government, ‘A message of peace in Bahr el Ghazal’, 1966.
51. MSA 15.A.1 7266 49–50, letter from Hassan Ahmed Morgan to Southern Development Committee president and members, Khartoum, 8 August 1969.
52. CAR A86/19 6, ‘Southern Sudan Information Service’, 29 January 1967; also see reports in CAR A86/21/3 February–August 1968, ‘Voice of Southern Sudan’.
53. CAR A104 Busta 9 33: letter from Baroco to J. Oduho, 4 June 1966.
54. A full list can be found in MSA 53.A.1.1 16, Ministry of Planning, Statistics Office Juba, Annual Report for the Year 1970/71.
55. MSA FF 1970 4962–3, letter from Magzoub Talha, Acting Inspector for Local Government in Tembura to MSA Khartoum, 23 February 1970; this was ‘fairly successful’, according to Clement Mboro: see Sudan Archives Durham (SAD) 919/6/3–4, Collins, ‘Notes from a Conversation with Clement Mboro’, n.d. c. 1970.
56. Poggo, The First Sudanese Civil War, 88.
57. Early ‘model villages’ are discussed in MSA 36.F.1 74, letter on Planning and Coordination Commission from Abel Alier to Mansour Khalid, 17 November 1971. For this changing phrasing, and village sites, see HEC 35.C.2 II 90, letter from RRRC in Juba to HEC President, 28 August 1972; and EP 35.A.2.1 1972–3 74, letter from Executive Director for Equatoria Province, Barnaba T Kisanga, to Inspector of Local Government, Torit, 22 May 1972.
58. SCF A173, report by Lt Col. R.E.S. Skelton, April 1972.
59. SCF A173 Sudan, A.P. Slogrove, ‘Report on a Visit’, 3 May 1972.
60. SSNA Eastern District (ED) 36.B.1 103, letter from Minister of Agriculture, Equatoria Province, to District Inspectors of Agriculture, ‘Local Development Projects 1971/72 Agriculture’, n.d.; EP 35.A.2 I 310, Yambio Rural Council public notice, n.d. c. 1971.
61. EP 35.A.2 I 310, Yambio Rural Council public notice, n.d. c. 1971.
62. EP 35.A.2.1 1972–3 179, Resettlement Directive No. 1 Yei River District, 14 July 1972.
63. EP 35.A.2 I 142, Commissioner for Equatoria Province to Commissioner for Yei River District, n.d. c. 1972.
64. Leonardi, Dealing with Government, 216.
65. Marko, “Negotiations and Morality.”
66. Rolandsen and Kindersley, “They are not Forbidden from Using Violence.”
67. Aalen and Schomerus, Considering the State; Johnson, “Federalism.”
68. EP 35.A.2 I 1972–3 44, anonymous note; EP 35.A.2.1 V 104, Province Resettlement officer, ‘Report on tour of Western Equatoria’, 7 January 1973.
69. SCF A173, letter from A.P. Slogrove to SCF, 15 May 1972 (his emphasis).
70. EP 35.A.2 I 1972–3 44, file note, August 1972; a final report and list of returnee statistics was only forwarded by 10 October 1972.
71. Akol, “Refugee Migration”; Akol, “A Crisis of Expectations,” 91.
72. HEC 35.C.2 II 6624–58, report by RRRC Juba, ‘Repatriation of Refugees from Uganda’, 21 August 1972.
73. EP 35.A.2.1 1972–3 344, letter from B.L. Mogga, Executive Director of the RRRC, to Executive Director for Equatoria Province, 24 March 1973.
74. EP 35.A.2.1 V 104, Province Resettlement Officer, ‘Report on tour of Western Equatoria 22/12/72 to 7/1/73’: ‘it is the question of who should do what which is causing this confusion’. Also see reports in SSNA Eastern Equatoria Province (EEP) 35.A.2.3 V 8840–1; and at EEP 35.A.2.3 V 8845, 8899, 8902, and 8903.
75. Willis, “Peace and Order.”
76. See Leonardi, Dealing with Government, 199; EP 35.A.2.1 III 20, N.G. Loro, Local Government Inspector Juba, to Commissioner of Equatoria Province, 28 April 1972.
77. Many of these door-stepping appeals and representations in writing are from women; scribes also write on behalf of complainants, much like the professional form-fillers working at state offices in South Sudan today.
78. MSA FF 1970 4965, Lou Student Union, Akobo Teachers Representative, Akobo Officials Union to the President, 23 May 1970.
79. HEC 92.A.1 II 235, letter of appeal from Fabio Nyikuai, junior clerk, 12 June 1972.
80. HEC 92.A.1 II 129, letter, Abdel Latif el Khalifa to Abel Alier, 18 September 1972.
81. HEC 92.A.1 II 100, Anuak Southern Sudanese Refugees in Gambella to Chairman of the RRRC, 23 August 1972.
82. See Leonardi and Vaughan, “We are Oppressed.”
83. MSA 92.A.1 1970–2, letter from Mica Bol Ciengau, Rumbek Hospital worker, to MSA, 5 July 1971.
84. See correspondence at EP 35.A.2.1 VI 144.
85. Arou, “Regional Devolution,” 200–2, 205; NA FCO 93.720, Report, ‘Political and economic conditions in the Southern region of the Sudan: mid-1975’, 15–6; EP 36.J.4 1974–5 89, African Socialist Front, Juba, ‘Press Release No. 1: The Unity Day Celebrations in Wau – a review of facts about the regional government achievements and failures during the year’, 25 February 1975.
86. EP 35.A.2.3 IV WFP 47, Joseph Akec Onga for the Director, Ministry of Regional Administration, to Commissioners of Provinces, ‘WFP Evaluation/Reformulation mission for Project 634 “Rural Development of the South,” 23rd November – 21st December 1975’, 7 November 1975; EP 35.A.2.1 VI WFP 72, letter from J.P. Noblet, Senior Advisor to WFP Project 634, to Manager Akuot Atem, ‘Strict compliance to WFP Project 634 Plan of Operation’, 5 September 1973.
87. EP 35.A.2 I 1972–3 202, Jacob Mahd, Province regional storekeeper, to Equatoria Province Regional Officer, 29 January 1973.
88. NA FCO 93.720, Report, ‘Political and economic conditions in the Southern region of the Sudan: mid–1975’, 1.
89. EP 36.J.4 1973–4 369, Daily Security Reports for 7–11 February 1974.
90. EP 35.A.2.1 VI 151, letter from El Hanan Were Iyeggah, RRRC Eastern District, to Commissioner for Equatoria Province, 22 March 1974.
91. Nyamlell Wakoson, “Sudan People’s Liberation Army.”
92. Scott, Seeing Like a State, 2.
93. Leonardi, Dealing with Government, 148.
94. Marko, “Negotiations and Morality,” 672.
95. Mawut, The Southern Sudan, 68.
96. Johnson, “Federalism.”
97. Schulhofer-Wohl, Sambanis, and Bernadotteakademin, Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration, 4.
98. United Nations Mission in Sudan, “Return and Reintegration Policy”; Allen and Morsink, When Refugees Go Home; Koser, “Return, Readmission and Reintegration.”
99. Pantuliano, “Going Home,” 5–6, 11–13.
100. Geiger and Pécoud, “International Organisations”; Easton-Calabria, “From Bottom-Up to Top-Down.”
101. Willis, “Peace and Order,” 99; Chimni, “Refugees, Return and Reconstruction,” 163.
102. Day and Reno, “In Harm’s Way,” 106–7.
103. See Kindersley, “The Fifth Column?,” Chs. 2 and 3.
104. Porter, “Making Things Quantitative,” 402.
105. Hickey, “Modernisation, Migration, and Mobilisation,” 1; Schneider, “Colonial Legacies,” 109.