Sport events and social capital in conflict-affected country: a case study of National Unity Day in South Sudan

ABSTRACT

In South Sudan, most conflicts take the form of ethnic conflicts. This paper examines the social capital of athletes who participated in National Unity Day (NUD) – 9-day annual national sport events under the theme ‘Peace and Unity’. The paper looks at whether the athletes’ perceptions and behaviours have been changed through NUD and aims to deepen our understanding of the impact of social capital on social cohesion through sports. The paper shows that it is important to strengthen social capital such as ‘trust and cooperative norms’ in relation to other ethnic groups and governments in order to improve awareness of conflict and provide a foundation of social cohesion. Another finding is that NUD became a place where the athletes came to recognise the importance of peace and unity embodied by the event, which allows athletes to interact with different tribes including those who have hostility towards.

KEYWORDS:

• Sport events
• social capital
• social cohesion
• South Sudan
• peacebuilding

Acknowledgments

This paper has been prepared as part of a JICA Ogata Research Institute project entitled “International Cooperation, Peace and Development through Sport.” I am grateful to all staff of JICA Ogata research institute, JICA South Sudan, Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports, especially Edward Settimo Yugu and Lemor William Joseph Lemor and anonymous reviewers. The views and interpretations expressed in this paper and any errors are my own and not necessarily those of JICA.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Interview with the director general of the Sports Bureau of the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports in December 2014.

2. Galtung (1996) states that ‘positive peace’ refers to the absence of structural violence such as poverty and discrimination in society, as opposed to ‘negative peace’, which simply indicates the absence of war and violence.

3. The 10 regions in South Sudan are: Greater Jonglei, Greater Lakes, Greater Northern Bahr el Ghazal, Greater Unity, Greater Upper Nile, Greater Warrap, Greater Western Bahr el Ghazal, Greater Central Equatoria, Greater Eastern Equatoria, and Greater Western Equatoria. The 2 administration areas are Abyei and Pibor.

4. https://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/literacy-rate-by-country/ Access April 24^th, 2020.