Marol Academy is a community primary school in Southern Sudan, in Warab state. It opened in 2008 with 350 students and seven teachers. Founded by Dr Jok Madut Jok, an RVI Fellow born in Warab, the Academy is one…
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Engaging Monyomiji: Bridging the Governance Gap in East Bank Equatoria by Simon Simonse and Eisei Kurimoto explores local governance in South Sudan’s south-easternmost state. The Monyomiji are an age-set with responsibility to protect the ethnic communities they belong to;…
RVI Fellow Conradin Perner (Kwacakworo), was awarded the Yellow Star medal by the President of the Republic of South Sudan Salva Kiir Mayardit shortly after South Sudan's independence day. A renowned ethnographer of the Anyuak and a founder of…
In an interview with Sudan Radio, RVI Fellow Alfred Sebit Lokuji of the University of Juba makes a suggestion for the resolution of the border disputes between Sudan and South Sudan: consult the people who live there."One way to…
A new version of the Sudan Open Archive is now available on an external hard drive. SOA 3.0 offers free digital access to over three thousand books and documents and articles about all regions of Sudan. It includes two…
A report from the Open Society Initiative for Eastern Africa (OSIEA), and the Africa Governance Monitoring and Advocacy Project (AfriMAP) investigates the vexed question of nationality in the two Sudans. Bronwen Manby’s The Right to a Nationality and the…
Two new staff members have joined the Rift Valley Institute. Faria Mohamud takes up the post of financial officer in the Institute's UK office. Born in Afgoye, Somalia, Faria was educated in the Netherlands and lives in London. Fergus…
Week by week RVI Fellow Magdi el-Gizouli’s blog, Still Sudan, offers a trenchant analysis of political developments in the two Sudans. Recently, his self-described ‘notes on a fluid situation’ have argued against international intervention in the new civil war…
Comments are in from participants on the RVI summer courses. One writes that he was 'inspired by the depth of knowledge’ at the Sudan and South Sudan Course in Kenya. Another notes the ‘passion and dedication to the Sudans’…
RVI Fellow Douglas Johnson discussed South Sudan’s history, historiography, and sense of identity in the context of the new nation's first anniversary. Speaking at the ninth International South Sudan and Sudan Studies Conference in Bonn, he describing South Sudan…
Recent Publications
Thinking about Borderlands: Observations and implications from XCEPT programme research
March 31, 2025
Do the ways in which policymakers and national governments view borderlands reflect how the communities living there experience them? Building on this, can a better understanding of the characteristics of borderlands help in promoting development, improving governance and making more
Digital Governance and Security in the Horn of Africa
March 28, 2025
While digital finance—including mobile money—has developed unevenly across Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya, such technologies are nevertheless transforming everyday economic activities. In some cases, borderlands and cross-border financial flows are central to these digital developments and are driving further innovation. From
Legally Informal: Women, conflict and cross-border trade in the Mandera tri-border area
March 28, 2025
In the Mandera triangle—a pastoralist region encompassing the point at which the borders of Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia meet—the reality of local and cross-border trade often diverges widely from official state policies of control. This disjunction has created a grey