This article was written by RVI Fellow Aly Verjee. On 23 March, British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, speaking to the United Nations Security Council, declared: “There can be no real dialogue for as long as South Sudan is ravaged…
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The conflict in South Sudan has entered its fourth year and the situation continues to deteriorate for many desperate civilians. There is an urgent need for the citizens of the East African region to impress upon their leaders the…
Under the Anglo-Egyptian Condominium, the South of Sudan was treated very differently to the North. For Major-General Herbert Kitchener, the British assault in southern Sudan on September 2nd 1898 was an exercise in both conquest and revenge. 13 years…
This article was written by RVI Fellow Magdi El Gizouli. It was originally published on Africa is a Country and republished with permission from the author. For six years rebel forces in Sudan’s South Kordofan and Blue Nile states (the Two Areas)…
A Norman castle in the north-east of England may not seem an obvious place to discuss the cultural heritage of South Sudan. But the university library here—next door to Durham castle—is the location of the most significant archive of colonial-era documents outside…
The third phase of RVI’s South Sudan Customary Authorities Project, funded by the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA), is now underway. The project aims to deepen understanding of customary authorities’ role within, and with, their communities, and…
On Thursday 3 August, the full eighteen member Dutch Embassy national and international staff team in South Sudan visited the National Archives as part of their annual team outing. The Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports staff presented a…
Academics, artists, authors, musicians, poets and lovers of their work gathered in Somaliland’s vibrant capital, Hargeysa, to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Hargeysa International Book Fair (HIBF) from 22 to 27 July 2017. Among hundreds of the festival’s…
This article was written by RVI Fellow Magdi El Gizouli. It was originally published on StillSUDAN and republished with permission from the author. Fatima Ahmed Ibrahim, a Sudanese veteran communist politician and feminist, passed away in London on 12…
RVI’s ongoing South Sudan Customary Authorities Project is seeking to deepen understanding of the changing role of chiefs and traditional authorities in South Sudan. As part of this project, RVI is working with a team of researchers, most of whom have…
Recent Publications
SHECONF 2026: International Conference on Social Sciences and Humanities
July 9, 2026
Event report On 26 March 2026, researchers, practitioners and academics gathered in Addis Ababa for SHECONF 2026, an International Conference on Social Sciences and Humanities in Ethiopia, the first of its kind convened by the Ethiopian Women Researchers Network (EWNET).
State Capture in Africa: How elite networks undermine democracy, development and security
June 24, 2026
Key points State capture has been increasingly recognized as a major governance challenge due to the way it helps to drive many of the most pressing problems facing contemporary states, including democratic erosion, corruption, economic exclusion, insecurity and declining trust
The New Geopolitics of Eastern Africa
June 17, 2026
On 20 May, the British Institute of Eastern Africa (BIEA), Chatham House, and the Rift Valley Institute (RVI) convened a group of experts to discuss the ‘The New Geopolitics of Eastern Africa’. The closed-door roundtable considered the ongoing transformation of