Conflict, Mobility and Markets: Changing food systems in South Sudan

Displaced Tastes is a collaborative research project run by the Rift Valley Institute (RVI) and the Catholic University of South Sudan (CUofSS) as part of the X-Border Local Research Network. The project examines how experiences of conflict, regional displacement and mobility, and the shift to an increasingly market-oriented and import-dependent economy have changed what people […]

Tarikh Tana (Our History): Episode 14: Border Management and Epidemics

  This show is brought to you under the South Sudan National Archives Project, supported by Norway and implemented by UNESCO in partnership with RVI, and in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture, Museum and National Heritage (MCMNH). The fourteenth Tarikh Tana (Our History) radio show will focus on “Border Management and Epidemics”. Overview Epidemics […]

COVID-19 in South Sudan’s Borderlands: A view from Northern Bahr el-Ghazal

Focusing on South Sudan’s borderland with Sudan, in Northern Bahr el-Ghazal, it is clear that the national response to the virus, particularly the border shutdown, has rapidly become a new factor in Sudan and South Sudan’s cross-border political economy. The direct impact of COVID-19—like the consequences of Khartoum’s political transition and the establishment of the […]

Guns, Guts and God

  While many African countries have adopted regional policies on arms control in order to achieve the African Union’s goal of ‘Silencing the Guns by 2020’, proliferation of small arms continues to be a peace and security challenge. Four years ago, photographer and film director, Taye Balogun, set out to look into the status of […]

Responding to COVID-19 in South Sudan: Making local knowledge count

South Sudan has, up to the time of writing, avoided the worst effects of the global coronavirus pandemic. However, as the disease spreads further through the African continent, South Sudan—and other countries in the Greater Horn of Africa region—need to carefully calibrate their response to prevent a dangerous escalation. Of critical importance to this is […]

South Sudan’s food imports in the time of COVID-19

The coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) of 2020 is likely to have profound effects on stressed food systems in already hungry countries. Even before South Sudan reported its first COVID-19 case at the beginning of April, media reports indicated that the pandemic had led to restrictions on the movement of goods from neighbouring countries, which affected prices […]

Grains As Life: The value of sorghum and millet amongst the Abyei Dinka

Displaced Tastes is a research project run by the Rift Valley Institute in partnership with the Catholic University of South Sudan under the X-Border Local Research Network. The project examines the changing tastes for food in South Sudan in the context of the country’s economic transition and place in the regional, cross-border economy of grain. […]

Cultures of Dialogue: Local and National Experiences in South Sudan

Mounting peace agreements and numerous ceasefire violations have resulted in sustained international pressure on South Sudan’s leaders to end a civil war that has displaced some 4 million people and created a severe humanitarian crisis. In an effort to address the root causes of the crisis, South Sudan’s president, Salva Kiir Mayardit, announced his government’s […]

‘You Can Now Get Engaged’: Meanings of cassava among the Pojulu of South Sudan

Displaced Tastes is a research project run by the Rift Valley Institute in partnership with the Catholic University of South Sudan under the X-Border Local Research Network. The project examines the changing tastes for food in South Sudan in the context of the country’s economic transition and place in the regional, cross-border economy of grain. […]

Migrating with Seeds: Women, agricultural knowledge and displacement in South Sudan

Displaced Tastes is a research project run by the Rift Valley Institute in partnership with the Catholic University of South Sudan under the X-Border Local Research Network. The project examines the changing tastes for food in South Sudan in the context of the country’s economic transition and place in the regional, cross-border economy of grain. […]