The South Sudan peace forum
The Rift Valley Institute organised a forum bringing together leading chiefs from five states of South Sudan in Nairobi last Saturday. The forum brought together the chiefs to discuss the current crisis in the country and the role they and other traditional leaders played where peace was concerned. The chiefs included Nyuong Danhier Gatluak the […]
Himeidti and his President: War as a livelihood
RVI Fellow Magdi el-Gizouli on the ascendancy of the commander of Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces The media simply can’t get enough of him. The commander of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, famous as Himeidti, a motherly diminutive version of his first name, is as ubiquitous as Zain advertisements. Two major newspaper published […]
Juba Lecture Series 2013
The 2013 RVI Juba Lecture series, held in collaboration with the Centre for Peace and Development Studies at the University of Juba, were held on 6-8 March 2013 at the university’s New Hall, addressing the theme ‘Building the Constitution in South Sudan’. The three keynote speakers were Professor Akolda Tier, Chair of the South Sudan […]
Sudan: The Sudan Revolutionary Front – Comrades in Squabble
The rebel alliance fighting against President Omar al Bashir is looking less united by the day. For better or worse, the Sudan Revolutionary Front (SRF), the alliance of insurgents against the government of President Bashir, is now reduced to its individual constituents: the four main armed movements, the Sudan People’s Liberation Army/Movement-North (SPLA/M-N), the Justice […]
Learning from the 2011 Famine in Somalia
In 2011, people in Somalia suffered a catastrophic famine. Since 2012, a group from the Feinstein Center at Tufts University and the Rift Valley Institute has been conducting retrospective research on the famine in Somalia, and in the Horn of Africa region more broadly, with the aim of providing empirical evidence to help prevent or […]
New State: Clean slate? Change And Continuity In South Sudanese State Formation
RVI Fellow Dr Cherry Leonardi delivered this year's BIEA British Academy Annual Lecture on the creation of the Republic of South Sudan. She discussed how the internal conflicts in South Sudan have challenged the 'new slate for a new country' rhetoric that was present around its independence.
Sudan and South Sudan Course 2013
The course was held under the direction of Justin Willis of Durham University. Dan Large of the Central European University was the Deputy Director of Studies. The teaching staff included Magdi el-Gizouli of Freiburg University, Joanna Oyediran, Sudan Program Officer of the Open Society Initiative for Eastern Africa, and Douglas Johnson, author of The Root Causes of Sudan’s Civil Wars. Also teaching on the […]
Sudan and South Sudan Course 2014
Scope of the course The Sudan and South Sudan Course, under the direction of Sharath Srinivasan, was held in Kenya, from 14 to 20 June. New rebellions and ongoing civil war in both the Sudans have put social and economic development in jeopardy. Understanding the history of state formation and conflict in the two countries […]
Dozens Reported Dead in South Sudan Capital After Rival Forces Battle
JUBA, South Sudan — Fighting between competing factions of South Sudan’s government in its capital left the world’s youngest country teetering on Saturday, the fifth anniversary of its independence. The government reported dozens of casualties, and there were unconfirmed reports that up to 150 people had been killed. Outbreaks of shooting on Friday night between […]
Anthropology, Photography and the Field of Memory
Patti Langton, a British anthropologist and documentary film-maker, lived in Sudan 1979-1980 with the Larim (or Boya) people, cattle pastoralists whose homeland lies near South Sudan’s borders with Uganda, Kenya and Ethiopia. Her remarkable photographic and sound archive has recently been acquired by the Pitt-Rivers Museum in Oxford, where she is a Research Associate. The photographs document […]