African Arguments

Top Menu

  • About Us
  • Submit
  • Contact us
  • Advertise
  • Newsletter
  • RSS feed

Main Menu

  • Home
  • Country
    • Central
      • Cameroon
      • Central African Republic
      • Chad
      • Congo-Brazzaville
      • Congo-Kinshasa
      • Equatorial Guinea
      • Gabon
    • East
      • Burundi
      • Comoros
      • Dijbouti
      • Eritrea
      • Ethiopia
      • Kenya
      • Rwanda
      • Seychelles
      • Somalia
      • South Sudan
      • Sudan
      • Tanzania
      • Uganda
      • Red Sea
    • North
      • Algeria
      • Egypt
      • Libya
      • Morocco
      • Tunisia
      • Western Sahara
    • Southern
      • Angola
      • Botswana
      • Lesotho
      • Madagascar
      • Malawi
      • Mauritius
      • Mozambique
      • Namibia
      • South Africa
      • Swaziland
      • Zambia
      • Zimbabwe
    • West
      • Benin
      • Burkina Faso
      • Cape Verde
      • Côte d’Ivoire
      • The Gambia
      • Ghana
      • Guinea
      • Guinea Bissau
      • Liberia
      • Mali
      • Mauritania
      • Niger
      • Nigeria
      • São Tomé and Príncipe
      • Senegal
      • Sierra Leone
      • Togo
  • Politics
    • Elections Map
  • Economy
  • Society
  • Culture
  • Specials
    • Living in Translation
    • Red Sea
    • Beautiful Game
  • Africa Insiders
  • Donate
  • About Us
  • Submit
  • Contact us
  • Advertise
  • Newsletter
  • RSS feed

logo

Header Banner

African Arguments

  • Home
  • Country
    • Central
      • Cameroon
      • Central African Republic
      • Chad
      • Congo-Brazzaville
      • Congo-Kinshasa
      • Equatorial Guinea
      • Gabon
    • East
      • Burundi
      • Comoros
      • Dijbouti
      • Eritrea
      • Ethiopia
      • Kenya
      • Rwanda
      • Seychelles
      • Somalia
      • South Sudan
      • Sudan
      • Tanzania
      • Uganda
      • Red Sea
    • North
      • Algeria
      • Egypt
      • Libya
      • Morocco
      • Tunisia
      • Western Sahara
    • Southern
      • Angola
      • Botswana
      • Lesotho
      • Madagascar
      • Malawi
      • Mauritius
      • Mozambique
      • Namibia
      • South Africa
      • Swaziland
      • Zambia
      • Zimbabwe
    • West
      • Benin
      • Burkina Faso
      • Cape Verde
      • Côte d’Ivoire
      • The Gambia
      • Ghana
      • Guinea
      • Guinea Bissau
      • Liberia
      • Mali
      • Mauritania
      • Niger
      • Nigeria
      • São Tomé and Príncipe
      • Senegal
      • Sierra Leone
      • Togo
  • Politics
    • Elections Map
  • Economy
  • Society
  • Culture
  • Specials
    • Living in Translation
    • Red Sea
    • Beautiful Game
  • Africa Insiders
  • Donate
Politics

A letter from Warrap State, South Sudan

By Magnus Taylor
June 20, 2011
1182
0
Share:

A Comment on Internal Conflict

Naomi Pendle

Warrap State, May 2011

As we sit on crafted goatskin chairs in a rural Dinka market the teenage boy proudly greets us.  Despite his dust covered shirt and naked feet, over his shoulder he displays his new gun.  AK47s can be found everywhere in these Dinka lands – behind the seat of the car, beneath the mattress, above the rafters.  Yet, this weapon is something more modern and more sophisticated.  Without their own source of weapons and ammunition, the Dinka Titweng (cattle guarding youth) are advised to obtain their arms during battle.  The boy’s shining, new gun is his booty from the latest raid into his county by people from the neighbouring Unity State.  The day before, ninety people had died in fighting in Gogrial East (Warrap State).  The boy had failed to retrieve any bullets that would enable him to use the gun, but there was visible pride in his new weapon.  He assumed its origin was Khartoum.

With just two months until independence the escalating violence in South Sudan is heightening fears of a new civil war in this nascent nation.  While Abyei has taken much media attention in recent days, internal violence inside the South itself also has the ability to destabilize the whole region, continuing indefinitely.  Seasonal inter-community conflict is nothing novel in South Sudan, but a new type of conflict – motivated by national politics – adds different dynamics.  This new conflict is less easily restrained by local methods.

Inter-community conflict at this dry time of the year is as old as the communities themselves  that inhabit South Sudan.  In the driest months (from January to June) cattle of the pastoralist communities are herded from the dry regions of permanent settlement to the swampy pasturelands.  Here the cattle and herders of various communities converge together.  It is during this season of proximity that conflicts are common.  Involving the theft of cattle and subsequent retaliation, these conflicts are implemented by the Titweng. Initially armed with spears, the conflicts and subsequent peace were controlled by a traditional leadership.  Despite the national context of independence, the recent deadly raids into Gogrial East were still focused on cattle. This suggests that they were nothing more than contemporary manifestations of older conflicts.  The pattern was familiar to the region – it was the cattle-camps that were targeted, the teenage Titweng that were killed, and the cattle that were defended.

The cattle of the communities of South Sudan are decorated with gapping horns and majestic multi colours.  Their milk, dung and sacrificial use gives the animals a multifaceted purpose.  Yet, like gold, their real worth in South Sudan is as a wealth storage mechanism.  With bridal price a requirement of marriage, they are not only needed for life and financial security, but also to create a family.  The perceived value of cattle explains the dynamics of these “˜old’ conflicts.  Yet, the “˜new’ conflicts, driven by national, political concerns, also have a place for cattle.  The taking of cattle can feed hungry, rebelling soldiers.  The cattle can also be transported for sale in other markets to provide the necessary funds for national political concerns.

The new guns, shining black boots and captured fragments of soldiers’ uniforms all hint that the latest raid into Gogrial East was a new type of conflict.  It was not merely conducted by the Titweng – the implementers of the violence included soldiers; organized as a military unit and fighting for a national political end.  Dissenting from the SPLA/M (the southern army and governing party), dissident SPLA commander Peter Gadet has gathered much of his support in Unity State.  It is assumed that it was his forces that fought into Gogrial East.

Yet, the old inter-community conflicts have long included both the gun and the soldier.  In Bahr al-Ghazal, the Titweng found themselves armed during the height of the civil war in the 1990s.  They have retained their guns until now, even if they often lack training and ammunition.  Therefore, when home from the army, soldiers will often join the Titweng in their region to offer skilled support.  A recent counter-raid in early May 2011 by the Dinka on the Murle in Jonglei was apparently facilitated by five SPLA acting as Titweng while home on leave.

The emerging political violence, such as that seen by Gadet’s militia in Gogrial East, is something different from new weapons and trained Titweng assimiliated into an old conflict.  Violence motivated by national politics makes war and peace more complex.  The Titweng are forced to become a more superior military effort to face the militia groups.  With many of the SPLA called to Abyei, they are left alone to defend their lands and property.  More crucially, the making of the conflict and the peace no longer sits in the hands of the local chiefs and traditional leaders.  The Titweng have often proven compliant to the community elders if instructed.  With an alternative, militarized source of authority the decision to bring peace is now made in Juba or Khartoum.  Any negotiations on the ground are directed through Thuraya calls to distant figures.  Unlike the old conflicts, peace is not made beneath the trees in the Toc (pasturelands) of the cattle herders.  Peace is made too far away from where the violence occurs and is slower in coming.  These new conflicts are subsequently longer and deadlier than the old.

Naomi Pendle is currently teaching at the University of Bahr el-Ghazal (Wau) and Marol Academy (Warrap State).  She has now lived and worked in this  region of South Sudan for two years.

Previous Article

The East African Community – Hope for ...

Next Article

What Future for Africa? – by Stephen ...

Magnus Taylor

Magnus Taylor is a Horn of Africa Analyst at International Crisis Group, the independent conflict-prevention organisation.

Related articles More from author

  • PoliticsWestern Sahara

    “Only independence will restore us”: A Sahrawi refugee recalls Western Sahara’s invasion

    November 5, 2015
    By Mohamedsalem Werad
  • PoliticsSouth Africa

    “Burn to be heard”: Why #FeesMustFall in South Africa has turned violent

    September 30, 2016
    By Jane Duncan
  • Politics

    The Case for a Deferment Under Article 16

    July 16, 2008
    By Michael Davies
  • Politics

    DR Congo: The International Community Must Not Turn Their Backs On Democracy – By William Townsend, Free Fair DRC

    December 22, 2011
    By African Arguments
  • Politics

    Five debut Nigerian novels to read in 2015 – By Ogo Okafor

    July 2, 2015
    By African Arguments
  • Politics

    The Ringtone and the Drum: travels in the world’s poorest countries – By Francesca Washtell

    April 11, 2013
    By African Arguments

Leave a reply Cancel reply

  • Politics

    The Islam and the “Ism” in Sudanese Islamism

  • Politics

    Zimbabwe: The Shadow of Elections — by Brian Raftopoulos

  • Politics

    Sudan’s Great Depression: mental illness dangerously ignored by country’s health services – By Dr. Mohamed Shawgi

The Africa Insiders Newsletter

Get the free edition of our exclusive look at this week’s most important developments on the continent.

Please wait...

Thank you for signing up!

Interactive Elections Map

Keep up to date with all the African elections.

Find us on Facebook

Follow us on twitter

  • 66464
    Followers

Most Read

  • Somalia elections: At President Farmaajo's inauguration in 2017. Credit: AMISOM/ Ilyas Ahmed
    Somalia: President Farmaajo’s stacks the deck to secure a second term
  • Jawar Mohammed meeting with supporters in October 2019. Credit: Jawar Mohammed.
    Ethiopia must stop hate speech, not free speech
  • In tackling mental health issues, the rest of Africa and the world can learn a lot from initiatives such as the Friendship Bench in Zimbabwe. Credit: Friendship Bench Project- Zimbabwe.
    Mental health in Africa: The need for a new approach
  • President Pierre Nkurunziza (left) has been in power in Burundi since 2005. Credit: PNUD Burundi / Patrice Brizard.
    Burundi: A president “chosen by God” and those who disagree
  • Funmi Iyanda has a bold new movie out. But don’t call it a comeback. 

About

African Arguments is a pan-African platform for news analysis, comment and opinion. We seek to analyse issues facing the continent, investigate the stories that matter, and amplify a diversity of voices.

Our content is published on a Creative Commons license.

Get in touch

editor@africanarguments.org

Brought to you by


  • Cookies
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms & Conditions
  • en English
    am Amharicar Arabicny Chichewazh-CN Chinese (Simplified)en Englishfr Frenchde Germanha Hausait Italianpt Portuguesest Sesothosn Shonaes Spanishsu Sudanesesw Swahilixh Xhosayo Yorubazu Zulu
© Copyright African Arguments 2018
By continuing to browse the site you are agreeing to our use of cookies.
en English
am Amharicar Arabicny Chichewazh-CN Chinese (Simplified)en Englishfr Frenchde Germanha Hausait Italianpt Portuguesest Sesothosn Shonaes Spanishsu Sudanesesw Swahilixh Xhosayo Yorubazu Zulu