South Sudan and the nation-building project: Lessons and challenges

Abstract

Over the past 50 years of independence in Africa, no event has captured the minds and imaginations of activists, scholars and policy makers and has challenged the conscience of the global community like political violence. South Sudan has just completed a referendum on self-determination. The Republic of South Sudan was inaugurated on 9 July 2011. The challenge that lies ahead for the new republic is that faced by all African states: it must reform the colonial state inherited at independence, build a more inclusive political community that effectively manages diversity, upholds the rule of law and practises democracy in governance. This article contributes to the development of the New Sudan Framework, an alternative solution to the intractable conflict in Sudan and a model for solving the problems of political violence in Africa. In the first section the author argues that the current rise in ethnic violence across South Sudan and the border regions is due to the failure to...