Euroacademia Conferences
Europe Inside-Out: Europe and Europeanness Exposed to Plural Observers (9th Edition) April 24 - 25, 2020
Identities and Identifications: Politicized Uses of Collective Identities (9th Edition) June 12 - 13, 2020
8th Forum of Critical Studies: Asking Big Questions Again January 24 - 25, 2020
Re-Inventing Eastern Europe (7th Edition) December 13 - 14, 2019
The European Union and the Politicization of Europe (8th Edition) October 25 - 26, 2019
Identities and Identifications: Politicized Uses of Collective Identities (8th Edition) June 28 - 29, 2019
The European Union and the Politicization of Europe (7th Edition) January 25 - 26, 2019
7th Forum of Critical Studies: Asking Big Questions Again November 23 - 24, 2018
Europe Inside-Out: Europe and Europeanness Exposed to Plural Observers (8th Edition) September 28 - 30, 2018
Identities and Identifications: Politicized Uses of Collective Identities (7th Edition) June 14 - 15, 2018
Nationbuilding in Nascent South Sudan – How to Remember the War
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Presentation speakers
- Ole Frahm, Department of Social Sciences Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany
Abstract:
Processes of national identity formation in post-colonial Africa have typically followed a similar trajectory: (1) state-led top-down proclamations of inclusive nationalism combined with oppression of alternative, mostly ethnic loyalties; (2) resurgence of ethnic sentiment due to the state’s failure to deliver benefits and deserve adherence; (3) rise of discourses of autochthony and exclusionary politics of belonging. In this context, the process of collective identity formation in newly independent South Sudan is a highly intriguing case study of nation-building. After overwhelmingly opting for independence and thus separate South Sudanese statehood in 2011, the nascent state is already struggling with ethnic rebellions, persistently strong sub-national (tribal) loyalties and widespread complaints over ethnically based nepotism. Public debate on the issue of nation-building is dominated by appeals to overcome tribalism while lacking in any prescriptive ideas on how to achieve a widely accepted national identity. Most citizens do not have good command of English, nominally the country’s official language, whereas Juba Arabic, a colloquial form of Arabic and the country’s de facto lingua franca, is officially shunned. Hence, for the time being, the unifying effect from the civil war period of having a common enemy – the Khartoum government – has not been replaced with either a new negative ‘other’ or a positive vision of a bond that is capable of uniting all citizens of the nascent state. Candidates for a positive identity include Christianity, the army, multiculturalism, and, especially, memory of the independence struggle. While the government appears to favour the latter – Veteran’s Day is a major holiday and the late rebel leader John Garang’s mausoleum has been turned into a shrine – a single authoritative historiography is difficult to achieve because much of the fighting during the second half of the civil war (post-1991) occurred between different Southern factions; and in spite of successful local initiatives, national reconciliation has so far not been undertaken.
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