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“We Are Not a Failed State, We Make the Best Passports”: South Sudan and Biometric Modernity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 August 2016

Ferenc David Markó
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Abstract:

In January 2012, six months after the declaration of independence, South Sudan introduced a state-of-the-art biometric identity management system to handle its citizenship and passport databases. Scholars have shown that despite the remarkable failures of biometric schemes, states maintain their belief in high-modernist technologies. This article argues that South Sudan introduced biometrics to convey an image of a “non-failed” state to the international community, while effectively doubling the bureaucracy to keep all important decisions about inclusion and exclusion in the hands of the military elites. This duplication of the office reveals a great deal about the fundamental nature of the South Sudanese state. Citizens of any state tend to imagine the nation through their relations to bureaucracy, and identity documents act as a new kind of evidence of a successful negotiation between them and state agents. This situation creates a constant state of citizenship limbo for the South Sudanese.

Résumé:

En janvier 2012, six mois après la déclaration de son indépendance, le Soudan du Sud a introduit un système moderne d’identité biométrique pour gérer ses bases de données de citoyenneté et de passeport. Les chercheurs ont montré que, malgré les échecs remarquables des systèmes biométriques, les États maintiennent leur foi dans les technologies modernes de pointe. Cet article soutient que le Soudan du Sud a introduit la biométrie pour offrir à la communauté internationale une représentation d’un état “robuste,” tout en doublant la bureaucratie, pour garder l’ensemble des décisions importantes au sujet de l’inclusion et de l’exclusion dans les mains des élites militaires. Cette duplicité du bureau révèle beaucoup la nature fondamentale de l’État sud soudanais. Les citoyens d’un État ont tendance à imaginer la nation à travers leurs relations avec la bureaucratie et les documents d’identité agissent comme un nouveau genre de preuve d’une négociation réussie entre eux et les agents de l’État. Cette situation crée un état constant d’incertitude de citoyenneté pour les Soudanais du Sud.

Keywords

AnthropologySouth Sudanbiometriccitizenshipsovereigntybureaucracy
Type
ASR FORUM ON SURVEILLANCE IN AFRICA: POLITICS, HISTORIES, TECHNIQUES
Information
African Studies Review , Volume 59 , Issue 2 , September 2016 , pp. 113 - 132
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 2016 

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