Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-31T20:30:04.620Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Rule of whose law? The geography of authority in Juba, South Sudan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 March 2019

Nicki Kindersley
Nicki Kindersley*
Affiliation:
Pembroke College, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 1RF, UK
*
Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This study asks: in the general absence of a functioning and effective civil administration in Juba's huge suburbs, how have people negotiated personal disputes and neighbourhood management since conflict began in 2013? Who arbitrates in Juba, and on what terms? This study challenges top-down analyses that see political-military elites managing their ethnic enclaves of followers and fighters through nepotism and gifts. Such patronage requires the complex negotiation of responsibilities and rights, including over community safety and order. In Juba, the local authorities who mediate this have been built by men and women with extensive expertise and connections in South Sudan's long history of ‘civil-military’ governance systems. These local authorities have established lasting institutions by negotiating rights to residence in, arbitrating over, and knowing the human geography of their neighbourhoods. Their authority is rooted in this deep politics, drawing on their detailed knowledge of topographies of power in these multi-ethnic, highly military neighbourhood spaces.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 57 , Issue 1 , March 2019 , pp. 61 - 83
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

The author gratefully acknowledges funding and support from the British Council in South Sudan for this research, which was conducted under a European Union Access to Justice project while completing a PhD with the Department of History, Durham University, UK. A version of this paper was presented at the Centre of African Studies, University of Edinburgh, on 21 March 2018. The author wishes to thank the anonymous reviewers, the seminar audience, Cherry Leonardi, Peter Justin and Michael Comerford for invaluable comments and discussions on the ideas in this article.

References

REFERENCES

Amnesty International. 2016. ‘‘We did not believe we would survive': killings, rape and looting in Juba.’ London: Amnesty International.Google Scholar
Anciano, F. 2017. ‘Clientelism as civil society? Unpacking the relationship between clientelism and democracy at the local level in South Africa’, Journal of Asian and African Studies 53, 4: 593–611.Google Scholar
Badiey, N. 2013. ‘The strategic instrumentalization of land tenure in ‘state-building’: the case of Juba, South Sudan’, Africa 83, 1: 57–77.Google Scholar
Badiey, N. 2014. The State of Post-conflict Reconstruction: land, urban development and state-building in Juba, Southern Sudan. London: Boydell & Brewer.Google Scholar
Berman, B.J. 2004. ‘‘A palimpsest of contradictions': ethnicity, class, and politics in Africa’, International Journal of African Historical Studies 37, 1: 13–31.Google Scholar
Boone, C. 2014. Property and Political Order in Africa: land rights and the structure of politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Boone, C. 2018. ‘Shifting visions of property under competing political regimes: changing uses of Côte d'Ivoire's 1998 Land Law’, Journal of Modern African Studies 56, 2: 189–216.Google Scholar
Branch, A. & Mampilly, Z.C.. 2005. ‘Winning the war, but losing the peace? The dilemma of SPLM/A civil administration and the tasks ahead’, Journal of Modern African Studies 43, 1: 1–20.Google Scholar
Center for Civilians in Conflict. 2016. ‘Under fire: the July 2016 violence in Juba and UN response.’ Washington, DC: CIVIC.Google Scholar
Chang-Jwok Otor, S. 1981. ‘Some aspects of migration and population growth in Juba.’ Master's thesis, University of Ghana, Ghana.Google Scholar
Copeland, C. 2015. ‘Dancing in the dark.’ Amsterdam: The Netherlands Institute of International Relations.Google Scholar
D'Agoôt, M. & Miamingi, R.. 2016. ‘In South Sudan, power flows from the barrel of a gun; this must change’, Africa Review, 2 October 2016.Google Scholar
Deng, D. & Willems, R.. 2015. ‘Justice and conflict in South Sudan: observations from a pilot survey.’ Juba: South Sudan Law Society.Google Scholar
Denney, L. 2014. ‘Overcoming the state/non-state divide: an end user approach to security and justice reform’, International Peacekeeping 21, 2: 251–68.Google Scholar
Grant, R. & Thompson, D.. 2013. ‘The development complex, rural economy and urban-spatial and economic development in Juba, South Sudan’, Local Economy 28, 2: 218–30.Google Scholar
Hirblinger, A. T. 2015. ‘Land, political subjectivity and conflict in post-CPA Southern Sudan’, Journal of Eastern African Studies 9, 4: 704–22.Google Scholar
Hoffmann, K., Vlassenroot, K. & Marchais, G.. 2016. ‘Taxation, stateness and armed groups: public authority and resource extraction in Eastern Congo’, Development and Change 47, 6: 1434–56.Google Scholar
Ibreck, R., Logan, H. & Pendle, N.. 2017. ‘Negotiating justice: courts as local civil authority during the conflict in South Sudan.’ London: LSE, The Justice and Security Research Programme.Google Scholar
Jackson, P. 2017. ‘Hybridity or coexistence? The politics of legal pluralism in the West African countryside’, in Lemay-Hébert, N. & Freedman, R., eds. Hybridity: law, culture and development. London: Taylor & Francis, 255–68.Google Scholar
Jeffrey, A., McConnell, F. & Wilson, A.. 2015. ‘Understanding legitimacy: perspectives from anomalous geopolitical spaces’, Geoforum 66: 177–83.Google Scholar
Johnson, D.H. 2014. ‘Briefing: the crisis in South Sudan’, African Affairs 113, 451: 300–9.Google Scholar
Justin, P.H. & de Vries, L.. 2017. ‘Governing unclear lines: local boundaries as a (re)source of conflict in South Sudan.’ Journal of Borderlands Studies, 1–16.Google Scholar
Justin, P.H. & van Leeuwen, M.. 2016. ‘The politics of displacement-related land conflict in Yei River County, South Sudan’, Journal of Modern African Studies 54, 3: 419–42.Google Scholar
Kindersley, N. & Rolandsen, Ø.H.. 2016. ‘Briefing: prospects for peace and the UN Regional Protection Force in South Sudan’, African Affairs Online Issue.Google Scholar
Lemay-Hébert, N. & Freedman, R.. 2017. ‘Introduction’, in Lemay-Hébert, N. & Freedman, R., eds. Hybridity: law, culture and development. London: Taylor & Francis, 3–14.Google Scholar
Leonardi, C. 2011. ‘Paying ‘buckets of blood’ for the land: moral debates over economy, war and state in Southern Sudan’, Journal of Modern African Studies 49, 2: 215–40.Google Scholar
Leonardi, C., Moro, L.N., Santschi, M. & Isser, D.. 2010. ‘Local justice in Southern Sudan.’ Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace.Google Scholar
Lund, C. 2006. ‘Twilight institutions: public authority and local politics in Africa’, Development and Change 37, 4: 685–705.Google Scholar
Lund, C. 2016. ‘Rule and rupture: state formation through the production of property and citizenship’, Development and Change 47, 6: 1199–228.Google Scholar
Lund, C. & Boone, C.. 2013. ‘Introduction: land politics in Africa – constituting authority over territory, property and persons’, Africa 83, 1: 1–13.Google Scholar
Mamdani, M. 2016. ‘Who's to blame in South Sudan?’, Boston Review, 28 June 2016.Google Scholar
Martin, E. & Mosel, I.. 2011. ‘City limits: urbanisation and vulnerability in Sudan – Juba case study.’ London: Overseas Development Institute.Google Scholar
McMichael, G. 2014. ‘Rethinking access to land and violence in post-war cities: reflections from Juba, Southern Sudan’, Environment and Urbanization 26, 2: 389–400.Google Scholar
McMichael, G. 2016. ‘Land conflict and informal settlements in Juba, South Sudan’, Urban Studies 53, 13: 2721–37.Google Scholar
Meagher, K., De Herdt, T. & Titeca, K.. 2014. ‘Unravelling public authority: paths of hybrid governance in Africa.’ Universiteit Gent: IS Academy Research Brief.Google Scholar
Mkandawire, T. 2015. ‘Neopatrimonialism and the political economy of economic performance in Africa: critical reflections’, World Politics 67, 3: 563–612.Google Scholar
Nakao, S. 2013. ‘A history from below: Malakia in Juba, South Sudan, c. 1927–1954.’ Sophia University: Departmental Bulletin Paper.Google Scholar
Pantuliano, S. 2009. ‘Going home: land, return and reintegration in Southern Sudan and the three areas’, in Pantuliano, S., ed. Uncharted Territory Land, Conflict and Humanitarian Action. Rugby: Practical Action Publishing, 153–70.Google Scholar
Pantuliano, S., Buchanan-Smith, M., Metcalfe, V., Pavanello, S. & Martin, E.. 2011. ‘City limits: urbanisation and vulnerability in Sudan.’ Synthesis Report. London: Humanitarian Policy Group.Google Scholar
Palomera, J. & Vetta, T.. 2016. ‘Moral economy: rethinking a radical concept’, Anthropological Theory 16, 4: 413–32.Google Scholar
Pendle, N. 2015. ‘'They are now community police': negotiating the boundaries and nature of the government in South Sudan through the identity of militarised cattle-keepers’, International Journal on Minority and Group Rights 22, 3: 410–34.Google Scholar
Pinaud, C. 2014. ‘South Sudan: civil war, predation and the making of a military aristocracy’, African Affairs 113, 451: 192–211.Google Scholar
Pinaud, C. 2016. ‘Military kinship, Inc.: patronage, inter-ethnic marriages and social classes in South Sudan’, Review of African Political Economy 43, 148: 243–59.Google Scholar
Schomerus, M. & de Vries, L.. 2014. ‘Improvising border security: ‘a situation of security pluralism’ along South Sudan's borders with the Democratic Republic of the Congo’, Security Dialogue 45, 3: 279–94.Google Scholar
Schomerus, M., Walmsley, E. & Lebrun, E.. 2008. Violent Legacies: insecurity in Sudan's central and eastern equatoria. Geneva: Small Arms Survey.Google Scholar
Schouten, P. 2016. ‘Extractive orders: a political geography of public authority in Ituri, Democratic Republic of Congo.’ London: Department for International Development.Google Scholar
Stringham, N. & Forney, J.. 2017. ‘It takes a village to raise a militia: local politics, the Nuer White Army, and South Sudan's civil wars’, Journal of Modern African Studies 55, 2: 177–99.Google Scholar
Tapscott, R. 2017. ‘Local security and the (un)making of public authority in Gulu, Northern Uganda’, African Affairs 116, 462: 39–59.Google Scholar
Twijnstra, R. & Titeca, K.. 2016. ‘Everything changes to remain the same? State and tax reform in South Sudan’, Journal of Modern African Studies 54, 2: 263–92.Google Scholar
de Vries, L. & Schomerus, M.. 2017. ‘South Sudan's civil war will not end with a peace deal’, Peace Review 29, 3: 333–40.Google Scholar
de Waal, A. 2014. ‘When kleptocracy becomes insolvent: brute causes of the civil war in South Sudan’, African Affairs 113, 452: 347–69.Google Scholar
de Waal, A. 2016a. ‘Introduction: making sense of South Sudan’, African Affairs Online Issue.Google Scholar
de Waal, A. 2016b. ‘A political marketplace: analysis of South Sudan's peace.’ London: Department for International Development.Google Scholar
Wai, Z. 2012. ‘Neo-patrimonialism and the discourse of state failure in Africa’, Review of African Political Economy 39, 131: 27–43.Google Scholar

NEWS MEDIA

Sudan Tribune, online only; The New Yorker, New York; Boston Review, Boston; Reuters, Juba; UNHCR News, online only.Google Scholar

INTERVIEWS

Pastor Jacob, Mugwo Payam, Yei River State, 15.10.2015.Google Scholar
Lazarus, small business owner, Mia Saba, Juba, 25.10.2015.Google Scholar
Paramount Chief of Bari Dennis Faragalla, Hai Malakal, Juba, 6.5.2016.Google Scholar
Chief Simon, Ashara Wilayat Chief's court, Shirikat, Juba, 13.10.2015.Google Scholar
Public prosecuting attorney, Munuki police station, Juba, 21.10.2015.Google Scholar
Peter, police officer, Godele police station, Juba, 24.10.2015.Google Scholar
Head Chief Thiep, Godele, Juba, 9.10.2015.Google Scholar
Chief Marko, Godele, Juba, 9.10.2015.Google Scholar
Chief Boniface, Gumbo, Juba, 14.10.2015.Google Scholar
Chief L. M., Gumbo, Juba, 14.10.2015.Google Scholar
Chief's court worker Justine, Gumbo, Juba, 14.10.2015.Google Scholar
Chief of Pari court, Gumbo, Juba, 10.10.2015.Google Scholar
Chief of Souk Zande, Godele, Juba, 26.10.2015.Google Scholar
Social worker, Munuki, Juba, 16.10.2015.Google Scholar
Chiefs’ court meeting, Godele, Juba, 9.10.2015.Google Scholar
Court clerk, Aweil, 8.6.2013.Google Scholar
Elder, Ashara Wilayat chief's court in Mia Saba, Juba, 20.10.2015.Google Scholar
Ashara Wilayat court member, Mia Saba, Juba, 20.10.2015.Google Scholar
Mary and women's group, Gumbo, Juba, 14.10.2015.Google Scholar
Greater Bahr el Ghazal court, Shirikat, Juba, 10.10.2015.Google Scholar
Greater Upper Nile court, Shirikat, Juba, 8.10.2015.Google Scholar
Peter, Gumbo garrison local court, Juba, 10.10.2015.Google Scholar
Police officer, Godele II police station, Juba, 27.10.2015.Google Scholar
Worker, South Sudan Court of Appeal, Juba, 6.5.2016.Google Scholar