Beyond criminal justice: learning from South Sudan

In 2015, Fund for Peace, a nonprofit research institution that specializes in foreign affairs, gave South Sudan a 114.5 on its annual Failed State Index. This score, higher than that of any other country, means that South Sudan – five years after its independence in 2011 — is the most failed state in the world based on social, political, and economic indicators.

Mahmood Mamdani, the Executive Director of Makerere Institute of Social Research in Uganda and the Herbert Lehman Professor of Government and Professor of Anthropology, African Studies, and Political Science at Columbia University, questioned this characterization of South Sudan as a failed state in his Coca-Cola World Fund Lecture at Yale sponsored by the MacMillan Center. In his talk, “Beyond Criminal Justice: Learning from South Sudan,” (view video) he argued that the internal troubles of South Sudan were caused by the United States, United Kingdom, and Norway — a triumvirate referred to as the “Troika.”

Professor Mamdani began with an anthropological history of the conflict between South Sudan’s most populous tribes, the Dinka and the Neur, which total 3.2 million and 1.6 million respectively.

“These two groups share a common culture,” he said. “They speak a similar language and practice an agropastoral economy.”

Although many mistakenly blame violence on the natural war-like attitude of African tribes, Professor Mamdani insisted that the Dinka and Neur, nomadic and egalitarian communities, coexisted relatively peacefully until the British occupation of South Sudan from 1890 to 1953. To establish more controlled rule, the British divided the land into provinces along ethnic lines and put each province under the absolute authority of a tribal leader. This emphasis on, and politicization of, ethnicity pitted the Dinka and Neur against each other.

“These tensions intensified with fixed boundaries and colonial rule,” Professor Mamdani shared.

This hyper-hierarchical political arrangement carried over problematically to the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), the army of South Sudan. The military was structured such that troops report strictly to their commanders, and their commanders report loosely to the SPLA. In other words, commanders, free from oversight, had nearly unbridled control over their soldiers. Coincidentally, the commanders, who exerted authority in their provinces through military might, also tended to give their troops free reign over their communities.

“Most soldiers lived in civilian neighborhoods with their own guns,” Professor Mamdani illustrated. “They created detention centers for civilians.”

Militias began terrorizing civilians, and commanders of different ethnicities began warring with one another. A civil war soon broke out. In 2005, the Troika facilitated the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) in Ethiopia to end the violence. The document, however, only reinforced the predatory power of the military by endowing commanders with political power to maintain peace.

“The CPA was premised on militarist assumption. Only those with the capacity to wage war have ability to determine peace,” Professor Mamdani explained.

The peace did not last long, and in December 2013, another civil war ravaged South Sudan. Professor Mamdani declared that Western governments believed that “Africans are quick to learn the arts of war but genetically resistant to learn art of peace.” This past August, the United States, hoping to usher in order, urged the African Union to establish a hybrid court for South Sudan to prosecute war criminals and bring them to justice.

Professor Mamdani cautioned against a system of criminal justice that focuses on individual responsibility. He sees it as a ready-made, Western formula that fails to build toward peace because it addresses criminal questions instead of the underlying political ones.

“Why should this responsibility fall to the South Sudanese?” he questioned. “Why is nobody talking about holding the Troika accountable?”

To Professor Mamdani, the Troika is at fault for establishing the political system that lead to the December 2013 violence. He conceded, however, that Troika will never be tried for its role in creating the conflict.

Professor Mamdani instead recommended that South Sudan hold a constitutional convention and give itself the true political transformation that Western powers failed to facilitate.

“South Sudan needs a political transition. The political process that was cut short should be given a new life,” Mamdani closed.