The Emergence of South Sudan – A Brief History

The many communities they came to control became what was referred to as the Sudan. However, before that, we were different villages, and kingdoms which were ruled by chiefs, kings and other tribal leaders going by different titles. Each of these communities had its own style of government and leadership, which helped them to co-exist with other communities of differing tribes and cultures.

The real boundaries between various people groups in this area were made by the tribes. So, the Dinka (Jieng) speakers had their own recognized community boundaries and so did the Nuer, the Shiluk, the Bari, and the rest of the 64 tribes. There was nothing like the nation that we have today.

Much later, during the colonization of Africa, various nations of Western Europe invaded the territory again. To the western side, the Belgians who had colonized the Congo invaded the area which is Darfur and some parts of Western Equatoria for a while. On the northern side, the British had invaded Egypt and Sudan and were constantly competing with the Mahdis to control the area. Here in South Sudan, the British also appointed some governors to oversee the region.

There were major differences between North and South Sudan. In the north, this included the people who were mainly a mixture of and some African tribes. Their culture had strong Islamic and cultural influence. They embraced Arabic as their language and related more with Arabic Egypt, North Africa and the Middle East. They also considered themselves superior to the rest of the black Sudanese, especially we who did not accept Islam as a religion or Arabic as our primary language. They were very different from us.

In the South, most of the population consisted of black Africans. Most of our people embraced the Christian religion or remained in their ancestral worship. We accepted the English language and our local languages about 64 language groups in the South alone. The people of the South completely refused to adopt Arabic as a national language or to embrace Islam as the preferred religion.

This book is going to be launched on the 17th of September, 2022, at the Rebuilding Ministries International, Green Rokon in Juba, South Sudan from 3 pm. 

Paul Deng Joshua Leek
Author: Spirit of Politics: A Narrative of South Sudan’s Journey, From a Futuristic Perspective
#spiritofpolitics #BrightHeritageInstitute #PaulDengJoshuaLeek #ChristiansInPolitics #hope #destiny #SpiritOfPoliticsBook #SouthSudan #pauldengjoshua #pauldengjoshualeek