3 - Prospects for Democracy in Africa’s Newest Country, South Sudan

Summary

Introduction

This chapter argues that democracy has not taken root in the ruling Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), and in the whole of South Sudan, because the liberators or former rebel leaders, who now rule the new country, do not have an interest in embracing it as their continued hold on power could be threatened. Like leaders of the now defunct Sudan or former Sudan, the liberators or former rebel leaders have often preached democracy but in practice are determined to claim or cling to power through undemocratic means, a legacy of the long years of armed struggle. The ideologies of liberation in Southern Sudan, which centred on strong men with guns, have nurtured leaders determined to hold on to power after the end of the war in 2005 and the subsequent emergence of the state of South Sudan (Lyman 2015).

Southern Sudan's political causes and grievances were championed by SPLM for over two decades of armed struggle. The 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) eventually provided a political settlement, which included a promise for a democratic transformation of the country. In reality, the CPA put power largely in the hands of former rebel leaders or military strongmen, who later had no qualms about resorting to violence to retain or gain power. Professor Mahmoud Mamdani has observed, correctly, that the CPA's lamentable approach to the array of armed groups in the future state of South Sudan was to assume that only those with the capacity to wage war had the right to determine the terms of the peace (Mamdani 2016). Quite clearly, the legacies of the liberation struggle were perpetuated in the CPA, and furthered the SPLM refusal to countenance internal reforms while endorsing the power of the gun at the expense of reforms and democratic governance.

Ironically, the political reality that developed after the former rebel leaders assumed power in South(ern) Sudan was different from that which existed in the Southern region (1972–1982) – which was ruled by popularly elected leaders, before the former Sudan reverted to war in 1983 – and from that promised by the former rebel leaders.

Although SPLM had emerged to resolve the problems of marginalization, discrimination and injustice of the former Sudan, the movement – epitomized by power structures in an armed liberation – failed to radically restructure and transition into a democratic organization.