The South Sudan intermittent conflicts and civil wars have attracted national, regional, and international interventions. Dominated by politically led conventional ideologies of peace approaches that revolve around suppression, negotiation, and mediation, such approaches have not achieved sustainable peace in the region. The case for societal customs presented here demonstrates a contrary view. Historically, the Nilotic Lwo ethnic groups of South Sudan, that is, Dinka and Nuer, have fought each other but utilised their customs in conflict resolution. The use of societal customs has prevailed at the grass-roots level in the face of intermittent interethnic conflicts, which feed into civil wars. This article explores the potential of societal customs in delivering sustainable peace even at a civil war level. It highlights a way of exploring further the themes (customary laws and practices) and of thinking about how/why/when these can be useful in meeting local’s interests, values, and perspectives in the civil war resolution.

This is a repository copy of The failure of externally-driven advocacy initiatives to contextualise sub-Saharan "marginalised women".

Since 1955, South Sudan has had intermittent civil wars, and sustainable peace has been difficult to attain. There have been numerous attempts that include major international and national political and economic initiatives. Among the social initiatives, The New Sudan Council of Churches (NSCC), perceived to represent all religious practices and people, was considered an essential tool in uniting all South Sudanese, ending conflicts and achieving sustainable peace both within the communities and nationally. However, the inclusion of the NSCC, which represents mainly Christianity and includes Muslim religious leaders, has not delivered sustainable peace. This article utilises ethnographic data to present a socioreligious perspective. It seeks to argue that other South Sudanese indigenous or cultural religious everyday peace practices of ceremonies and rituals can present a robust peacebuilding initiative in the region. It concludes that the inter-relationships of socioreligious practices, an aspect the NSCC peacebuilding processes ignored, are essential in delivering sustainable peace.

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