A quest for sustainable peace in South Sudan: the role of everyday religious practices, ceremonies and rituals in robust peacebuilding

Abstract

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.

Bridges of Peace: The Role of Symbols and Rituals in Peacebuilding

“…This pertains to the notion that, given the typical post-conflict milieu of the peacebuilding sphere, local leadership figures and traditional indigenous rituals and ceremonies lack inherent local legitimacy. This viewpoint aligns with Bedigen's (2022) contention that the predominant body of scholarly work tends to overlook the pervasive influence of indigenous belief systems and their interconnections with routine communal ceremonies and rituals, which notably contribute to the peacebuilding process. Paradoxically, despite this indigenous underpinning, the emphasis often gravitates toward extraneous political and economic initiatives pursued by external non-governmental organizations (NGOs), which are ascribed pivotal significance in the formulation, execution, and realization of comprehensive national peacebuilding strategies.…”

Everyday peacebuilding and practices in Kenya, South Sudan, Somaliland and Ghana: introduction

“…Dery calls on emerging scholars (such as those contributing to this special issue-to be prepared to challenge the status quo, 'we should not only focus on the excesses, damages, and dangers of patriarchal masculinities to peacebuilding', rather, a critically sympathetic and culturally driven analysis of men in their multiple locatedness should sharpen our analysis of the everydayness of peace or peace in the mundane, especially at interpersonal levels. Bedigen (2022) highlights how the political and economic initiatives that are fronted by external organisations are prioritised and presented as crucial in the planning, implementation and achievement of national peacebuilding strategies, yet, while scholarship exists that demonstrates that in South Sudan and or indeed in sub-Saharan Africa, religion (i.e., Christianity and Islam) is significanct in conflict, the same is excluded in peacebuilding efforts (Ouellet 2013;Schirch 2015). Where these have been included, for example the NSCC's national peacebuilding processes, 2 the inclusion of Christianity, Islam and African traditional religions have remained at the peripheries, and within that, indigenous religious practices and ceremonies or rituals are largely excluded (Bedigen 2017;Hancock 2017).…”