Violence, legitimacy, and prophecy: Nuer struggles with uncertainty in South Sudan

Abstract

Contemporary South Sudanese Nuer prophets play powerful roles in interpreting the moral limits of lethal violence and weighing the legitimacy claims of rival government leaders. Their activities remain largely invisible to external observers investigating the making and unmaking of fragile states. Focusing on South Sudan's tumultuous 2005–14 period, we reveal these hidden dynamics through analysis of the two most‐powerful living western Nuer prophets. Gatdeang Dit, a male prophet of the divinity Deng, rejects all forms of violent aggression and fosters relations of peace and intermarriage with Dinka neighbors. Nyachol, a female prophet of Maani, inspires thousands of armed Nuer youth to retaliate against Dinka cattle raiders and other external threats while insisting on purification for Nuer–Nuer homicides. Despite their differences, both prophets invoke God's superior powers to push back against the simplified, secularized, and objectified forms of violence glorified by rival government elites. [prophecy, government, violence, legitimacy, uncertainty, Nuer, South Sudan]

The militarization of cattle raiding in South Sudan: how a traditional practice became a tool for political violence

“…Also in this domain, prophets were another category of influential spiritual leader widely respected and feared for their powers (Evans-Pritchard 1940). Traditionally, and to a large extent still, these individuals played an important role in governing raiding behavior, wielding significant power to both sanction and initiate raids as well as to prevent them (Leff 2012;Hashimoto 2013;Hutchinson and Pendle 2015). Youth intending to mount a raid sought their blessings in exchange for a share of the raided livestock (Evans-Pritchard 1940).…”

“…Gatdeang, a male prophet, has employed a strategy of diplomacy, fostering inter-community dialogue and "relations of peace, hospitality, and intermarriage with neighboring Dinka communities." Both have been able to create islands of relative stability, in large part by restoring sacred authority constraining violence and rejecting the secularized forms of violence propagated by political leaders (Hutchinson and Pendle 2015).…”

“…Though beliefs are not static, and certain aspects of traditional authority have been seriously eroded by decades of militarized conflict, the influence wielded by these cultural figures is far from obsolete (Hashimoto 2013;Hutchinson and Pendle 2015). Policymakers should take cues from the caution with which Gatdeang was treated by Salva Kiir when, in 2008, word reached Kiir that cattle belonging to Gatdeang had been raided by Dinka youth.…”

“…Policymakers should take cues from the caution with which Gatdeang was treated by Salva Kiir when, in 2008, word reached Kiir that cattle belonging to Gatdeang had been raided by Dinka youth. Kiir was worried enough about the potential consequences for his upcoming political campaign that he paid a personal visit to Gatdeang in his home, dispatching two SPLA battalions to guard the community and ten armed policemen to guard Gatdeang himself (Hutchinson and Pendle 2015).…”

Teaching the violent past in secondary schools in newly independent South Sudan

“…According to the curriculum, one of the general objectives for the subject is to 'develop the sense of nationalism, patriotism and national unity ' (Government of Southern Sudan 2007, 169). Research shows that the resistance towards the north and the fight for liberation united southerners across ethnic lines (Breidlid 2005) even though internal rivalry has always existed within the south (Hutchinson & Pendle 2015;Breidlid, Breidlid & Said 2014). However, in newly independent South Sudan the fight for national liberation is over and currently internal ethnic tensions are prominent in all areas of society.…”