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PDF hosted at the Radboud Repository of the Radboud University Nijmegen The following full text is a publisher's version. For additional information about this publication click this link. http://hdl.handle.net/2066/121644 Please be advised that this information was generated on 2021-10-06 and may be subject to change. Facing Frontiers Everyday practice of state-building in South Sudan Lotje Anne de Vries Thesis committee Thesis supervisor Prof. dr. ir. J.W.M. van Dijk Professor of Law and Governance in Africa Wageningen University Thesis co-supervisor Dr. T. Raeymaekers Lecturer Political Geography University of Zurich, Switserland Other members Prof. dr. ir. C. Leeuwis, Wageningen University Dr. D.C. Leonardi, University of Durham, United Kingdom Prof. dr. K. Vlassenroot, Ghent University, Belgium Prof. dr. G.C.A. Junne, University of Amsterdam Facing Frontiers Everyday practice of state-building in South Sudan Lotje Anne de Vries Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of doctor at Wageningen University by the authority of the Rector Magnificus Prof. dr. M.J. Kropff, in the presence of the Thesis Committee appointed by the Academic Board to be defended in public on Wednesday 7 November 2012 at 4 p.m. in the Aula. Lotje Anne de Vries Facing Frontiers, Everyday practice of state-building in South Sudan, 225 pages PhD thesis, Wageningen University, Wageningen, NL (2012) With references, with summaries in Dutch and English ISBN 978-94-6173-395-5 'a story always sounds clear enough at a distance, but the nearer you get to the scene of events the vaguer it becomes' George Orwell, Shooting an Elephant (1936) i TABLE OF CONTENT Table of content...........................................................................................................i Acknowledgements...................................................................................................v Maps .......................................................................................................................... vii List of Acronyms.......................................................................................................xi 1. Introduction ...................................................................................................................1 Drawing the research boundaries..........................................................................1 Delineating choices....................................................................................................5 Nuance in Southern Sudan’s ‘state-building process’.......................................9 Conceptual demarcations ......................................................................................14 The state at its borders......................................................................................14 Power, repertoires and force fields ................................................................17 Force fields of powers in transition................................................................20 Outline of the book..................................................................................................23 2. Subject to investigation An account of fieldwork ..............................................25 Introduction ..............................................................................................................25 Reflexivity resources and repertoires..................................................................28 The transformative challenges of fieldwork ......................................................30 Logistics and serendipity .................................................................................31 Personal safety and emotional security ........................................................35 Ripple in the pond or security concern...............................................................38 Critical adjustments.................................................................................................41 Encounters beyond Bazi’s security agents ...................................................42 Confronting ‘the North’....................................................................................44 The transition from PhD student to researcher...........................................45 Concluding remarks................................................................................................47 3. Setting the scene Contextualizing continuities...................................................49 Introduction ..............................................................................................................49 The quest for control ...............................................................................................51 The Lado Enclave 1894-1910............................................................................52 Enforcing colonial boundaries ........................................................................54 The British ‘Southern Policy’.................................................................................55 The Anyanya War....................................................................................................58 The Addis Ababa Agreement and the years of peace................................60 ii The SPLM/A and the war in the South ..............................................................62 Civilian ambitions of a military movement .......................................................66 Liberating the border triangle...............................................................................68 Heading towards the CPA.....................................................................................70 Concluding remarks................................................................................................72 4. Pockets of performance The invention of incidents in Bazi.............................75 Introduction ..............................................................................................................75 (Dis)connected pockets of state performance along the border ....................77 Kaya ......................................................................................................................78 Kimba ...................................................................................................................81 Lasu in Yei County ............................................................................................82 Jalé in Kajo Keji County....................................................................................84 Bazi, a village beyond borders..............................................................................86 Congo’s periphery .............................................................................................87 Bazi’s appearance and the New Sudan.........................................................89 Bazi: Incidents and contention as local force field............................................93 The skirmish and its roots................................................................................93 Liberation logic in a stilled force field...........................................................95 Contempt and contention ................................................................................98 Shifting the balance of power........................................................................102 Concluding remarks..............................................................................................104 Pictures.............................................................................................................107-116 5. Convenient indeterminacies Pulling the ropes in Kaya ................................117 Introduction ............................................................................................................117 The performance of power ..................................................................................118 Who pulls the rope at Checkpoint Kaya? ...................................................119 Who pulls the rope at Checkpoint Bazi?.....................................................121 Institutional multiplicity at the border..............................................................125 Economic performance: Customs as its driver..........................................126 Invented rules...................................................................................................132 Invented institutions .......................................................................................134 Security agencies..............................................................................................136 Concluding remarks..............................................................................................141 6. The emergence of civilian authority Local government in Morobo County.......................................................................143 Introduction ............................................................................................................143 iii Local government since the CPA .................................................................... 144 The Local Government Board .................................................................... 146 Responsibilities of local government ........................................................ 148 Remnants of the SPLM/A’s relief wing ................................................... 151 The emergence of Morobo