The This page intentionally left blank The First Sudanese Civil War

Africans, , and Israelis in the Southern , 1955–1972

Scopas S. Poggo the first sudanese civil war Copyright © Scopas S. Poggo, 2009. Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2009 978-0-230-60796-5

All rights reserved. First published in 2009 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN® in the Unites States—a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world, this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the , Europe and other countries.

ISBN 978-1-349-37474-8 ISBN 978-0-230-61798-8 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9780230617988

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available from the Library of Congress. A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library. Design by Scribe Inc. First edition: February 2009 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Chapter 5 is a revision of “General ’s Military Administration in , 9, no. 1 the Sudan, 1958–1964: Implementation of the Programs of Islamization and Arabization in the Southern Sudan,” Northeast African Studies Journal (April 2007): 67–101, reprinted with permission of the editor of the journal. Chapter 8 contains revised material from “The Politics of Liberation in the Southern Sudan 1967–1972: The Role of , African Heads of State and Foreign Mercenaries,” The Journal 47 (November 2001): 34–48, reprinted with permission of the editor of the journal. Map credit: Sudan as of 2006: Permission of the UN Cartographic Section. In Memory of My Beloved Father Daniel Poggo Waran-Wunyang This page intentionally left blank CONTENTS

List of Maps ix Preface xi Acknowledgments xv Introduction 1 1 Ethnicity and Race in Modern Sudan 9 2 The Mutiny of 1955: Its Causes and Failure 21 3 Legacy of the Failed Mutiny: Government Repression and Rise of the Resistance Movement 49 4 Government Counterinsurgency Methods, 1955–72 73 5 General Abboud’s Response: Repression, Islamization, and Arabization, 1958–64 91 6 Emergence of Southern Sudanese Political Movements, 1960–72 113 7 Reorganization and Consolidation of the Guerrilla Movement, 1963–71 131 8 External Political and Military Involvement in Sudan’s Civil War, 1960–72 145 9 The Road to Peace, 1969–72 169 Conclusion 193 Notes 197 Bibliography 229 Index 241 This page intentionally left blank MAPS

Egypt under British Protection and the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan xviii The Provinces of Sudan from 1948 to 1973 xix The as of 2006 xx This page intentionally left blank PREFACE

I am one of the five children of Daniel Poggo Waran-Wunyang (now deceased) and Anna Poni Wani-Buluk. I was born in the village of Dajur in Kajo-Kaji County in Southern Sudan in the early . My father was a farmer who also managed a grocery store for Mr. Habib, a Syrian merchant who owned the business. When I was still a little boy, my parents and I fled from Kajo-Kaji to Moyo, a town in the Madi District of Uganda, for refuge. The Sudanese government security forces wanted to arrest my father and several other Kuku businessmen for allegedly providing moral and financial support to the Anya-Nya guerrilla forces (the Southern Sudanese resistance movement) that were waging a war of liberation against the Sudan government. Indeed, many Kuku men had joined the Anya-Nya movement in Southern Sudan by the mid-1960s. But the vast majority of Kuku people fled to Uganda and became refugees in the Northern, West , Central, and Western regions of that country. My parents and I settled in Gulu, a town in Northern Uganda, and were later joined by my sister and one older brother. Not until 1969 did I meet our oldest brother, who had taken refuge in Nairobi, , after the civil war in Sudan intensified in the mid-1960s. Our youngest brother was born in Gulu. Refugee life in Gulu was a difficult matter for my family and other Southern Sudanese families (Kuku, Latuko, Madi, Bari, Lakoya, Moru, Azande, and Acholi of Southern Sudan). We had to start everything over from scratch in a new environment whose inhabitants often labeled us loring ayela, an Acholi expression literally meaning those who run away from a problem. To be sure, it was the civil strife in the Sudan that had caused us to flee into Northern Uganda. Our parents were hardworking and resilient—they made sure we had enough food to eat every day, had sufficient clothes, and above all, had adequate health care. Although my parents did not have the opportunity to attend school, they envisioned sending all their children to school. While they bought us school uniforms and other educational supplies, the High xii PREFACE

Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Roman Catholic Church in Uganda paid our fees and tuition. Uganda provided us with the qual- ity education we would otherwise not have obtained had my parents not sought sanctuary in that country. Mrs. Atey, a Ugandan Madi teacher in Primary One at Obiya Catholic Church School in Gulu, encouraged me to work hard and master the local Acholi language and culture. I also learned English, Swahili, and Kinubi, a heavily convoluted dialect still is spoken in Uganda today. As I grew up in Northern Uganda, I interacted with people from various ethnic and linguistic backgrounds, and this gave me a sense of appreciation of and respect for the people, cul- ture, and languages from other parts of Southern Sudan and Uganda. My intent to write about the history of the first civil war in Sudan is based on two events that had a profound impact on me as a refugee. First, a local Kuku clergyman named Eli, who preached the Sunday sermons in our church, one day abandoned his pastoral duty and joined the Anya- Nya movement in Southern Sudan. This remarkable decision was an expression of the frustration of most Southern Sudanese people, as well as a reflection of the magnitude of tension and conflict between the Northern and Southern regions of the country. Second, in 1966 through 1967, the Ugandan government under President Milton Obote cracked down on the Southern Sudanese refugees in Uganda who were allegedly raising money to support the Anya-Nya movement inside Southern Sudan. My mother was secretary of finance for the local Anya-Nya chapter in Gulu. Three Kuku men, who belonged to the same chapter and who also raised money, were arrested by Uganda General Service Unit personnel, tortured, and jailed for a short period. My mother was spared. My decision to major in history at the University of in the 1980s (1982 through 1986) was based on my keen interest in studying the his- tory of Sudan, but above all in understanding the nature of the relation- ship between the South and the North. I particularly wanted to learn the root causes of Sudan’s first civil war. In my course of study, I also realized that the history of Southern Sudan had largely been written by foreign and Northern Sudanese scholars/historians. I also learned that very few Southern Sudanese historians had attained postgraduate qualifications, in contrast to Northern intellectuals. A case in point was the employment of three Southern Sudanese lecturers in the history department at the University of Juba. This was the first generation of Southerners who had majored in history at the University of . My ambition was to pursue post- graduate studies to the Ph.D. level and subsequently make my own con- tribution to the historiography on Sudan in general, and on Southern Sudan in particular. I realized one of these ambitions when I wrote my PREFACE xiii master’s thesis, The Pattern of Azande Resistance to the British Rule in the Southern Sudan, 1898–1914, in the history department at the University of Memphis, Tennessee, in 1992. My six-year experience (1983 through 1989) of the second civil war in Sudan had far-reaching effects. Surviving the mortar and artillery and rocket bombardment of the city of Juba, the capital of Southern Sudan where I lived, strengthened my resolve to investigate the root causes of Sudan’s first civil war and write about it. I realized this dream when I completed my doctoral dissertation, War and Conflict in the Southern Sudan, 1955–1972, in the history department at the University of California, Santa Barbara, in 1999. I was initially motivated to write about the first civil war in Sudan when Professor Robert O. Collins of UCSB gave me permission to access his huge collections of primary material on Sudan. Fellowships and grants from the University of California at Santa Barbara and San Diego enabled me to travel and conduct research at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University (1997), the Sudan Archive at Durham University (United Kingdom, 1997), and the Missionary Comboniani Archive in Rome and Verona (1998). These research trips also afforded me the opportunity to interview Southern Sudanese politicians and combatants who were directly linked with the first civil war. Among these important personalities were General Yakobo, Colonel Stephen B. Madut, Gordon Muortat Mayen, and Lawrence Modi Tombe in the United Kingdom; Father Vantini in Verona, Italy; and Brigadier General John Ukech Lueth, Professor Robert O. Collins, and Dr. Douglas Johnson in the United States. The combination of information gleaned from primary material (writ- ten text) and elicited from interviews makes my book unique in the his- toriography on the first civil war in Sudan. This study attempts to provide an in-depth investigation and analysis of the political, economic, social, cultural, and religious problems that led to the outbreak of the first civil war in 1955. It discusses the involvement of foreign missionaries and Sudanese clergy, Arab countries, African countries, the former , and the Israeli government in the civil war. Foreign interference in the domestic affairs of Sudan shaped the magnitude and trend of the war and its sustenance for seventeen years. The atrocities committed by the Sudanese security forces against the Southern rebels and people are examined in the context of the North-South conflict. My holistic treat- ment of the first civil war is intended to assist in a full understanding the root causes of the second civil war in the Sudan, which lasted another twenty-two years from 1983 to 2005. xiv PREFACE

My book is also designed to contribute to the literature on intra- regional and inter-regional wars and conflicts that have plagued much of the African continent in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. In addi- tion, it sheds light on the tensions and conflicts that have risen around the world as a result of the struggle for supremacy by two of the great religions of the world, Islam and Christianity. The first civil war is also a classic example of conflicts that were fueled by the United States and the former Soviet Union as they struggled to extend their influences over the African continent during the Cold War period. It is my hope that this book will be of value and service to the many people and institutions that would benefit from a greater knowledge and understanding of the two Sudanese civil wars. Whether individual scholars and politicians, Africans south of the Sahara, the Arabs of and the Middle East, the Israeli government, university study courses, peace and conflict resolution centers, or, and especially, Sudanese from all walks of life, all may profit from learning more about what transpired in Sudan in the second half of the twentieth century. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I am deeply indebted to Dr. Douglas H. Johnson, a historian on the Sudan who read my book manuscript in its early stages of preparation for publication. His constructive criticisms, advice, and words of encourage- ment helped shape my thoughts, analysis, and discussion throughout the work resulting in this book. I am also very grateful to Dr. C. Magbaily Fyle, my colleague and professor of African History in the Department of African American and African Studies at The Ohio State University, who read the book manuscript during the revision phase and gave me valuable suggestions and advice. I would like to register my profound thanks to Dr. Raymond Dominick, professor emeritus of history at The Ohio State University, Mansfield, who read the manuscript at its earliest stage of writing and provided me with valuable insights on its various themes. I owe a debt of gratitude to Dr. Jan Ryder, who read the manuscript in the final stages of preparation for publication and provided me with valuable editorial comments and advice. This book would not have been completed without the financial sup- port I received from the Center for Black Studies, the Graduate Division, the Interdisciplinary Humanities Center, and the Academic Senate at the University of California, Santa Barbara. The Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation at the University of California, San Diego, also provided me with research and travel funds. To them, I express my deep gratitude. A research project of this kind would not have reached its conclusion without the support I received from many individuals. I would like to express my special thanks to the following individuals in Sudan, Kenya, and Uganda who, realizing that it was important to have an oral history of the first Sudanese civil war committed to writing, agreed to be inter- viewed: Mr. Barnaba Dumo Wani (Khartoum, Sudan), the late Mr. Clement Mboro (Nairobi, Kenya), Mr. Eliaba James Surur (Kampala, Uganda), Mr. Daniel Jumi Tongun (Yei, Southern Sudan), Lt. General James Wani Igga xvi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

(Yei, Southern Sudan), Wojia Masiri and Enoka Digga Amen (Kajo-Kaji, Southern Sudan), my mother, Mama Anna Poni Wani-Buluk (Nairobi, Kenya), and my father, the late Baba Daniel Poggo Waran-Wunyang (Moyo, Uganda). I am very thankful to Mr. Evans Sokiri Kijore, Mr. Benjamin Lou Poggo, Mr. James Duku Janak, and Mr. Nathan Wojia Pitia, who sacrificed their time and effort to locate and interview these individ- uals on my behalf. In the United Kingdom, I interviewed the following Southern Sudanese combatants and politicians who were associated with the first and second civil wars in the Sudan: Colonel Stephen Baak Madut (London), the late Mr. Gordon Muortat Mayen (London), Mr. Lawrence Modi Tombe (London), and Lt. General Joseph Yakobo Lagu (London). My interviews with these personalities would not have been possible without the assis- tance of Dr. Cosmas Wani Lo-Wolli. By introducing me to these indi- viduals, sacrificing his time and energy, and providing me with food and accommodation in his house in London in the spring of 1997, he ensured that my research trip in London was a success. I owe him many thanks. In the United States, I was fortunate to interview Southern Sudanese combatants, politicians, and academics who were directly or indirectly linked with the first civil war, as well as those who served in the regional government of Southern Sudan in the period 1972 through 1983. My special thanks go to Dr. Pacifico Lado Lolik (Dallas, Texas), Dr. Dominick Mohammed Akec (Miami, Florida), Mr. Oliver Batali Albino (Cambridge, Massachusetts), and Brigadier General John Ukech Lueth (Santa Barbara, California). I would also like to express my deep appreciation to Dr. Laura Nyantung Beny, who interviewed Mr. Albino on my behalf. I am grateful as well to the late Professor Emeritus Robert O. Collins and Dr. Douglas H. Johnson, historians and authors on the Southern Sudan, who granted me interviews and provided me with valuable foreign perspec- tives on the first Sudanese civil war. The complexities pertaining to investigating Sudan’s first civil war and its aftermath required the acquisition of material from a variety of sources scattered across the world. Within the United States, I obtained valuable documents from Professor Collins’ private collection, now in the possession of the Sudan Archive at Durham University (UK) and Bergen University (Norway); the Hoover Institution at Stanford University; and the private archives of Mr. Sabit Alley in New Jersey and of General Lueth in Des Moines, Iowa. In the United Kingdom, I also acquired substantial material from the Sudan Archive at Durham University. My research there was facilitated by Mrs. Jane R. Hogan, Miss Lesley Forbes, and Ms. Margaret G., all of ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xvii whom are keepers of the Sudan Archive. Mr. Gordon Muortat Mayen and Mr. Lawrence Modi Tombe donated their personal papers to me. I owe them a treasure of thanks. The scholarly assistance given to me by the archivists and librarians of the Missionari Comboniani in Rome and Verona will remain a lasting, positive impression in my academic life. I would like to express my sin- cere thanks and deep appreciation to their archivists and administrators: Fathers Pietro Ravasio, Mario Cisternino, and Torquato (Rome), and Fathers Gino Barsella and Bruno Novelli (Verona). This book would not have been conceived if my beloved parents Mama Anna Poni Wani-Buluk and Baba Daniel Poggo Waran-Wunyang had not had a vision for their children’s education. This book is dedicated to them. Academic role models are important in life, and I must indeed acknowledge Mr. James Duku Janka and Mr. Zamba Duku for their inspiration when I was a young refugee in primary school in Uganda in the early 1970s. I owe them a debt of gratitude. My brothers John Gwolo Kamanga Poggo, Benjamin Lou Poggo, Wilson Duku Poggo, Robert Ramba, Anthony Kenyi Awani, the late Robert Doru Lo-Kojo, and George Maring Longa, my sister Josephine Kajo Poggo and my sister-in-law Alice Keji Kamanga continuously supported me in my research and writing through advice, encouragement, and prayer. They deserve my deepest gratitude! My special thanks also go to my former lecturers in the Department of History at the University of Juba (Southern Sudan) who inspired me to study African and Middle Eastern history: Dr. Kenneth Okeny, Dr. Lazarus Lek Mawut, the late Dr. Damazo Dut Majak, and the late Mr. Ogweta Opoka. This book is also dedicated to the University of Juba, the first institution of higher learning in Southern Sudan (1977). I am also deeply indebted to Dr. Evelyn B. Freeman, dean and director, Dr. Ted Dahlstrand, associate dean at The Ohio State University, Mansfield, and Professor Kenneth W. Goings, department chairman of African American and African Studies at The Ohio State University, Columbus, for their academic, financial, and moral support. Their pro- fessional advice and words of encouragement will never be forgotten. Mrs. Cathy Stimpert in the Office of Human Resources and Dr. Barbara McGovern, associate professor of English, Dr. Christopher B. Phelps, associate professor of history, Dr. Heather J. Tanner, associate professor of history and Dr. Glenn Hartz, professor of philosophy at The Ohio State University, Mansfield, gave me much moral and spiritual support during my period of writing. I owe them special thanks. I am most grateful to Dr. Harold A. Ballitch, my ophthalmologist, for his continued medical treatment and moral support. xviii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Last but not least, I would like to thank my research assistant, Mr. Adam Reno, who typed most of the new research material that I included into the manuscript.

Egypt under British Protection and the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan (Cambridge Modern History Atlas, 1912. Courtesy of University of Texas Libraries). ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xix

The provinces of Sudan from 1948 to1973, showing the three Southern provinces of Bahr al-Ghazal, , and (U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, Courtesy of University of Texas Libraries). xx ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The states of Sudan as of 2006, showing the modern division of the former Upper Nile, Bahr al- Ghazal, and Equatoria provinces (Courtesy of the UN Publication Board).