Course themes:
Why were many nation-states organized on the basis of ethnic identity? Did this do more to solve conflicts or cause conflicts?
What conditions are necessary to end armed conflict and build a sustainable peace?
How did imperialism and the process of decolonization help shape the history of the 21st century?
In December of 2013, civil war broke out in South Sudan with President Salva Kiir dismissed his vice president Riek Machar from office after accusing him of attempting a coup. Tension between the Dinka (36% of the population) and Nuer (16%) tribes of South Sudan has long plagued the country. President Kiir is Dinka while his vice president is Nuer, and Kiir appointed Machar in an attempt to symbolically heal the tribal divide between their two ethnic groups. However, by dismissing Machar from office, Kiir enraged the Nuer in his nation and sparked widespread rebellions from the SPLM-IO (a rebel faction of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement mostly comprised of Nuer and other South Sudanese ethnic minorities).
While the conflict mainly started because of tensions between the Dinka and the Nuer, many other ethnic groups in South Sudan have joined the Nuer rebels in fighting against President Kiir’s mostly Dinka administration. During Turkish-Egyptian and British colonial rule of the Sudanese region in the 19th and 20th centuries, the tribal groups in southern Sudan remained largely unconnected and underdeveloped. In addition, British colonizers played on the tribal tensions in South Sudan in order to consolidate power. Today, Nuer rebels have fled into territory inhabited primarily by non-Dinka tribes, leading the Dinka government to mistake them for Nuer rebels and persecute them as well. Because of this, rebellions and conflict with the government has spiraled far beyond the scope of just Dinka and Nuer people.
Due to the South Sudanese Civil War, South Sudan’s government has focused inordinate amounts of its funding on the military rather than important humanitarian causes within its nation. Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed and up to four million civilians have been displaced.Famine and food shortages have wracked the nation as different tribes fight over agricultural land and about 70% (over 8 million people) of the nation’s population is in need of humanitarian assistance. The COVID-19 pandemic has only increased the severity of the situation as refugee camps have become superspreader locations for the virus. Although a cease-fire was reached in February 2020, conflict has not died down and UN officials fear the agreement will soon be broken.
Discussion Questions:
Why can decolonization processes that fail to take ethnicity into account be harmful?
Does diversity (specifically in regards to religion, race and ethnicity) benefit a country, or does it cause tension and hinder political progress?
I do think that diversity benefit a country in the long run because it brings a diverse aspect of the world to the people being exposed to different cultures. However, when people are being treat unequally due to their ethnicity, race, and/or religion, it leads to tension. Sometimes, it also has to do with world politics. Nationalism might cause more tension in a country with more diversity.
ReplyDeleteDecolonization processes that fail to take ethnicity into account overlook tension and ethnic divide within the country. Once a larger power retracts its overarching control over the area, conflicts between ethnic groups have more freedom to begin again. I believe something similar happened with the Soviet Union, where previously suppressed ethnic conflicts began again once the Soviet Union's rule became less oppressive.
ReplyDeleteI think that diversity both benefits and puts tension on a country. I think it benefits a country because the learn from different types of people. But many people still don't accept other beliefs or races causing problems for the country. Causing the country to go into more division then it is already.
ReplyDeleteI think that diversity can benefit a country. it can introduce people to new ways of thinking, a more diverse working atmosphere and economy, different experiences and viewpoints, and can bring awareness to different current issues. Although diversity in a country can lead to tensions due to race, ethnicy, and religion, i still believe diversity in a country can lead to many advantages. But, one still can argue that the success of a country is not based on diveristy but instead can attract diveristy.
ReplyDelete