Christianity and Catastrophe in South Sudan: Civil War, Migration, and the Rise of Dinka Anglicanism. By Jesse A.Zink. Pp. xxv, 259, Waco, TX, Baylor University Press, 2018, $34.59.

2019 ◽  
Vol 60 (3) ◽  
pp. 487-488
Author(s):  
Patrick Madigan
2020 ◽  
pp. 109-115
Author(s):  
Anna Sharova

Anna Sharova reviews two recent books separately published by two English language authors – P. Martell and J. Young. The books are very different in style and mood. While P. Martell presents an excellent example of British journalist prose in the style of his elder compatriots Somerset Maugham and Graham Greene, who did their reporting and writing from exotic countries during fateful periods of history, J. Young offers a more academic, though no less ‘on the spot’ analysis of the situation in the youngest independent country of Africa. J. Young’s considers two possible approaches to conflict resolution as possible outcomes: non-intervention cum continuation of the war, or the introduction of international governance. P. Martell comes up with a disappointing prediction about the future of South Sudan. The war will go on, the famine will return, and the threat of genocide will not disappear. People will continue to flee the country, and refugee camps will grow. New warring groups will appear, new murders will be committed. Neighbouring states will not stop competing for influence and resources. New peacekeepers will arrive. Warlords will be accused of crimes, but, as before, they will escape punishment, while some will be promoted.


Author(s):  
Alison Giffen

Two years and five months following the country’s independence from Sudan, a political crisis in South Sudan quickly devolved into a civil war marked by violence that could amount to atrocities. At the time, a United Nations peacekeeping operation, UNMISS, was the principal multinational intervention in South Sudan. UNMISS was explicitly mandated to assist the government of South Sudan to fulfil its responsibility to protect and was also authorized to protect civilians when the government was unable or unwilling to do so. Despite this role, UNMISS’s Special Representative of the Secretary-General said that no one could have predicted the scale or speed at which the violence unfolded. This chapter explores whether the atrocities could have been predicted by UNMISS, why UNMISS was unprepared, and what other peacekeeping operations can learn from UNMISS’s experience.


2015 ◽  
Vol 114 (772) ◽  
pp. 194-196
Author(s):  
Alex de Waal
Keyword(s):  

Just a few years after becoming Africa's newest nation, South Sudan is embroiled in civil war and faces bankruptcy despite its ample oil wealth, thanks to a cynical scramble for the spoils of power.


Significance A ‘framework agreement’ reached between President Salva Kiir and opposition leader Riek Machar in Khartoum on June 27 had been billed as a breakthrough in efforts to end South Sudan’s four-and-a-half-year civil war, but progress since then has been mired by infighting, especially around power-sharing formulas. Impacts Sudan and Uganda’s involvement as ‘guarantors’ could constrain would-be spoilers but will be deeply divisive. The several dozen other armed factions will fight to secure their place at the table. Already-dire humanitarian conditions will worsen without local-level security improvements.


Author(s):  
Jesse A. Zink

The Episcopal Church of South Sudan and Sudan (ECSSS) has been shaped by the experience of exile. A half-century of Anglican mission by the Church Missionary Society produced a Church that was of varied strength across the region. Two lengthy civil wars since Sudan’s independence displaced hundreds of thousands of southern Sudanese and led to Church growth, as refugees turned to Christianity in new ways. This was particularly true of the Dinka, southern Sudan’s largest ethnic group, who had long been uninterested in Christianity. In the midst of civil war in the 1980s and 1990s, Dinka showed new interest in Christianity and the Church exploded with growth. Church hierarchies have been tested by civil war, managing relations with rebel armies and governments, while also working for peace and reconciliation. The challenge for the ECSSS is to move from being a Church of the exiled to a Church of the returned.


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