Juba University bans tribal associations
March 9, 2012 (BOR) – The Juba University Students’ Union (JUSU) has dissolved associations based on “tribal lines” after recent violence between ethnic groups in Juba South Sudan’s capital and in Jonglei the country’s largest state.
This is the second university in South Sudan to ban students groups based on tribal or regional backgrounds. The first was the Dr. John Garang de Mabior Memorial University of Science and Technology, which is based in Bor, the capital of conflict-affected Jonglei.
Tribalism is a sensitive issue in South Sudan where the rate of illiteracy is high and the country is struggling to develop a national identity. Reconciling the tribally divided country is one of the main challenges facing the eight month old nation.
During South Sudan’s two civil wars with various Khartoum governments spanning most of Sudan’s independence from Anglo-Egyptian rule in 1956 – some tribes were co-opted to fight for the government against southern rebels.
As well as these historical – but raw – grievances, cattle raiding often occurs along South Sudan’s tribal fault-lines, which in many cases are mirrored by the South Sudan’s administrative state and county boundaries.
Fighting, cattle raids, and child abduction between the Murle tribe of Pibor county and the Luo Nuer and Dinka Bor tribes Jonglei state has killed well over 1,000 people over the last year according to the UN. The latest major clashes in December and January have affected over 120,000 people the UN say.
In a copy of the Dr. John Garang de Mabior Memorial University of Science and Technology 2010 Students’ Union Constitution, obtained by Sudan Tribune, article 12 on clubs and societies states that student organisations must not have more than two-thirds of it’s membership from one tribe, state, county, Payam (district) or region.
The university in Bor, Jonglei state, was named after John Garang, the founder of South Sudan’s ruling party the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), which came to power in 2005 as part of a peace deal with north Sudan. Garang’s “new Sudan” vision was for a unified Sudan, where all people were treated equally regardless of ethnicity or religion.
However, after his untimely death in a helicopter crash days after assuming power in South Sudan and becoming the First Vice President of Sudan, the prospects of South Sudan choosing unity in a referendum on self-determination became remote. In January 2011, following an acrimonious six years of power sharing between the SPLA and the National Congress Party, South Sudan voted overwhelmingly for independence and seceded in July last year.
The move to abolish tribal students associations at Juba University was reached by students union following arguments this weeks students from the Bari tribe, which traditional inhabits South Sudan’s capital Juba, and the Nuer ethnic group, a student source told Sudan Tribune.
The students were reacting to clashes on 4-5 March between members of the Bari community and non-Bari, particularly the Dinka and Nuer inhabitants in the capital, north of Munuki area.
Reports varying on how many were killed. Some reports claim nine where killed, while the government said Tuesday that five had died in the land dispute in the Komiru are of Gudele, a western residential suburb of Juba.
Responding to the reaction of students to the clashes Juba University’s Student Union said that associations based on tribal lines had lost educational credibility. The union said that such distinctions were old fashioned and out of date, a student who wished to remain anonymous told Sudan Tribune by phone on Friday.
Michael Guei Liah, a student representative, told the UN Radio Miraya in Juba on Thursday that groups based on “tribal association” have to been disbanded.
“Tribal associations have no purpose [apart from] creating tension among the students,” Liah said.
Security forces had to intervene to avoid clashes between students at a female dormitory, Liah said on UN radio. Security forces have also been sent by South Sudan’s president Salva Kiir to the area to try and prevent further violence over the land dispute.
(ST)