Some scholars have theorized that it was a temple, others a palace or a university, or even a camp to train elephants for use in battle, because of the elephant statues and engravings found throughout the complex. There is nothing in the Nile Valley to compare it to. By the fourth century A. Historians give different explanations for this, including climate change-driven drought and famine and the rise of a rival civilization in the east, Aksum, in modern-day Ethiopia. Early European archaeologists were unable to see it as more than a reflection of Egypt.
Yet the legacy of Kush is important because of its distinctive cultural achievements and civilization: it had its own language and script; an economy based on trade and skilled work; a well-known expertise in archery; an agricultural model that allowed for raising cattle; and a distinctive cuisine featuring foods that reflected the local environment, such as milk, millet and dates. It was a society organized differently from its neighbors in Egypt, the Levant and Mesopotamia, with unique city planning and powerful female royals.
While Egypt has long been explained in light of its connections to the Near East and the Mediterranean, Kush makes clear the role that black Africans played in an interconnected ancient world. Today, many do. In Sudan, where 30 years of authoritarian rule ended in after months of popular protests, a new generation is looking to their history to find national pride.
My grandmother is a Kandake! They serve the same purpose today. The Baggara were able to loot southern cattle with impunity and push the Nuer and Dinka off their land. Most Nuer and Dinka were still armed only with spears. Paulino Matiep of Western Upper Nile, joined forces. Unlike other military coups, this one did not hand over power to civilians after a short period.
Fourteen years later, most of the same persons are still in power, through brutal repression and denial of political rights. When it failed, he formed his own rebel secessionist group, claiming Western Upper Nile and the rest of the Nuer areas, basically most of the oilfields of southern Sudan.
It fought and defended itself against the SPLA, not the government. A major south-south war was added to the conflict. Chevron sold out in as the Sudanese government began to look for a way out of its serious economic decline: in the government, defaulting in debt service payments on the staggering debt incurred by President Nimeiri, was suspended by the IMF, a blow to its ability to borrow money.
One source reports that oil exploration in southern Sudan initially came about through the intervention of then U. Ambassador to the U. President George H. Bush, who alerted the government of Sudan to satellite imaging maps that indicated the presence of oil in the south. George H.
Bush also played a role in getting U. Soon after, Chevron discovered the Heglig field to the northwest. Together, the companies spent about U. The Addis Ababa agreement of that ended the first civil war provided qualified rights for the autonomous southern regional government to receive revenues accruing from mineral and other natural resources in the south; at the time of the agreement in , no one was aware of oil deposits in the south. Although the Addis Ababa agreement provided that this territory should be returned to Bahr El Ghazal, it never was.
Many pointed to this annexation of mineral resources to the north by the central government as a precedent for what would happen in the oilfields. Several government actions deepened that fear. In President Nimeiri, the same president who had signed the autonomy agreement in , made an effort through the national assembly to redraw the Upper Nile border to include the Heglig and Unity oilfields in the province of Kordofan i.
He dropped the plan due to vehement opposition from southerners, both in the national assembly and in street demonstrations. Chevron and the government proposed a package of development projects following the protests over the redrawing of the Upper Nile border and the location of the refinery.
There were five items: the government and Chevron would upgrade the Kosti-Renk-Malakal road to an all-weather road; Chevron would support improvement of health, drinking water, and educational services in Bentiu Area Council; a development authority for that Council would be created with a starting fund of one million Sudanese pounds; a topping plant would be established to produce refined products for areas near the oilfields; and Chevron would provide special barges to transport refined products from the Kosti refinery to Juba and intermediate towns.
Neither the government nor Chevron lived up to these agreements. In May , contrary to the Addis Ababa agreement that had ended the southern separatist war by setting up an autonomous Southern Region, President Nimeiri split the Southern Region into three and revoked its autonomous powers. They were discontented because of threats to transfer them to the north, away from their home area, and because of a salary dispute with headquarters. The rebellious th Battalion, under the command of Sudanese army officer Maj.
John Garang de Mabior. At the time, Bor was only one of a series of mutinies of former Anyanya from the government army. John Garang, Maj. Kerubino Kwanyin Bol, Lt. Samuel Gai Nath Tut, and others. Over the years prior to , small numbers of Nuer and Dinka soldiers, police, and civil servants had gradually joined the Anyanya II nucleus in Ethiopia, and were initially incorporated into the new movement.
Mengistu Haile Miriam of Ethiopia. Ethiopia had warned Sudan as early as that if Sudan did not stop supporting Ethiopian and Eritrean dissidents, Ethiopia would support Sudanese dissidents. Anyanya II, like its predecessor, called for southern independence.
Samuel Gai and Maj. Although Anyanya II was driven out of Ethiopia and some leaders killed, it did not dissolve but became a predominantly Nuer militia taking arms from the Sudanese government and fighting the SPLA. Anyanya II was particularly useful to the Sudanese government because of its location along the route from Bahr El Ghazal to the Ethiopian border, where it attacked SPLA recruits on their way to Ethiopian training camps.
Both governments armed the militia of the Baggara nomadic cattle herders of southern Kordofan and Darfur, the muraheleen , with automatic weapons. The Baggara began to use their new weapons to loot cattle and force the Dinka and Nuer from their land and pastures. The Baggara already had an advantage over their Dinka and Nuer neighbors, in that the Baggara had horses whereas southerners could not keep horses because of the inhospitable climate.
The Heglig oil location in Block 2 was not densely populated, but Dinka lived dispersed in the whole Heglig area and moved their cattle tocattle camps in that same region, according to contemporary accounts, the memories of former residents, and older maps. The government permitted the muraheleen to operate unchecked in Dinka and Nuer areas in order to 1 deflect the political threat posed by the marginalized but potentially threatening Baggara by allowing them to reap profits from looting their richer neighbors to the south; 2 defeat southern rebels; and 3 gain access to southern resources such as oil, water, and grazing lands in the context of a growing economic and environmental crisis in the north.
Notably, after the civil war resumed, the government stopped intervening in raids and calling tribal conferences to resolve conflicts between Baggara and the Nuer and Dinka. They thoroughly looted and displaced these Ngok Dinka of Kordofan, many of whom became displaced persons south of the Bahr al Arab River, in the Bahr al Ghazal territory of their Twic Dinka cousins.
The next line of Baggara attack during those early years followed known watering routes southeast, through Western Upper Nile. Entering from the westerly direction of Abiemnon at the beginning of the dry season in December or January, when the roads were dry enough for their horses, the muraheleen displaced small isolated villages in Dinka areas of Western Upper Nile throughout the early s.
They pierced through to Leek Nuer territory and displaced villages there also. According to a church development worker based in Bentiu and Mayom, in about the Baggara began showing up in the Mayom area with automatic weapons and became more aggressive.
A young Nuer man told how on two occasions in the s the muraheleen came on horses and raided his village, Rang two hours north of Bentiu on foot : In the beginning, we had no guns. The muraheleen were shooting at people, who scattered. Then the muraheleen took the cows and left. Sometimes they captured children playing in the forest. Those children never returned. The muraheleen wore long white robes, and had guns. They came once a year but our people did not move.
But the second time they set up a base in the village. The narrator was then sixteen. My brothers were killed, the younger and the elder. Around the same time, the Nasir faction of SPLA splits off; a second rebel faction forms in , followed by a third in Conflict in Sudan continues to worsen. September President George Bush appoints former U. January 9, Peace is finally brokered between southern rebels and the government of Sudan.
The Nairobi Comprehensive Peace Agreement CPA is signed, granting autonomy to the south for a six-year trial period, after which the south will have the opportunity to vote to secede. The agreement calls for a permanent ceasefire and sharing of oil revenues.
Islamic law remains in effect in the north, while its use in the south is decided regionally. August 1, John Garang dies in a helicopter crash three weeks after being sworn in as First Vice President of Sudan.
Riots result, but peace continues. Per the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, a referendum is scheduled to be held in to determine if Southern Sudan will remain a part of Sudan or secede and gain its independence.
The people of Southern Sudan await their historic opportunity for peace and stability, after a twenty one-year conflict that claimed at least two million lives. Meanwhile, in Darfur, the number of dead and displaced continues to grow, and the conflict rages on with no clear end in sight. April, Sudan holds its first national elections in over 20 years. Key opposition parties boycott at the last minute charging election fraud. January 9th, Southern Sudanese vote in a referendum stipulated in the Comprehensive Peace Agreement to decide if the region will separate from the North and become an independent nation.
Darfur deal. South becomes independent. Ruling party splits. Image source, Getty Images. President Bashir faced street protests demanding an end to his decades in power. Fall of Bashir. Related Topics.
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