304 thE sudan handbookleadership emerged after the civil war with more legitimacy than most
other southern political institutions. For some involved in drafting the
Southern constitution, this – perhaps idealized – memory of a form of
leadership based on consensus and self-sacrifice offered a template for a
future political order preferable to the authoritarian system developing
in Juba and southern towns after the establishment of GoSS.
The experience of Darfur shows the enormous risks that can arise
when tribes are used as the basis of rural order. In Darfur tribal conflict
fed on decades of impoverishing economic policy and conflict over land.
And in 2009, ethnic conflicts in Southern Sudan gave rise to more fatali-
ties than in Darfur. The conflicts in the south are linked to land and
livestock, but also to the lack of investment in rural areas. Southern
Sudan’s parliamentary system gives politicians few resources to address
the problems of rural areas, but leads them to involve themselves in local
conflicts for electoral purposes, and this aggravates tendencies towards
inter-communal strife. Meanwhile the practice of putting traditional
authorities on state payrolls is liable to lead to the gradual abandonment
of self-sacrifice and consensus and their replacement by more tangible
rewards.
In supporting Native Administration or traditional authority, both the
NCP and the SPLM have chosen a system that organizes the people of
rural Sudan around ethnicity. This may keep costs down, but it has many
implications for rural peace.The Role of YouthThe future of Sudan, whatever the future holds, will be shaped by new
generations. As in other African countries, young people are a majority.
According to the 2008 census over 40 per cent of Sudanese are under 15,
and over 60 per cent under 25. In the peripheral areas of the country the
proportion is even greater: in some states, such as Gedaref, Warrap and
South Darfur, almost half the population is under fifteen.
Despite its oil wealth, Sudan spends less than half as much on healthThe Sudan Handbook, edited by John Ryle, Justin Willis, Suliman Baldo and Jok Madut Jok. © 2011 Rift Valley Institute and contributors and education than most of its neighbours in the region. In 2006, a little
(www.riftvalley.net).