A History of South Sudan addresses several audiences and a wide variety of issues. We have chosen a conventional chronological approach, but a number of themes recur. Above all, we aim to illuminate two questions in the history of this new country: How did South Sudan become a political and administrative entity? And why did it separate from Sudan?

Answering these questions requires a new look at standard versions, for the historiography of South Sudan reflects entrenched and often diametrically opposed political views. Some nationalists’ mission to create a South Sudanese national identity has led to the invention of a “natural” and timeless political and cultural unit. But we know remarkably little about what most people even today think it means to be South Sudanese. Although this book is not a “history of an idea,” we examine some processes and events that contributed to shaping one. When South Sudanese voted, in January 2011, the proffered alternative to separation from Sudan was confederation and considerable autonomy: South Sudan would be recognized as a political and administrative unit within Sudan. Yet the vote went overwhelmingly for independence. How deep, and with what particular ramifications, was the sentiment for separation?

After all, the history of South Sudan over the past two centuries is of steadily increasing interaction between its peoples and the outside world. And since the mid-twentieth century, South Sudanese have migrated (or fled) in millions to Sudan, to neighboring countries, and beyond. Today, there are South Sudanese communities in most corners of the world. Some have impacted the places to which they have moved; many have returned to South Sudan with new allies and ideas. Thus, patterns of interaction have varied considerably over time and from place to place. So also have South Sudanese responses, their motives, and the opportunities for exchange and transformation that interaction opened up. This book aims to present at least broad outlines of how these opportunities came about and to what uses South Sudanese put them in pursuit of their own goals.

The term “South Sudan” has also become associated with war and human suffering.