Authoritarian cosmopolitan citizenship in the new nation of South Sudan: Insights from a secondary school textbook analysis

Abstract

Citizenship education (CE) is increasingly implemented in national curricula, often as an independent subject. In this article we examine the first official citizenship textbooks for South Sudan secondary education since independence in 2011. We analyse four textbooks, observing a multifaceted and at times contradictory understanding of the kind of citizens the new textbooks promote. Our findings point to a case of ‘authoritarian cosmopolitan citizenship’, coined here as a concept envisioning a loyal cosmopolitan citizen who is uncritical of both government and international actors and the activities, norms and values they promote.