Heirs of the world’s newest nation: Contrasting rhetoric and realities of children as citizens and nation-builders in South Sudan

Abstract

Often described as ‘the future of the nation’, children in South Sudan represent the promise of a stable positive national identity in this conflict-ridden, newly independent African country. State- and nation-building efforts in the post-independence period have similarly targeted the members of the youngest generations, at least at the discourse and normative levels, as ideas of nationhood and childhood are seen as mutually constitutive. Progress made since the 2005 Peace Agreement has, however, been negated by the recent resurgence of ethnically fuelled conflict and population displacement. Unsuccessful efforts to mould the highly ethnically heterogeneous population of South Sudan into a coherent national entity and the failure to satisfy the needs of the very young population constitute leading factors contributing to the escalation of violence. Based on fieldwork conducted in several localities in South Sudan and northern Uganda between 2009 and 2013, this article discusses some of the challenges and opportunities faced by South Sudanese children and youth as both objects of and agentive participants in their young country’s parallel nation-building and citizenship projects. By exploring the relationship between and children’s implicatedness in these two related processes, the realities and complexities of children’s lives in ethnically diverse conflict-affected nations like South Sudan are contrasted to these roles and mandates.