South Sudan

For centuries the peoples of the upper Nile — Dinka, Nuer, Shilluk, Zande, Bari and many more — lived largely beyond the reach of states to the north, protected by the Sudd swamps. The Shilluk kingdom on the White Nile and the Zande states in the south-west were the main political powers. In the 19th century Egyptian-Ottoman expansion opened the region to ivory and slave traders from the north, whose raids left a lasting fear and resentment.

Under the Anglo-Egyptian condominium (1899–1956), Britain governed the south separately, leaving education to Christian missions, promoting English and restricting northern traders. At independence in 1956 the south was joined to a Sudan run from Khartoum, and a first civil war (1955–72) ended with regional autonomy under the Addis Ababa agreement.

Khartoum's imposition of Islamic law and its moves on southern oil led to a second war from 1983, led by John Garang's Sudan People's Liberation Army. About two million people died before the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement promised a referendum. Garang died in a helicopter crash weeks after taking office, and Salva Kiir succeeded him. In January 2011 nearly 99 per cent voted for separation, and South Sudan became independent on 9 July 2011.

In December 2013 a political split between Kiir and his vice-president Riek Machar turned into a civil war fought largely along Dinka–Nuer lines, with massacres in Juba, Bor, Bentiu and Malakal and an estimated 400,000 deaths. A revitalised peace agreement in 2018 brought Machar back into a unity government in 2020, but elections were postponed repeatedly. In 2025 clashes at Nasir led to Machar's arrest and trial, and fighting returned to Upper Nile and Jonglei; elections are scheduled for December 2026 (check the current state).

South Sudan is home to more than 60 ethnic groups. The Dinka, the largest, and the Nuer, the second largest, are Nilotic cattle-keepers of the plains and swamps; the Shilluk live along the White Nile around Malakal under a king, the reth; the Bari, Zande, Acholi, Madi and others farm the greener Equatoria region in the south. Cattle are wealth, bride price and a central subject of song, and raids between communities are a major cause of violence.

Christianity spread through mission schools and grew fast during the wars, when churches provided education, relief and a sense of identity against the Islamist government in Khartoum. Most South Sudanese are Catholic or Episcopal (Anglican), alongside Presbyterian and other churches; traditional beliefs in divinities, ancestors and spiritual leaders remain strong, and there is a Muslim minority.

Juba Arabic, a pidgin, is the everyday lingua franca in towns, while English is the official language of government and schooling. Wars have displaced millions: many South Sudanese grew up in camps in Kenya, Uganda and Ethiopia, and the 'Lost Boys' who walked to Kakuma became a diaspora in the United States and Australia.

The White Nile flows north through the heart of the country from Uganda, spreading into the Sudd, one of the largest wetlands in the world, which swells to tens of thousands of square kilometres in the rainy season. For centuries the Sudd blocked travel up the Nile; today it supports fishing, grazing and huge bird populations.

The south-west (Western Equatoria) is wooded and fertile, the south-east has mountains such as the Imatong range with Mount Kinyeti, and the east holds the Boma and Badingilo plains, where aerial surveys in 2023 counted some of the largest mammal migrations on earth — white-eared kob, tiang and Mongalla gazelle in their millions.

The rains run roughly April to October, heaviest in the south. Record floods since 2019 have submerged large parts of Jonglei and Unity, displacing hundreds of thousands and destroying crops. Oil fields in the north-east provide almost all government revenue, exported by pipeline through Sudan; that link has been disrupted by Sudan's war since 2023.

Cattle culture runs through song, poetry and body art. Young Dinka and Mundari men compose songs to their favourite oxen, name themselves after them and shape their horns; cattle camps, with smoke from dung fires to keep away insects, are a defining image of the country. Scarification and beadwork once marked age and group, though both are fading among the young.

Food is simple and staple-based: sorghum or maize porridge (kisra flatbread and asida), beans, okra, greens with peanut paste, milk and, in the wetlands, fish from the Nile. Kisra, a thin fermented sorghum pancake shared with Sudan, is eaten with stews such as mulah; wal-wal, sorghum balls with milk, is a Dinka dish. Tea and coffee are sweet and spiced, influenced by the north.

Juba's music scene mixes Congolese, Ugandan and Arabic sounds with local languages, and artists from the diaspora have made South Sudanese hip-hop and gospel popular in the region. Wrestling between villages is a major sport and a peace-building tool, and basketball, with several South Sudanese players in top leagues abroad, is a national passion; the national team reached the Olympics in 2024.