7 - Trading knowledge: chiefship, local elites and the urban frontier, c. 1956–2010

Summary

During the most intense periods of civil war or uprising since 1955, most people took refuge in more remote parts of ‘the bush’ or across southern Sudan's borders. A much smaller proportion sought safety in the government-held towns, despite their repressive security regimes. But whenever there has been sufficient peace or stability, people have swiftly returned to – or relocated to – the small towns, in search of employment, enterprise and education. The edges of the town might be seen as the frontiers and limits of state power, as in much wider analysis of post-colonial African states; as such, the towns have often been analysed as a space of threatening, external power. Indeed, the appearance of a stark urban-rural dichotomy prevails in much moral commentary among South Sudanese themselves, who frequently depict the town as an alien, immoral world of money and antisocial behaviour. In part this reflects – and acts as a warning against – the continuing instabilities, limitations and risks of urban living, experienced by a whole range of people.

But rather than repelling people, the negative aspects of town and government have only underscored the need to obtain knowledge of the regulations and procedures that might offer security and protection, and turn threat into guarantee. This chapter explores both the reasons for the urban-rural moral dichotomy, and the complex urban-rural connections that it belies.