"This war is not our war”: Exploring hypotheses on the origin of the Dinka-Nuer conflict in South Sudan
Keywords:
conflict, ethnicity, Dinka, Nuer, colonialismAbstract
This paper addresses the problem of the origin of the conflict between the Dinka and Nuer societies in South Sudan. To do so, we have used a literature review as the main methodology. Subsequently, we have provided a brief historical context: the British colonial period; Sudan's independence in 1956 and its civil wars; and finally, South Sudan's independence and its civil war from 2011 to the present. We have then analysed and critiqued three of the most significant hypotheses, in our view, that can explain or hint at the origin of this conflict: the ecological hypothesis, the social structure hypothesis and the instrumentalised identities hypothesis. Finally, we have concluded that, although these three hypotheses may well illustrate the origin of the conflict, we believe that further research into this origin is necessary.
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