Rift Valley Institute

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**Rift Valley Institute**

The Rift Valley Institute is a non-profit research and training organization working with communities and institutions in Eastern and Central Africa. RVI programmes connect local knowledge to global information systems, aiming to modify development practice. They include field-based social research, support for indigenous educational institutions, in-country training courses and a digital library. www.riftvalley.net

Latest Episodes:

Political Transition in Somalia - Q and A Sep 18, 2020

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Political Transition in Somalia - Q and A by Rift Valley Institute

Political Transition In Somalia - Panel Sep 18, 2020

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Political Transition In Somalia - Panel by Rift Valley Institute

Tarikh Tana (Our History): Episode 9: South Sudanese Experiences of Return Jul 06, 2020

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This show is brought to you under the South Sudan National Archives Project, supported by Norway and implemented by UNESCO in partnership with RVI, and in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports. The ninth Tarikh Tan’na (Our History) radio show in this second series will focus on "South Sudanese Experiences of Return". Overview As South Sudan hopefully moves towards peace, the country looks forward to the return of over four million displaced and refugee citizens. However, this is not the first time that refugees and internally displaced people have moved back to South Sudan. The South Sudan National Archives holds a wealth of records from previous refugee returns, including the return and resettlement of populations after the Anya-Nya wars in 1972. After the CPA in 2005, around four million people returned to South Sudan. Many South Sudanese people have extensive experience of displacement and return. This history of return migration is also a history of societal reconstruction. With such large numbers of residents returning to their homeland, in 1972, from 2005, and again today, return migrations are times of social transformation. The archives record serious hardships for returnees, including hunger, a lack of health and education provision, problems of proving their rights to residence and nationality, and accessing land and livelihoods—all problems that returnees faced in 2005 and again today. Return and resettlement is also a moment of government reconstruction, as residents re-establish relationships with local and national government. This long history of returns raises several questions. How have repeated returns and resettlements reshaped South Sudanese society? How have social reconstructions post-return changed relationships between men and women, and between young and old people? What effects do these return migrations have on the nature of local and national government in South Sudan? The two guests were: Hon. Francis Barson Yousa Head of Juba Economic Zone and Associate Lecturer at the University of Juba Daniel Matur IOM South Sudan

Tarikh Tana (Our History): Episode 14: Border Management and Epidemics May 29, 2020

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This show is brought to you under the South Sudan National Archives Project, supported by Norway and implemented by UNESCO in partnership with RVI, and in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture, Museum and National Heritage (MCMNH). Overview Epidemics are connected to the history of border management in South Sudan. As the British colonial government was established over the 1930s, administrators saw the control of infectious disease as a key reason for the start of a pass system across Southern borders. Officials designated ‘areas’ within which people's movements in and out were controlled with passes. These were the first passports in Southern Sudan, to allow people to travel outside of ‘infected’ districts within Southern Sudan, and to cross the borders into Congo, Central Africa and Uganda. The passes were supposed to be issued by chiefs, and then stamped by clinics to show that the individual was free of infection. But this system was difficult to monitor and control—chiefs argued that people would just walk around the clinics and border posts, and the South Sudan National Archives in Juba records hundreds of people doing just that, to avoid the monitoring system. Epidemics like sleeping sickness were also a good excuse for the government to control workers and monitor taxation. The pass system was a useful way for the authorities to try to control the number of seasonal migrants and labourers who left and entered Sudan. The 1930s pass system tried to stop migrant workers from leaving the fields in Southern Sudan to go to find paid work in Uganda’s sugar fields. The passes also were a way to try to force people to pay their taxes: passes were not issued by chiefs unless the person’s taxes were paid in full. The social need to control the epidemic was also useful for the political need to control taxation and workers. Every borderland region of South Sudan has its own history of pass systems and border controls that relates to a past epidemic including cholera, measles, smallpox and livestock diseases. The two guests were: Professor Akway M. Cham Head of the Department of Community Medicine at the College of Medicine, University of Juba. Professor Venansio Tombe Muludiang Professor of Demography at the School of Social and Economic Studies and an Advisor to Vice Chancellor on Community Outreach, University of Juba

Migration, Movement and Mobility in East Africa in the era of COVID-19 - Part 2 May 28, 2020

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Policy responses to COVID-19 in Eastern and the Horn of Africa with UNHCR, HIAS and IGAD.

Migration, Movement and Mobility in East Africa in the era of COVID-19 - Part 1 May 28, 2020

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COVID-19 and migration in Eastern and the Horn of Africa with the African Migration and Development Policy Centre (AMADPOC), Amnesty International and Refugee Consortium of Kenya (RCK).

Tarikh Tana (Our History): Episode 5: Women and Customary Law in South Sudan Mar 09, 2020

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This show is brought to you under the South Sudan National Archives Project, supported by Norway and implemented by UNESCO in partnership with RVI, and in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports. The fifth Tarikh Tana (Our History) radio show in this second series will focus on "Women and Customary Law in South Sudan.” Overview South Sudanese women have often been subject to discrimination and unfair treatment in law since before the colonial period, but their struggles against these injustices, and their role in the justice system, has been hidden in archives and histories that have been written by and about men. But women have been involved in legal disputes—as victims, perpetrators, and accusers—throughout the history of customary and state law in South Sudan, and women have creatively used the legal system to struggle for freedoms and fight for rights, including through bringing cases to British officials under the Condominium government. Offenses by, and against, women have also been treated differently by patriarchal authorities through history: women have often been accused of being poisoners, witches, and engaging in adultery, and have fought against these accusations. There is much more research to be done on these hidden histories of women’s struggles in the South Sudan National Archive The two guests were: Kuyang Harriet Loggo MP Georgett Lat Mading

Tarikh Tana (Our History): Episode 4: An Evolution of Crime and Punishment in South Sudan Mar 09, 2020

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This show is brought to you under the South Sudan National Archives Project, supported by Norway and implemented by UNESCO in partnership with RVI, and in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports. The fourth Tarikh Tana (Our History) radio show in this second series will focus on "An Evolution of Crime and Punishment in South Sudan”. Overview South Sudan’s diverse communities have always had methods to establish wrongdoing, judge and decide on disputes, settle conflicts, and organise compensation, punishment, and restitution. But with the formation of state government particularly since the 1930s, local chiefs and British officials tried to work out a common law for all of South Sudan. This history is documented in the South Sudan National Archives, where administrators and chiefs try to settle new criminal laws, standards of proof (which was difficult, particularly in cases of witchcraft and poisoning), and fair punishments. The Condominium government-built prisons, and this changed ideas of punishment across South Sudan. British and South Sudanese officials disagreed on fair punishments for crimes (for example child compensation for accidental deaths), and their attempts to standardise punishments across different communities led to confusion and suspicion on key issues such as dia and ‘blood compensation’. The two guests were: Dr Geri Raimondo Legge Professor of Law at the University of Juba and Former Justice of Court of Appeal in the Judiciary of South Sudan Female police officer from Jubek State Police Service

Tarikh Tana (Our History) Episode 3: Chiefs Remuneration in History Mar 03, 2020

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This show is brought to you under the South Sudan National Archives Project, supported by Norway and implemented by UNESCO in partnership with RVI, and in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports. The third Tarikh Tan’na (Our History) radio show in this second series will focus on "Chiefs Remuneration in History: The Change of Funding Sources for Customary Leaders in South Sudan" We will look at some proposals for Chief’s Pay and some pay sheets from late 1920s and early 1930s to understand how they used to get their pay. Overview The Anglo-Egyptian Condominium determined that chiefs would be the lowest level of their government administration by the 1920s – in some cases, organising new chiefly authorities for areas and communities that did not have them before. Initially, these chiefs were compensated for their work through giving them a certain amount of the tax they collected, along with guns to enforce their authority. But by the 1930s, the government wanted to make this system cheaper and more organised. Correspondence between British governors from the South Sudan National Archives discussed the organisation of salaries for chiefs. Their pay was based on the number of people they were responsible for, and how much tax revenue they collected. This meant that chiefs’ authority was tied to how many people they represented – counted by government census and tax collectors – and chiefs’ pay was dependent on their proper collection of tax for the colonial government. This history raises several questions. Are chiefs government employees, or are they representatives of the people ? Who are chiefs responsible to ? Should chiefs’ remuneration be linked to the tax revenues they can get from people, or to number of people they serve, and what are the consequences of this? And what do people get in return for paying their chiefs? The two guests will be: 1/ Mboribamu Renzi Paramount Chief of Tombura County 2/ Daniel Thon Dhuor Executice Chief of Eastern Lakes States (Yirol), Adior County

Tarikh Tana (Our History) Episode 2: Justice: for who and by who? Mar 03, 2020

Show notes

This show is brought to you under the South Sudan National Archives Project, supported by Norway and implemented by UNESCO in partnership with RVI, and in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports. The second show of Tarikh Tan’na (Our History) series will focus on “Justice: for who and by who?” We will take the Torit District court books for 1957 and 1959 found in the South Sudan National Archives, as the starting point for our discussion. Court book By the 1930s, the Southern Sudanese Native Administration system (idara ahliya) was becoming bureaucratic and organised. Government outposts evolved into small towns and provided administrative centres for the hierarchy of courts established under the 1931 Chiefs’ Courts Ordinance. The court book for Torit C Court was one of many court books that recorded the outcomes of cases since the 1930s. These records were short and focused. They included the name, home village, and clan of the convicted person, brief details of the case, and the final sentence of imprisonment and fines. These court books demonstrate the rise of government power in South Sudan, including the power to imprison people in new prisons. In these court books, we can see examples of punishments for government corruption, and the court’s attempt to punish a political rebel. We can also see how courts were places where values were decided: for example, determining the right punishment for rape or for theft, and deciding the right values of compensation money and prison sentences for accidental death and murder. Courts became spaces for debates about property, rights, and the government’s power to judge and punish. The two guests will be: Elias Asu Kidia Director General for Programs and Training, Local Government Board, Republic of South Sudan, Juba Dr Geri Raimondo Legge Professor of Law at the University of Juba and former Justice of Court of Appeal in the Judiciary of South Sudan

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