Neither Settler nor Native: The Making and Unmaking of Permanent Minorities

by Mahmood Mamdani

The negotiations and transition were a constant parade of bias. The SPLA, protected by the global acknowledgement of its status as a victim, was coddled and absolved of responsibility for its own violent missteps, the assumption being that a victim can do no wrong. Whereas the ruling party in the North was rightly and roundly criticized for election fraud in 2010, criticism was muted when the SPLA perpetrated its own fraud in elections in the South that same year. When the 2011 referendum on self-determination returned a 99.8 percent “yes” vote in the South, the “international community” lauded the result. After all, it was what the Troika wanted. This was a foretaste of how electoral politics were likely to operate with the ruling party doubling as the army and backed by international patrons whose interests in South Sudan had nothing to do with its people.