Postscript

Abstract

This work is about what the newest country of the world, the Republic of South Sudan, endured when it was part of the Republic of Sudan, from 1 January 1956, before it became independent on 9 July 2011. This account is therefore dominated by relationships between South Sudan and Northern Sudan over a period of 50 years before the former gained its independence. But it was always part of the debate that, at least from a foreigner’s point of view (and ‘foreigner’ included Northern Sudanese), the main reason for keeping South Sudan under an external power and not allowing it its independence was that the South Sudanese were a bunch of divided ethnic communities that cannot govern themselves alone. They needed to be under a stronger foreign hand.