Potential for peace? The roles of local churches in land conflict between Madi and Dinka in Nimule, South Sudan
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2014-01-24
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en
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This master thesis analyses the roles of religious actors, local churches, in one of the internal conflicts of post‐independent South Sudan, a land conflict between Madi returnees and Dinka IDPs in Nimule, at the border with Uganda. The research is based on three months of field research and interviews in South Sudan.
After a methodological and theoretical part, the first major finding of the research is that Dinka are able to continuously inhabit Madi tribal homeland due to a power imbalance between the two ethnic groups, with Dinka having better access to political and military power. Secondly, within this context, there exist little of a shared religious identity for Madi and Dinka which could help to overcome sometimes violent relationships. Christians from the two ethnic groups largely visit different denominations. The Dinka dominated ECS has some of its buildings on contested land and does little to change conflict dynamics. The Madi dominated Catholic church and smaller protestant churches have advocated for the removal of IDPs from Nimule or (after some time) ignored political issues.
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Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen