The (post-) coloniality of the Sudan-South Sudan border. An African lens for a Eurocentric concept.
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2015-01-06
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en
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In this thesis I explore the extent to which the coloniality of power in the Sudan – South Sudan borderland, and in the Abyei region more specifically, is reinforced through the policy of the African Union and its Border Programme. Firstly, I look at how the AUBP is influenced by its perception of the EU. I find that the coloniality of power is in place, fostering the subaltern relationship the two partners find themselves in. Secondly, I take the Cairo Declaration that is often taken as the main historical document presenting the foundation of border policy in Africa. I conclude that South Sudan’s secession presents an exception to the dominant perspective that takes the borders as they were at the time of independence as a tangible reality. Thirdly, I look at how the Abyei border is lived and experienced, both from a borderland perspective as well as from a Sudanese and South Sudanese perspective. I find a discrepancy in the motivations for independence, that conflict between an economic rationale based on access to resources and an identity discourse. Lastly, I examine the possibilities for regional integration in the borderland, concluding that a different lens to the border and thereby to regional integration could open ways to stability in the borderland. In answering my research question I argue that our modern/colonial world system is saturated with the coloniality of power and that a Eurocentric lens dominates our perspective of the world.
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Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen