Paying 'buckets of blood' for the land: moral debates over economy, war and state in Southern Sudan

Paying 'buckets of blood' for the land: moral debates over economy, war and state in Southern Sudan

Author: 
Leonardi, Cherry
Publisher: 
Cambridge University Press
Record type: 
Journal Title: 
Journal of Modern African Studies
Source: 
The Journal of Modern African Studies, Vol. 49, No. 2, 2011, pp. 215-240
Abstract: 

This paper challenges the prevailing focus on ethnic division and conflict in Southern Sudan in recent years, demonstrating that even within ethnically divisive debates over land, there are shared, transethnic levels of moral concern. These concerns centre on the commodification and monetisation of rural and kinship resources, including human life itself, epitomised in ideas of land being bought with blood, or blood being turned into money by the recent wartime economy. It argues that the enduring popular ambivalence towards money derives not only from its commonly observed individualising properties, but also from the historical association of money with government. Southern Sudanese perceive historical continuity in government consumption and corruption, and express concern at the expansion of its alternative value system into rural economies during and since the war. Whilst seeking to access money and government, they nevertheless continue to employ a discursive but powerful dichotomy between the moral worlds of state and kinship.

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CITATION: Leonardi, Cherry. Paying 'buckets of blood' for the land: moral debates over economy, war and state in Southern Sudan . : Cambridge University Press , . The Journal of Modern African Studies, Vol. 49, No. 2, 2011, pp. 215-240 - Available at: https://library.au.int/paying-buckets-blood-land-moral-debates-over-economy-war-and-state-southern-sudan-3