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

Leonardi, Cherry

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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.

Citation

Leonardi, C. (2011). Paying 'buckets of blood' for the land: moral debates over economy, war and state in Southern Sudan. Journal of Modern African Studies, 49(2), 215-240. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0022278x11000024

Journal Article Type Article
Publication Date Jun 1, 2011
Deposit Date May 16, 2011
Publicly Available Date Mar 29, 2024
Journal Journal of Modern African Studies
Print ISSN 0022-278X
Electronic ISSN 1469-7777
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 49
Issue 2
Pages 215-240
DOI https://doi.org/10.1017/s0022278x11000024

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