South Sudan formally independent today

It is always satisfying to see a People achieve its freedom from an imperialist neighbor. Today South Sudan has achieved formal independence, per the previous peace agreements and referendum, and I congratulate for that. 

The independence follows what is maybe the longest war of recent times, lasting from almost the independence of Sudan in the 1950s until almost now. That makes it some 50 or 60 years of war that have heavily handicapped the development of the country. 

It must be said that while many news outlets talk of "new nation", this is false: nations' existence are dependent on the formation of a state nor actually have much to do with the existence of any such polity. A nation is the same as an ethnicity and while it has been the ideal of the last centuries that each nation has a state, this is hardly always the case. The reality is that most nations do not have their own states and are forced to be submitted to other neighbors. 

South Sudan may be relatively homogeneous within the context of the former Sudan but it is made up of several nations, notably the Dinka, the Nuer, the Azande, the Bari, the Shilluk, the Lotuko, the Jur Modo, etc. 

This, getting together the various nations of the new state in a harmonious manner, may be one of the greatest challenges. Another is to develop the republic and to share the potential benefits of the seemingly abundant oil for the good of all.

In any case, I wish the new republic the best. 

Another thing is how the North will manage with those fundamentalist fascists in power, the open war of Darfur and the conflict between the imported Arab and Muslim identity versus the more native African ones, still important.

South Sudan breaks apart, North Sudan revolts against Bashir

I must welcome this exercise of self-determination by the people of South Sudan, which was put under Islamist and Arab Nationalist boot by the designs of the colonial powers and now, after decades of liberation war can finally exert their fundamental right to decide their own destiny.

While the country is often described in Western or even Arab press as "Christian and Pagan", the reality is that most people are not affiliated to any imperialist Yahvistic religion whatsoever. There do not seem to be more Christians in South Sudan than in, say, Egypt.

Referendum's story at BBC, Al Jazeera.

Uprising at Khartoum

While South Sudan heads for independence, North Sudan heads, it seems, for yet another revolution with clashes between protesters and security forces at Khartoum, clearly influenced by the nearby Egyptian Revolution. 

Full story at Al Jazeera.