Using three field research sites in South Sudan, this research will investigate Early Warning as understood, communicated and interpreted by local communities. Early Warning is a fundamental aspect of Civilian Protection in response to threats from types of violence (political, criminal and cattle raiding) perpetrated by both state and non-state groups. Steered by two South Sudanese field researchers with excellent peacebuilding and humanitarian networks, the project engages a semiotic approach to investigate symbols and signs in Early Warning messaging, and how these are diffused, amplified and received in areas of low literacy where communication is mostly non-textual and sometimes non-verbal. This methodology also provides a suitable bridge for local perceptions and understandings to inform legal, training and policy frameworks using our existing networks. This research builds on the PI’s previous South Sudan fieldwork, and his research projects exploring local Early Warning and protection mechanisms to strengthen accessing and acting on such information. Our research is based on the premise that although multiple international frameworks exist, there are religious, cultural and tribal practices and perspectives which are highly relevant, organically produced and actionable. However, they have few formal links to policy statements and conventions, and remain under-studied.
Research Team:
- Chas Morrison, Coventry University, UK (principal investigator)
- Diria Vicky Thomas, Community Aid for Relief and Development, South Sudan (co-investigator)
- Haji Elias Hillary, Lomore Development Organization, South Sudan (co-investigator)
Research Findings:
This research project investigated cultures and practices of early warning and conflict preparedness among ethnic groups in different regions of South Sudan, through a semiotics lens. Group meetings, interviews and audio-visual materials were captured across 3 locations outside Juba city: in Central Equatoria; in Malakal, Upper Nile state; and in Yambio, Western Equatoria State. We investigated and recorded examples of signs and symbols used for communicating, for preparing, and for protecting. There are established mechanisms to avoid conflict, to postpone it, to negotiate or to call for it, and to defend one’s community using both practical and occult methods. This messaging and signing has a high implicit meaning, and is often opaque or misinterpreted by outsiders; the semiotic meaning has a clear in-group target and is not designed to be widely understood. Practices are very culturally bound, and often specific to certain tribes. Signs and symbols are shared within a specific group, and are then exclusionary with regards to the out-group. The semiotic functions support in-group cohesion and identity, which is particularly important in recent years with the receding of state authority and security.
We have audio-visual recordings of many of these practices, and group discussions regarding others:
- Drawing symbols and designs on the ground with spears or spikes
- Drumming to alert, convey messages (3x to fight, 4x for death).
- Songs with concealed meaning, blowing horns
- Drawings with ash on dwellings, ground or trees (protective circles, arrows, crosses etc).
- Reeds & grasses tied in specific ways: if tied together =>conflict, if separate =>no conflict.
- Cuttings of plants or positioning stones to indicate directions: (3 stones to show a place is dangerous and abandoned)
- ‘Tele-oor’ -hand whistling as an alert system.
- Elder women spiritual protection: fasting and praying for husbands/sons for days. They don’t eat or wash, but sing, dance and serve food to males This protects the fighting men.
- Boundary markers on ground: if enemy cross this, it means declaration to fight
- Use of spiritual curses against individuals or groups (fighting is not wrongful, but not following fighting rules is wrongful and should be spiritually punished)
- In some tribes, women watching the combat, may come and lay on an injured man to protect him. He can then no longer be attacked. This is also apparently used in preventing domestic violence.
- Revenge is important and permitted, but along strict demarcated lines
- Women, elders & children hide; young men armed with spear or bow & arrow, or small arms if they have them
- Women prepare packed lunch, sometimes carry and store weapons for the combatants
- Youth pass through legs of standing elders, to receive blessings
- Some tribes (Jur, Balanda) women also fight
- Move livestock to safety, and hide or bury any valuables.
- Symbols drawn on ground used to lure enemy for ambush
- Spiritual power is inherited, not miraculous, and used only by key individuals in a community
- Defence against insect attack (locusts, red ants etc, using ash circles and spiritually protected spaces).
- Defence against harmful ‘witch animals’: half human, half beast. This is distinct to armed groups, but the protection operates in a similar way.
- Ancestor power: invoking curses, protection etc.
- Chase away attackers using wild animals (bees, snakes), can cause bombs to be dropped in the wrong places.
- Blessed amulets that deflect bullets
- Blessed Charcoal and saliva mixture, to purify and protect people and particular locations
- Cursed animal skins for hanging above doorways and crossroads (also used against Covid). These harms and disorient any armed groups attacking the area.
- Cursed water for blindness. Invading attackers can no longer see, and will go the wrong way.
- Ash on women’s forehead if husband has died, to symbolise her loss and purification needs.
These signs and cultures may appear mysterious and irrational to outsiders. They conflate different threat types, of both secular and spiritual nature: armed violence, cattle raiding, insect infestation, diseases, spiritual threats such as ghosts and spirits, and natural hazards like drought, flood and bush fires. Preparation for fighting, or any other threat, is ritualistic and culturally bound. There are differences across tribal groups of such practices, but they tend to share some similar principles; we found that the cultural self-protection practices tend to be ritualistic, strictly hierarchical and divided along gendered lines. Many respondents mention the importance of ancestor power, and the select individuals who harness and wield it. Ancestor power can be employed for warding off danger and threats through ritualistic means, performing protection spells and incantations, or strengthening combatants for armed warfare.
Overall, these symbols, signs and incantations provide a framework for the ritualised, performative aspects of hand-to-hand fighting. Local civilian self-protection mechanisms not well understood or acknowledged by formal peacekeeping actors or other authorities. Anecdotal evidence suggests that these practices are becoming more prevalent, not less, due to the withdrawing of state power and the reversed development apparent in the country after years of war. Thus, tribal identities are becoming more embedded, and with that, the cultural practices that revolve around conflict and local level warfare. Communities report good results from UCP actors such as Nonviolent Peaceforce, but they tend not to share the wider UCP aim of avoiding conflict altogether. Instead, they tend to see it as a phenomenon to be managed, performed and interpreted along established cultural lines that seemingly allow some level of violence, as long as this is carried out within defined parameters and follows customary practice. That is, violence may one of several outcomes, but it not necessarily to be avoided as a goal in itself. Our respondents suggest that preparing for non-violence is not a specific approach in itself; it will be implemented if that seems the best thing to do, rather than as a moral goal. Otherwise, violence is reportedly planned for, implemented, mitigated, and recovered from. Unfortunately, much violence of recent years has instead been instigated for criminal and political ends, and does not adhere to traditional rules and limitations for armed engagement. Gender divisions are very marked and there are strict gender roles and identities. Communities discuss the chain reactions of cattle raiding, and revenge attacks linked to honour. The spread of guns has significantly altered the dynamics of combat, and increased the numbers of casualties and injuries.
We recommend that the cultural salience of these practices should be better acknowledged and addressed with sensitivity, to improve support to protection of civilians and other mechanisms for local human security. Low-tech low-literacy practices are a firmly established intrinsic part of life, and reportedly becoming more salient in identities. The centrality of these cultural practices and belief systems needs to be understood and engaged.
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