John Garang de Mabior was a Sudanese politician and rebel leader. From 1983 to 2005, he led the
Sudan People's Liberation ArmyThe Sudan People's Liberation Movement is a political party in South Sudan. It was initially founded as a rebel political movement with a military wing known as the Sudan People's Liberation Army estimated at 180,000 soldiers. The SPLM fought in the Second Sudanese Civil War against the Sudanese...
during the
Second Sudanese Civil WarThe Second Sudanese Civil War started in 1983, although it was largely a continuation of the First Sudanese Civil War of 1955 to 1972. Although it originated in southern Sudan, the civil war spread to the Nuba mountains and Blue Nile by the end of the 1980s....
, and following a peace agreement he briefly served as First Vice President of Sudan from January 2005 until he died in a July 2005 helicopter crash.
Early years
A member of the Dinka ethnic group, Garang was born into a poor family in Buk village in the upper Nile region of Sudan. An orphan by the age of ten, he had his fees for school paid by a relative, going to schools in
WauWau is a city in South Sudan.-Location:It lies on the western bank of the Jur River, in Wau County, Western Bahr el Ghazal State, in northwestern South Sudan. Its location lies approximately , northwest of Juba, the capital and largest city in that country...
and then
RumbekRumbek is a town in South Sudan.-Location:The town of Rumbek is located in Rumbek Central County, Lakes State in central South Sudan. This location lies approximately , by road, northwest of Juba, the capital and largest city in that country. Rumbek sits at an elevation of above sea level...
. In 1962 he joined the
first Sudanese civil warThe First Sudanese Civil War was a conflict from 1955 to 1972 between the northern part of Sudan and the southern Sudan region that demanded representation and more regional autonomy...
, but because he was so young, the leaders encouraged him and others his age to seek an education. Because of the ongoing fighting, Garang was forced to attend his secondary education in Tanzania. After winning a scholarship, he went on to earn a B.A. in economics in 1969 from
Grinnell CollegeGrinnell College is a private liberal arts college in Grinnell, Iowa, U.S. known for its strong tradition of social activism. It was founded in 1846, when a group of pioneer New England Congregationalists established the Trustees of Iowa College....
in Iowa, USA. He was known there for his bookishness. He was offered another scholarship to pursue graduate studies at the
University of California, BerkeleyThe University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
, but chose to return to Tanzania and study East African
agricultural economicsAgricultural economics originally applied the principles of economics to the production of crops and livestock — a discipline known as agronomics. Agronomics was a branch of economics that specifically dealt with land usage. It focused on maximizing the crop yield while maintaining a good soil...
as a Thomas J. Watson Fellow at the
University of Dar es SalaamThe University of Dar es Salaam is a university in the Tanzanian city of Dar es Salaam. The university was born out of a decision taken in 1970 to split the then University of East Africa into three independent universities; Makerere University , University of Nairobi and University of Dar es...
(UDSM). At UDSM, he was a member of the
University Students' African Revolutionary FrontThe University Students' African Revolutionary Front was a political student group formed in 1967 at the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania. The group, which engaged in study and activism and held regular meetings on Sundays, featured many students who would go on to become influential...
. However, Garang soon decided to return to Sudan and join the rebels. There is much erroneous reporting that Garang met and befriended
Yoweri MuseveniYoweri Kaguta Museveni is a Ugandan politician and statesman. He has been President of Uganda since 26 January 1986.Museveni was involved in the war that deposed Idi Amin Dada, ending his rule in 1979, and in the rebellion that subsequently led to the demise of the Milton Obote regime in 1985...
, future president of Uganda, at this time; while both Garang and Museveni were students at UDSM in the 1960s, they did not attend at the same time.
The civil war ended with the Addis Ababa Agreement of 1972 and Garang, like many rebels, was absorbed into the Sudanese military. For eleven years, he was a career soldier and rose from the rank of captain to
colonelColonel , abbreviated Col or COL, is a military rank of a senior commissioned officer. It or a corresponding rank exists in most armies and in many air forces; the naval equivalent rank is generally "Captain". It is also used in some police forces and other paramilitary rank structures...
after taking the
Infantry Officers Advanced CourseThe United States Army Infantry School is located in Fort Benning, Georgia. It is made up of the following components:*192d Infantry Brigade...
at
Fort BenningFort Benning is a United States Army post located southeast of the city of Columbus in Muscogee and Chattahoochee counties in Georgia and Russell County, Alabama...
,
GeorgiaGeorgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...
. During this period he took four years academic leave and received a master's degree in
agricultural economicsAgricultural economics originally applied the principles of economics to the production of crops and livestock — a discipline known as agronomics. Agronomics was a branch of economics that specifically dealt with land usage. It focused on maximizing the crop yield while maintaining a good soil...
and a PhD from
Iowa State UniversityIowa State University of Science and Technology, more commonly known as Iowa State University , is a public land-grant and space-grant research university located in Ames, Iowa, United States. Iowa State has produced astronauts, scientists, and Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winners, along with a host of...
after writing a
thesisA dissertation or thesis is a document submitted in support of candidature for an academic degree or professional qualification presenting the author's research and findings...
on the agricultural development of
Southern SudanThe Southern Sudan Autonomous Region was an autonomous region that existed in Southern Sudan between 1972 and 1983. It was established on 28 February 1972 by the Addis Ababa Agreement which ended the First Sudanese Civil War. The region was abolished on 5 June 1983 by the administration of...
. By 1983, Col. Garang was serving as senior instructor in the military academy in Wadi Sayedna 21 km from the centre of
OmdurmanOmdurman is the second largest city in Sudan and Khartoum State, lying on the western banks of the River Nile, opposite the capital, Khartoum. Omdurman has a population of 2,395,159 and is the national centre of commerce...
where he instructed the cadets for more than four years. Later he was nominated to serve in the military research department at Army HQ in Khartoum.
Rebel leader
In 1983, Garang went to Bor, ostensibly to mediate with about 500 southern government soldiers in battalion 105 who were resisting being rotated to posts in the north. However, Garang was already part of a conspiracy among some officers in the Southern Command arranging for the defection of battalion 105 to the anti-government rebels. When the government attacked Bor in May and the battalion pulled out, Garang went by an alternate route to join them in the rebel stronghold in Ethiopia. By the end of July, Garang had brought over 3000 rebel soldiers under his control through the newly-created
Sudan People's Liberation ArmyThe Sudan People's Liberation Movement is a political party in South Sudan. It was initially founded as a rebel political movement with a military wing known as the Sudan People's Liberation Army estimated at 180,000 soldiers. The SPLM fought in the Second Sudanese Civil War against the Sudanese...
/Movement (SPLA/M), which was opposed to military rule and Islamic dominance of the country, and encouraged other army garrisons to mutiny against the
Islamic lawSharia law, is the moral code and religious law of Islam. Sharia is derived from two primary sources of Islamic law: the precepts set forth in the Quran, and the example set by the Islamic prophet Muhammad in the Sunnah. Fiqh jurisprudence interprets and extends the application of sharia to...
imposed on the country by the government. This action marked the commonly agreed upon beginning of the
Second Sudanese Civil WarThe Second Sudanese Civil War started in 1983, although it was largely a continuation of the First Sudanese Civil War of 1955 to 1972. Although it originated in southern Sudan, the civil war spread to the Nuba mountains and Blue Nile by the end of the 1980s....
, which resulted in one and half million deaths over twenty years of conflict. Although Garang was Christian and most of southern Sudan is non-Muslim (mostly animist), he did not initially focus on the religious aspects of the war.
Garang had been fighting for a "New Sudan" since 1983. He was a strong advocate for national unity: minorities together formed a majority and therefore should rule. Together, Garang believed, they could replace President
Omar al-BashirLieutenant General Omar Hassan Ahmad Al-Bashir is the current President of Sudan and the head of the National Congress Party. He came to power in 1989 when he, as a brigadier in the Sudanese army, led a group of officers in a bloodless military coup that ousted the government of Prime Minister...
with a government made up of representatives from “all tribes and religions in Sudan." His first real effort for the cause, under his command, occurred in July 1985 with the SPLA’s incursion into Kordofan.
The SPLA gained the backing of Libya, Uganda and Ethiopia. Garang and his army controlled a large part of the southern regions of the country, named
New Sudan. He claimed his troops' courage comes from "the conviction that we are fighting a just cause. That is something North Sudan and its people don't have." Critics suggested financial motivations to his rebellion, noting that much of Sudan's
oilPetroleum or crude oil is a naturally occurring, flammable liquid consisting of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights and other liquid organic compounds, that are found in geologic formations beneath the Earth's surface. Petroleum is recovered mostly through oil drilling...
wealth lies in the south of the country.
In the spring of 1991,
Mengistu Haile MariamMengistu Haile Mariam is a politician who was formerly the most prominent officer of the Derg, the Communist military junta that governed Ethiopia from 1974 to 1987, and the President of the People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia from 1987 to 1991...
's regime (in Ethiopia) was overthrown by the Khartoum backed Ethiopian rebels (
Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic FrontThe Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front is the ruling political coalition in Ethiopia. It is an alliance of four other groups: the Oromo Peoples' Democratic Organization , the Amhara National Democratic Movement , the South Ethiopian Peoples' Democratic Front The Ethiopian People's...
). Upon the rebels’ seizure of the government they closed all
SPLASPLA may refer to:* Sudan People's Liberation Army** SPLA-Nasir and SPLA-United, a Sudanese breakaway faction formed in 1991* Sahrawi Popular Army of Liberation – see Polisario Front...
training camps in Ethiopia and cut off the
SPLASPLA may refer to:* Sudan People's Liberation Army** SPLA-Nasir and SPLA-United, a Sudanese breakaway faction formed in 1991* Sahrawi Popular Army of Liberation – see Polisario Front...
's arms supply, forcing the
SPLASPLA may refer to:* Sudan People's Liberation Army** SPLA-Nasir and SPLA-United, a Sudanese breakaway faction formed in 1991* Sahrawi Popular Army of Liberation – see Polisario Front...
to return hundreds of thousands of Sudanese back to
South SudanSouth Sudan , officially the Republic of South Sudan, is a landlocked country located in the Sahel region of northeastern Africa. It is also part of the North Africa UN sub-region. Its current capital is Juba, which is also its largest city; the capital city is planned to be moved to the more...
. This disrupted military operations and leadership within the
SPLASPLA may refer to:* Sudan People's Liberation Army** SPLA-Nasir and SPLA-United, a Sudanese breakaway faction formed in 1991* Sahrawi Popular Army of Liberation – see Polisario Front...
. However, this caused the West to reconsider relations with the
SPLASPLA may refer to:* Sudan People's Liberation Army** SPLA-Nasir and SPLA-United, a Sudanese breakaway faction formed in 1991* Sahrawi Popular Army of Liberation – see Polisario Front...
– justifying their providing the
SPLASPLA may refer to:* Sudan People's Liberation Army** SPLA-Nasir and SPLA-United, a Sudanese breakaway faction formed in 1991* Sahrawi Popular Army of Liberation – see Polisario Front...
with "non-lethal help."
Shortly after, there was an attempted coup to oust Garang by three senior
SPLASPLA may refer to:* Sudan People's Liberation Army** SPLA-Nasir and SPLA-United, a Sudanese breakaway faction formed in 1991* Sahrawi Popular Army of Liberation – see Polisario Front...
commanders in August 1991. The coup turned out to be premature – however, it exposed the deep ethnic divides within the
SPLASPLA may refer to:* Sudan People's Liberation Army** SPLA-Nasir and SPLA-United, a Sudanese breakaway faction formed in 1991* Sahrawi Popular Army of Liberation – see Polisario Front...
. Once everything was resolved, Garang resumed power of the
SPLASPLA may refer to:* Sudan People's Liberation Army** SPLA-Nasir and SPLA-United, a Sudanese breakaway faction formed in 1991* Sahrawi Popular Army of Liberation – see Polisario Front...
again in 1995.
Garang refused to participate in the 1985 interim government or 1986 elections, remaining a rebel leader. However, the
SPLASPLA may refer to:* Sudan People's Liberation Army** SPLA-Nasir and SPLA-United, a Sudanese breakaway faction formed in 1991* Sahrawi Popular Army of Liberation – see Polisario Front...
and government signed a peace agreement on January 9, 2005 in
NairobiNairobi is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The city and its surrounding area also forms the Nairobi County. The name "Nairobi" comes from the Maasai phrase Enkare Nyirobi, which translates to "the place of cool waters". However, it is popularly known as the "Green City in the Sun" and is...
, Kenya. On July 9, 2005, he was sworn in as vice-president, the second most powerful person in the country, following a ceremony in which he and President
Omar al-BashirLieutenant General Omar Hassan Ahmad Al-Bashir is the current President of Sudan and the head of the National Congress Party. He came to power in 1989 when he, as a brigadier in the Sudanese army, led a group of officers in a bloodless military coup that ousted the government of Prime Minister...
signed a power-sharing constitution. He also became the administrative head of a southern Sudan with limited autonomy for the six years before a scheduled referendum of possible secession. No Christian or southerner had ever held such a high government post. Commenting after the ceremony, Garang stated, "I congratulate the Sudanese people, this is not my peace or the peace of al-Bashir, it is the peace of the Sudanese people."
In the Hillcrest Hotel in
NairobiNairobi is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The city and its surrounding area also forms the Nairobi County. The name "Nairobi" comes from the Maasai phrase Enkare Nyirobi, which translates to "the place of cool waters". However, it is popularly known as the "Green City in the Sun" and is...
on New Year's Day 2003 there was a meeting between the
SPLASPLA may refer to:* Sudan People's Liberation Army** SPLA-Nasir and SPLA-United, a Sudanese breakaway faction formed in 1991* Sahrawi Popular Army of Liberation – see Polisario Front...
and the
Fur peopleThe Fur are an ethnic group from western Sudan, principally inhabiting the region of Darfur where they are the largest tribe....
. Garang asked two associates of
Abdul Wahid al NurAbdul Wahid Mohamed al Nur is the leader of the rebel Sudan Liberation Movement faction...
(who later formed the
Sudan Liberation MovementThe Sudan Liberation Movement/Army or is a Sudanese rebel group...
) to declare that the
Fur peopleThe Fur are an ethnic group from western Sudan, principally inhabiting the region of Darfur where they are the largest tribe....
were with the
SPLASPLA may refer to:* Sudan People's Liberation Army** SPLA-Nasir and SPLA-United, a Sudanese breakaway faction formed in 1991* Sahrawi Popular Army of Liberation – see Polisario Front...
– they refused.
Over 15 months, starting in September 2003,
Ali OsmanAli Osman is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Nejdet Salih. He was a member of the original EastEnders cast, appearing in the first episode on 19 February 1985. He remained with the show for nearly five years afterwards, making his final appearance on 10 October...
and Garang met in private in
NaivashaNaivasha is a market town in Rift Valley Province, Kenya, lying north west of Nairobi. It is located on the shore of Lake Naivasha and along the Nairobi - Nakuru highway and Uganda Railway.Naivasha is part of the Nakuru District...
. Their secret meetings and negotiations lasted up until the
Comprehensive Peace AgreementThe Comprehensive Peace Agreement , also known as the Naivasha Agreement, was a set of agreements culminating in January 2005 that were signed between the Sudan People's Liberation Movement and the Government of Sudan...
(CPA) was initialled on New Year's Eve 2004.
The CPA appeared to embody the vision of the "New Sudan" that Garang wanted. Within the CPA, power was split between the
National Congress PartyNational Congress Party may refer to:* National Congress, the dominant political party of Sudan* National Congress Party * Nationalist Congress Party of India...
and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement for six years, until 2010, with Garang as the first vice-president.
As a leader, John Garangs' democratic credentials were often questioned. For example, according to Gill Lusk "John Garang did not tolerate dissent and anyone who disagreed with him was either imprisoned or killed". Under his leadership, the SPLA was accused of human rights abuses.
The ideological profile of SPLA was as shadowy as Mr Garang himself.
He varied from Marxism to drawing support from Christian fundamentalists in the US.
The United States State Department argued that Garang's presence in the government would have helped solve the
Darfur conflictThe Darfur Conflict was a guerrilla conflict or civil war centered on the Darfur region of Sudan. It began in February 2003 when the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army and Justice and Equality Movement groups in Darfur took up arms, accusing the Sudanese government of oppressing non-Arab Sudanese in...
in western Sudan, but others consider these claims "excessively optimistic".
Death
In late July 2005, Garang died after the Ugandan presidential
Mi-172The Mil Mi-17 is a Russian helicopter currently in production at two factories in Kazan and Ulan-Ude...
helicopter he was flying in crashed. He had been returning from a meeting in
RwakituraRwakitura is the personal country home of the president of Uganda, Yoweri Kaguta Museveni. Apart from being his personal home, it is also the site of selected official meetings with Ugandan and foreign visitors...
with long-time ally President
Yoweri MuseveniYoweri Kaguta Museveni is a Ugandan politician and statesman. He has been President of Uganda since 26 January 1986.Museveni was involved in the war that deposed Idi Amin Dada, ending his rule in 1979, and in the rebellion that subsequently led to the demise of the Milton Obote regime in 1985...
of Uganda. He did not tell the Sudanese government that he was going to this meeting and so did not take the presidential plane. In fact Garang said he was going to spend the weekend in New Site, a small village near the Kenyan borders founded by Garang himself. To this day nobody knows with whom Garang had met in Rwakitura, or what the agenda of the meeting had been. After being missing for more than 24 hours, the Ugandan president reported it to the Sudanese government which contacted SPLM for more information. SPLM responded that the helicopter Garang was taking landed safely on an old SPLA training camp. Sudanese state television then initially reported that Garang's helicopter had landed safely and that they were trying to contact him. Few hours later, Abdel Basset Sabdarat, Sudan's Information Minister, appeared on TV to deny the report that Garang helicopter landed safely. Actually, it was Yasir Arman, the SPLA/M spokesperson who told the government that Garang plane had landed safely. His intention was to save time for internal arrangements in SPLA before Garang's death was to be declared. Garang's plane crashed on a Friday and so remained missing for the following Saturday. During this time the government believed he was in Southern Sudan. Soon afterwards, a statement released by the office of the Sudanese President Omar el-Bashir confirmed that a Ugandan presidential helicopter crashed into "a mountain range in southern Sudan because of poor visibility and this resulted in the death of Dr. John Garang DeMabior, six of his colleagues and seven Ugandan crew members."
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050801/ap_on_re_mi_ea/sudan_plane_missing His body was flown to
New SiteNew Site is a village in South Sudan near the border with Kenya. It is used by the SPLA/M as the location for their headquarters and was selected because it is near the border and has quite a good number of trees to protect them from aerial bombardments....
, a southern Sudanese settlement near the scene of the crash, where former rebel fighters and civilian supporters gathered to pay their respects to Garang. Garang's funeral took place on August 3 in
JubaJuba is the capital and largest city of the Republic of South Sudan. It also serves as the capital of Central Equatoria, the smallest of the ten states of South Sudan. The city is situated on the White Nile and functions as the seat and metropolis of Juba County.- Population :In 2005, Juba's...
. His widow
Rebecca Nyandeng De MabiorRebecca Nyandeng De Mabior is a South Sudanese politician. She had served as the Minister of Roads and Transport in the autonomous Government of South Sudan, and is currently one of the Advisors for the President of The Republic of South Sudan. She is the widow of Dr. John Garang De Mabior, the...
promised to continue his work stating "In our culture we say, if you kill the lion, you see what the lioness will do."
Questions about death
Both the Sudanese government and the head of the SPLA blamed the weather for the accident. There are, however, doubts as to whether this was the true cause, especially amongst the rank-and-file of the SPLA. Yoweri Museveni, the Ugandan president, claims that the possibility of "external factors" having played a role could not be eliminated.
Effect on peace
Because Garang was considered instrumental in ending the civil war, the effect of Garang's death upon the peace deal is uncertain. The government declared three days of national mourning, which did not stop large scale
riotA riot is a form of civil disorder characterized often by what is thought of as disorganized groups lashing out in a sudden and intense rash of violence against authority, property or people. While individuals may attempt to lead or control a riot, riots are thought to be typically chaotic and...
ing in
KhartoumKhartoum is the capital and largest city of Sudan and of Khartoum State. It is located at the confluence of the White Nile flowing north from Lake Victoria, and the Blue Nile flowing west from Ethiopia. The location where the two Niles meet is known as "al-Mogran"...
which killed at least 24 as youths from southern Sudan attacked northern Sudanese and clashed with security forces. After three days of violence, the death toll had risen to 84
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4741149.stm. Unrest was also reported in other parts of the country. Leading members of the SPLM, including Garang's successor
Salva Kiir MayarditSalva Kiir Mayardit is the first President of the Republic of South Sudan.-Sudanese civil wars:In the late 1960s, Kiir joined the Anyanya in the First Sudanese Civil War. By the time of the 1972 Addis Ababa Agreement, he was a low-ranking officer...
, stated that the peace process would continue. Analysts suggested that the death could result in anything from a new democratic openness in the SPLA, which some have criticized for being overly dominated by Garang, to an outbreak of open warfare between the various southern factions that Garang had brought together.
Partial bibliography of his publications
Garang, John
1987
John Garang Speaks. M. Khalid, ed. London: Kegan Paul International.
See also
- First Sudanese Civil War
The First Sudanese Civil War was a conflict from 1955 to 1972 between the northern part of Sudan and the southern Sudan region that demanded representation and more regional autonomy...
- Second Sudanese Civil War
The Second Sudanese Civil War started in 1983, although it was largely a continuation of the First Sudanese Civil War of 1955 to 1972. Although it originated in southern Sudan, the civil war spread to the Nuba mountains and Blue Nile by the end of the 1980s....
- Sudan People's Liberation Army
The Sudan People's Liberation Movement is a political party in South Sudan. It was initially founded as a rebel political movement with a military wing known as the Sudan People's Liberation Army estimated at 180,000 soldiers. The SPLM fought in the Second Sudanese Civil War against the Sudanese...
External links
- Official website of the Sudan People's Liberation Army
The Sudan People's Liberation Movement is a political party in South Sudan. It was initially founded as a rebel political movement with a military wing known as the Sudan People's Liberation Army estimated at 180,000 soldiers. The SPLM fought in the Second Sudanese Civil War against the Sudanese...
- A State Department archive of information from before January 2001
- Sudan ex-rebel joins government, BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
, July 9, 2005
- Obituary, BBC
- Deadly riots erupt in Sudan after Garang death, Reuters
Reuters is a news agency headquartered in New York City. Until 2008 the Reuters news agency formed part of a British independent company, Reuters Group plc, which was also a provider of financial market data...
, August 1, 2005
- The return of a Sudanese survivor, opinion piece in The Daily Star
The Daily Star is a pan-Middle East English language newspaper edited in Beirut. It was founded in 1952 by Kamel Mrowa, the publisher of the Arabic daily Al-Hayat to serve the growing number of expatriates brought by the oil industry...
, Lebanon, July 19, 2005 – some info on early life
- Uganda Joins Sudan in Investigating Garang's Death, William Eagle, Voice of America
Voice of America is the official external broadcast institution of the United States federal government. It is one of five civilian U.S. international broadcasters working under the umbrella of the Broadcasting Board of Governors . VOA provides a wide range of programming for broadcast on radio...
, August 9, 2005