The State Building of South Sudan : From Civil War to Independence and Back to Conflict

South Sudan gaining independence in July 2011 became a great relief for the Southerners ending a long period of marginalization dating back to the 19th century. Things would however not go as expected as exclusion, nepotism, patron-client relations, rule by law and grand corruption would be the most infectious ailments that immediately affected the country. SPLM's failure to unite the country resulted in conflict on December 15th, 2013. A peace accord in 2015 brings back to Juba former Vice President Dr. Riek Machar as First Vice President. It took only two months into the implementation and fighting erupts again in the presidential palace when President Salva Kiir was meeting his two Vice Presidents. The aftermath of this conflict is a country more divided, refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) in numbers and a blurred vision of where the state of South Sudan is headed. Past dreams are replaced by personal, "Big Man" gains in terms of positions among the top leadership and greed has become the creed. The question on the lips of every South Sudanese is, how can the country be transformed from a proto-state that operates under neo-patrimonialism to a modern state with functional institutions?