Page 30 - EVOLUTION OF THE SUDAN PEOPLE’S LIBERATION MOVEMENT(SPLM),

African countries nations? These are some of the questions that preoccupied the founding fathers and first
generation nationalists soon after political independence. The question was however raised as challenges
of nationhood, nation-building or state consolidation. The agenda of national project was to construct,

entrench, and consolidate political power in terms of forging hegemony, monopoly of violence and state-
building (Wamba, 1991).

The national project sought to develop and build the economy to eradicate poverty, ignorance and disease
in order to improve people’s standards of living but more so address the colonial economic legacy through

measures such as nationalization. Economic policy measures sought to redistribute national resources in a
manner that favors the historically marginalized or oppressed. In other words, the national project sought
to answer to both social and national question as articulated by scholars such as Mkandawire, Ntalaja and
Hippler. Thus this work will use their collective understanding of both the social and national question in

Africa.

As we have noted earlier, social movements in the global south have been an integral part of the nationalist
struggle against colonialism and most of the social movements and theories are associated with the social
emancipation and welfare politics of redistribution of national resources. There is of course an anti-

imperialist agenda together with identity politics. Material rewards and freedom are essential part of the
issues advanced by social movements in Africa. Tensions exist between the post-colonial state on one
hand and social movements on the other. The social question is always raised or posed by the latter and

revolves around, among other issues such as social policy, gender relations, cooperatives, workers and
peasant organizations, social question demands are viewed as a threat to nationalist project that placed
more emphasize on the unity of purpose but were suppressed and their capacity to raise the social question
severely undermined.

The nationalist project laid more emphasis in the national question and all questions of social transformation
had to be postponed or even dismissed as divisive. This work relies on basically two theories- Amilcar
Cabral’s theory of national liberation and social movement theory by Castells. The two theories are relevant
in the study because of their deeper analysis of social movement theory especially the assumption that
social movements be judged on the basis of what they say they are (Castels, 2010:73). The former was as

pointed out a political theorist whose ideas influenced almost all liberation movements in Africa.

By their very nature, social movement theory answers the national and social question but primarily the
latter. The theory nonetheless remains relevant as it answers the social question that is always overlooked by

the nationalists and liberation movements. Jointly with Cabral’s theory, social movement theory will be used
to analyze how South Sudan has answered both the social and national question. The study primarily relies
on the political ideas and thought of Amilcar Cabral as drawn from his revolutionary, economic, political,
cultural and anti-imperialist theories. By focusing on the basic or primary aspects of decolonization, he

deals with independence as a material question where lives of ordinary people must change for the better.

Nzongola Ntalaja for example argues that Cabralsideas can be achieved or realized provided the post-
colonial state implements the nationalist project of democracy and development through political self-
determination, pan African solidarity and economic self-reliance. The primary focus, he adds is to focus

on three inter related topics namely democratic governance, reconstruction and development, and Pan
African solidarity. South Sudan achieved political independence in 2011 and entered the reconstruction
24