Page 15 - EVOLUTION OF THE SUDAN PEOPLE’S LIBERATION MOVEMENT(SPLM),

was short, the local population remembered both the colonial period and the peace brought by the Addis
Ababa Agreement. Where relief workers in the 1990s saw wilds and ruins, the locals saw what had been,
and what they hoped would be restored.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

Since its inception 1983, SPLM captured the imaginations of the people as it came to embody
the collective aspirations and hopes of the masses. However the transitional period was marked

by corruption, poor governance and increased power struggle within SPLM that culminated to a
civil war in 2013, a year after the end of the multi-donor trust reconstruction fund. In addition,
there seems to have been no clear objectives of the struggle to implement liberation dividends to

the citizenry. Indeed, research after the formation of Government of Southern Sudan in 2005 is
limited in scope and quantity. No studies have been undertaken on social and economic indicators
of social movements; they have often focused on whether the Comprehensive Peace Agreement,
CPA, was being implemented successfully or not. Moreover, the resurgence of a civil war shortly
after independence and the failure to resolve the social and national challenges in South Sudan are

matters that warrant deeper investigation and analysis that is yet to be undertaken. In sum, there
exist no historical study of SPLM and this presents a historiographical gap in the olden times of
South Sudan. This study therefore, intends to examine these trajectories and contradictions in
Southern Sudan political scene.

1.3 Purpose of the study

This study purposed to analyze the pitfalls in the evolution of the SPLM between 1983 and 2016.

1.4 Objectives of the study
The following objectives guided the study:

1. To account for the origins and development of the SPLM before 2005
2. To examine peace processes and transitional agreements between, 2005 and 2011

3. To analyze the politics of SPLM and the emergence of political factions

4. To assess SPLM’s response to social, political and economic challenges in the context of

state-formation

1.5 Assumptions of the study

The following assumptions preceded the study:

1. That, the rise of the SPLM was premised on the struggle for freedom, territorial integrity
and economic sovereignty

2. That, the SPLM came to power through a negotiated process that saw it capture state power
in 2011

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