Identity and nationalism: two decades of contemporary art in south Sudan (2001- 2023)

Abstract

South Sudan as a young nation in the region and the world has virgin grounds in all fields including in the visual landscape. This study examines the work of South Sudanese artists in the last two decades and those artworks that were done much earlier than those produced after the introduction of formal art education in South Sudan. It is organized into three objectives namely, (1) To investigate colonialism, its impacts on the local South Sudanese cultures. (2) To examine the forces responsible for emergence of African visual modernism in South Sudan art. (3) To explore the search for African identity and nationalism in modern South Sudan art. It has a community of artists who explore the socio-political and economic environment with euphoria of being free. It is important because they (Artists) have visited their past cultural practices and brought into their visual representation information articulating ethnic and national identity and nationalism. Artists have become part of activism to ensuring that South Sudan remains an important player on world stage culturally, politically, and economically. The recent civil war has been so disruptive; artists have condemned this in their artworks as a sense of nationalism. The artists further articulated their opinions on the path they would like the country to take and have massively contributed and are still contributing ideas for the country to remain together. The research was a qualitative one I used constructive paradigm in conducting the study. Written documents were put under review; interviews, focused group discussion, non-participant observation, and artworks analysis were employed to collect data. A total of 50 individuals were interviewed using oral interview technique and focused group discussion. The key findings of the research are contemporary art in South Sudan was the legacy of colonialism. However, there are other factors that led to the emergence of vibrant South Sudan contemporary art for instance, the presence of training ground in the University of Juba school of Art, Music, and Drama, presence of South Sudanese artists as the seeds of contemporary art production, cultural influence, political and environmental and economic factors were all responsible for the emergence of vibrant South Sudan Contemporary art. Key Words: Identity, Nationalism, South Sudan contemporary art.