“Today we received these results, and we accept and welcome these results because they represent the will of the southern people,” Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir said in an address on state television.

“Today we received these results, and we accept and welcome these results because they represent the will of the southern people,” Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir said in an address on state television.

This was after a total of 98.8 percent of Southern Sudanese voters chose secession in the January 2011 referendum, in Sudan.

Shedding light on the “Significance of the South Sudan Referendum”, Prof. Mahmood Mamdani presented a paper on 17th March, 2011, at the School of Computing and Informatics Technology, where many, among them the Chancellor Prof. Mondo Kagonyera gathered to listen.

Intellectuals like the former Vice Chairperson Makerere University Council, Mrs. Christine Kiganda were active members of the audience as they shared their opinions on how the referendum was a likely precursor of ethnic stratification.

In his paper, Prof. Mamdani highlights his concern for the referendum’s significance to Pan Africanism, how the history of South Sudan could be rewritten and how creation of a new state presents us with a new challenge!

“Nationalists may try to convince us that the outcome of the referendum, independence, is the natural destiny of the people of South Sudan. But there is nothing natural about any political outcome.” Prof. Mamdani said.

As the discussant, Robert Kabushenga, the Chief Executive Officer, Vision Group of companies, opined that the referendum gives the people of South Sudan an opportunity to review the need to be ruled by other leaders.

“Democratization should lead to people freely conceding to how they should be governed and participate freely in how resources are shared out among the population”, reasoned Kabushenga.

 Click here to view more photos from the talk

mwamai@admin.mak.ac.ug, Public Relations Office