Juba, South Sudan

The student choir of the University of Juba sing at the launch of the national anthem. The choir won the contest to compose the national anthem. It was officially launched in a ceremony attended by government officials and generals and was then repeatedly played on local radio in an effort to encourage the population to learn it in time for the independence celebrations.

On 9 July 2011, six months after nearly 99 percent of four million voters in a referendum opted for secession from the North, the Republic of South Sudan came into being, becoming the world’s 193rd nation. The run-up to independence witnessed a place and a people in transformation, as some of the millions of exiles who had sought asylum in neighboring countries returned to rebuild their communities and construct their identity as a unified nation. The new government has the task of developing law-enforcing institutions such as the police and prison services out of a rebel movement, and from people trained as combatants, not peacekeepers.