The Anya-Nya Struggle. Background and Objectives

About this Item

A slim unpaginated (16 pp.) booklet on the Southern Sudanese guerrilla organization, with 2 color folding maps laid in. Octavo (9 1/8 x 6 3/8 inches). Original side-stapled pictorial wrappers. Light toning throughout, a couple of small red ink notations, overall very good. London/South Sudan: South Sudan Resistance Movement, 1971. The Anya-Nya (also known as Anyanya) was a southern Sudanese separatist rebel army initially formed during the First Sudanese Civil War. It was founded in 1963 by Joseph Lagu, former President of the High Executive Council of the Southern Sudan Autonomous Region, at a time when various tribes from southern Sudan were waging a war against the Sudanese government. Made up of politicians, ex-mutineers, and defected soldiers, they launched their first military offensive against the Sudanese army on September 19, 1963 in Eastern Equatoria. The name "Anyanya" means "snake venom" in the Ma'di language of Sudan. This booklet is divided into brief chronological sections, detailing the history of Sudan and its people. The section titled "1963-1971: Anya-Nya Organization and Activities" reads, "The Anya-Nya resistance fighters commenced activities on 19 September 1963. Their main targets were Arab police and military posts and Arab settlements. After six months of operations, the Anya-Nya, armed with traditional weapons - spears, bows and arrows, machetes, etc. - were able to drive out the Arabs from their posts in the countryside and to send Arab settlers fleeing back to their country - thus removing the threat of Arab colonization of the South." The Anya-Nya were seeking more regional autonomy and representation for Southern Sudan, and believed that violent resistance was the only way to force the government to find an acceptable solution. "The Anya-Nya is fighting for freedom for the people of Southern Sudan - freedom to determine their own cultural, religious and linguistic character. Freedom from Arab colonialism. Freedom to be African.It is a fundamental struggle pitting an indigenous African culture against alien invading forces - Arabization and Soviet imperialism. The Anya-Nya is the vanguard of Africa's struggle against this new colonialism, and as such deserves the support of all independent African states." Under a section titled "Military History" and on one of the included maps, it is mentioned that the Sudanese army is supplied with both equipment and manpower by the Soviet Union and Egypt. Combat aircraft, warships, and 3000 Egyptian and 1000 Soviet military advisors led the Sudanese army. Finally, in 1971, the political wing of the Anya-Nya, the Southern Sudan Liberation Movement (SSLM), began a dialogue with the Sudanese government. This resulted in the signing of the Addis Ababa Agreement which granted regional autonomy to Southern Sudan and ended the 17-year conflict. Southern Sudan would have a separate legislature and executive body, and the Anya-Nya soldiers would be integrated into the Sudanese army and police force. However, peace was relatively short-lived as the Second Sudanese Civil War began only a little over ten years later. Scarce institutionally.

Seller Inventory # 53387

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Anya-Nya Struggle. Background and Objectives
• Binding: Soft cover
• Seller catalogs:
  • Social History, Politics, Propaganda