south sudanToday is South Sudan's secession day and its celebration of being the world's newest nation state. For a region with such a long history, it has certainly had a difficult ride. The colonization experience for Sudan was not an easy one, and like the division of imaginary lines around the borders of new nations, this has been the source of much conflict with the grouping together of many different groups giving rise to conflict between the relatively richer, drier, and predominantly Arab north and the poorer, more arable, oil rich and predominantly sub-Saharan African South. As a country whose history highlights the 'Scramble for Africa' writ large, with the British, the French and the Belgians claiming portions (the latter of whom had a policy to teach Africans that they were lazy by cutting off one hand), Sudan's struggles following independence are further proof that being rich in resources is not necessarily a winning formula for nation states in a world which is starkly divided between the haves and have-nots.
Like its neighbour the Democratic Republic of Congo, which has lost the largest number of casualties since the Second World War and killing around 5.4 million people despite having an estimated US$24 trillion dollars in resources, being mineral rich for much of the world does not translate into profits, rather it is the countries that it is distributed to who tend to benefit. In Sudan's case, China had the ability to exercise diplomatic influence over the frequent killings, as it received nearly two-thirds of Sudan's oil supplies since legislation under Clinton in 1997 that made trade with Sudan punishable. This is not to say China is the only country that was benefiting from Bashir's rei
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