¶ Jeffrey Gettleman writes about the inauguration of Africa’s 54th country, South Sudan, from its capital city, Juba. One can only wish that South Sudan’s sovereign chances were better: the new nation, facing serious internal divisions as well as the long-standing enmity of the North, must spend more on security than on social services. Even the bright side — lots of oil — is not, given oil’s history elsewhere, very bright. We freely admit that this would be just another news story to us were it not for the indelible impact of Dave Eggers’s novelization of the experience of Valentino Achak Deng, What Is the What. That book made South Sudan an intensely distinct part of our world. (Another book that did the same for another, hitherto off-the-map part of the world is Thomas Goltz’s riveting Azerbaijan Diary.) 

Drop me a line at rjk@dailyblague.com
This entry was posted on Friday, July 8th, 2011 at 10:30 am.