Mayardit, Salva Kiir
(1951–)

A founding member of the Sudan People's Liberation Army, Salva Kiir Mayardit (also known simply as Salva Kiir) is the first vice president of Sudan and president of the Autonomous Government of South Sudan.

PERSONAL HISTORY

Mayardit was born in 1951 in Qoqrial (also Gogrial) Town, in southern Sudan's Bahr al-Ghazzal province. He was born to the Awan clan of the main southern Sudanese tribe, the Dinka. He attended the Kojok Primary School and eventually, in the late 1960s, joined the Anyanya movement, the antigovernment rebellion of black African animist and Christian forces in southern Sudan against the Muslim Arab-dominated central Sudanese government in the north during the first Sudanese civil war. After the war ended in 1972, Mayardit joined the Sudanese army as an enlisted man.

BIOGRAPHICAL HIGHLIGHTS

Name: Salva Kiir Mayardit

Birth: 1951, Qoqrial Town, Bahr al-Ghazzal province, Sudan

Family: Married; children

Nationality: Sudanese

Education: Elementary school

PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY:

• Late 1960s: Joins Anyanya rebellion against Sudanese government during first Sudanese civil war
• 1972: Enters Sudanese army after end of first civil war
• 1983: Defects from army, helps form Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM)
• 1984: Leads Sudan People's Liberation Army forces in battle that captures the town of Pashala from government
• 1994: Elected deputy leader of SPLM
• 2005: Brokers Comprehensive Peace Agreement between SPLM and Sudanese government in January; becomes vice president of Autonomous Government of South Sudan; takes over as president of South Sudan government upon death of John Garang in July; August, sworn in as first vice president of Sudan

INFLUENCES AND CONTRIBUTIONS

In 1983, by which time he had risen to the rank of captain, Mayardit and fellow southern officer, John Garang de Mabior, defected from the Sudanese army and renewed the southern struggle against the government. Together they formed the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) along with about a dozen others, and Mayardit ended up heading its military wing, the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA). He acquitted himself well during a battle in which SPLA forces captured the town of Pashala from government forces in 1984, and long was remembered for his actions thereafter. Having been an intelligence officer in the Sudanese army, he became the intelligence chief of the SPLA. At the first SPLM general conference in April 1994, Mayardit was elected Garang's deputy in the movement. Despite their long association with one another, he eventually disagreed with Garang over whether the SPLM should push for total southern independence, or merely autonomy within a federal Sudanese system. He also grew critical of Garang's monopolization of power with the SPLM.

As an SPLM negotiator—he is fluent in Dinka, Arabic, and English, and speaks some Kiswahili—Mayardit represented the movement in a number of important negotiations. He signed the Shagdom Agreement with the northern Umma Party in December 1994, and the Machakos Protocol with the central government in July 2002. He also helped broker the Comprehensive Peace Agreement with the government that ended the second civil war in January 2005. As a result, he was promoted to major general in the SPLA. The charismatic Garang became first vice president of Sudan and president of the newly created Autonomous Government of South Sudan. Mayardit became deputy head of the autonomous government. After only six months in office, Garang died in the crash of a Ugandan government helicopter in southern Sudan on 30 July 2005. The SPLM leadership chose Mayardit to replace him, and he was sworn in as vice president on 11 August 2005.

THE WORLD'S PERSPECTIVE

Mayardit is well known by northern politicians, having served as the SPLM's main negotiator over the years. He is extremely popular among southerners by virtue of his experience, his background as a Dinka from the dominant Qoqrial clan, and because he favors eventual southern independence after the six-year transition period spelled out in the Comprehensive Peace Agreement—in contrast to Garang, who had wanted an autonomous southern government within a federal Sudanese system.

LEGACY

It is too soon to evaluate Mayardit's long-term legacy. But already his contributions to the southern Sudanese movement are many, and his importance to the armed struggle against the central Sudanese government, the peace process, and the consolidation of the post-2005 power-sharing arrangement have earned him a place in the history of southern Sudan.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Ngala, Joseph. "The Man Expected to Fit into Garang's Shoes." Standard (3 August 2005). Available from http://www.eastandard.net/.

"Profile: Salva Kiir." BBC. 2 August 2005. Available from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4738295.stm.

Raslan, Hani. "Salva Kiir: From the Battlefield to the Presidential Palace." Center for Strategic and Political Studies. 8 August 2005. Available from http://www.ahram.org.eg/.

                                  Michael R. Fischbach