Professor Cherry Leonardi's Outputs (25)

Elephants Are Stories Now: Understanding The Loss Of Elephants In South Sudan (2024)
Report
Waanzi Hillary, I., Amuom, M., & Leonardi, C. (2024). Elephants Are Stories Now: Understanding The Loss Of Elephants In South Sudan. Rift Valley Institute

“Extraordinarily Inconspicuous” Elephants: The Interspecies Constitution and Contestations of the Ivory Commodity Frontier in Nineteenth-Century South Sudan (2024)
Journal Article
Leonardi, C. (2024). “Extraordinarily Inconspicuous” Elephants: The Interspecies Constitution and Contestations of the Ivory Commodity Frontier in Nineteenth-Century South Sudan. Environmental History, 29(2), 254-280. https://doi.org/10.1086/729404

Elephants have been extraordinarily inconspicuous in the history of the ivory trade in nineteenth-century southern Sudan. One explanation for this is the process of commodification, which abstracted ivory from its animal origins and rendered invisibl... Read More about “Extraordinarily Inconspicuous” Elephants: The Interspecies Constitution and Contestations of the Ivory Commodity Frontier in Nineteenth-Century South Sudan.

Pieces of a Nation: South Sudanese Heritage and Museum Collections (2021)
Book
Cormack, Z., & Leonardi, C. (Eds.). (2021). Pieces of a Nation: South Sudanese Heritage and Museum Collections. Sidestone Press

Geographies of unease: Witchcraft and boundary construction in an African borderland (2021)
Journal Article
Leonardi, C., Storer, E., & Fisher, J. (2021). Geographies of unease: Witchcraft and boundary construction in an African borderland. Political Geography, 90, Article 102442. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polgeo.2021.102442

African borderlands – such as those between South Sudan, Uganda and Congo – are often presented by analysts as places of agency and economic opportunity, in contrast to hardened, securitized borders elsewhere. We emphasize, however, that even such re... Read More about Geographies of unease: Witchcraft and boundary construction in an African borderland.

Insecurity and the invisible: The challenge of spiritual (in)security (2020)
Journal Article
Fisher, J., & Leonardi, C. (2021). Insecurity and the invisible: The challenge of spiritual (in)security. Security Dialogue, 52(5), 383-400. https://doi.org/10.1177/0967010620973540

The search for security has become an almost permanent feature of the contemporary lived experience and what Brian Massumi has called an ‘operative logic’ for states across the globe. The modern study – and practice – of security has, nonetheless, be... Read More about Insecurity and the invisible: The challenge of spiritual (in)security.

Patchwork States: the localization of state territoriality on the South Sudan-Uganda border, 1914-2014 (2020)
Journal Article
Leonardi, C. (2020). Patchwork States: the localization of state territoriality on the South Sudan-Uganda border, 1914-2014. Past & Present: A Journal of Historical Studies, 248(1), 209-258. https://doi.org/10.1093/pastj/gtz052

This paper takes a localized conflict over a non-demarcated stretch of the Uganda–South Sudan boundary in 2014 as a starting point for examining the history of territorial state formation on either side of this border since its colonial creation in 1... Read More about Patchwork States: the localization of state territoriality on the South Sudan-Uganda border, 1914-2014.

Making Order Out of Disorder: Customary authority in South Sudan (2019)
Report
Leonardi, C. (2019). Making Order Out of Disorder: Customary authority in South Sudan. Rift Valley Institute

Mixing oil and water? Colonial state justice and the challenge of witchcraft accusations in central Equatoria, Southern Sudan (2018)
Book Chapter
Leonardi, C. (2018). Mixing oil and water? Colonial state justice and the challenge of witchcraft accusations in central Equatoria, Southern Sudan. In O. Zenker, & M. V. Hoehne (Eds.), The State and the Paradox of Customary Law in Africa (87-108). Routledge

Introduction: valuing land in Eastern Africa (2018)
Journal Article
Leonardi, C., & Browne, A. J. (2018). Introduction: valuing land in Eastern Africa. Critical African Studies, 10(1), 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1080/21681392.2018.1495088

Dividing Communities in South Sudan and Northern Uganda: boundary disputes and land governance (2016)
Report
Leonardi, C., & Santschi, M. (2016). Dividing Communities in South Sudan and Northern Uganda: boundary disputes and land governance. Rift Valley Institute

"We are oppressed and our only way is to write to higher authority”: the politics of claim and complaint in the peripheries of Condominium Sudan (2016)
Book Chapter
Leonardi, C., & Vaughan, C. (2016). "We are oppressed and our only way is to write to higher authority”: the politics of claim and complaint in the peripheries of Condominium Sudan. In E. Hunter (Ed.), Citizenship, Belonging, and Political Community in Africa: Dialogues between Past and Present (74-100). Ohio University Press

Points of order? Local government meetings as negotiation tables in South Sudanese history (2015)
Journal Article
Leonardi, C. (2015). Points of order? Local government meetings as negotiation tables in South Sudanese history. Journal of Eastern African Studies, 9(4), 650-668. https://doi.org/10.1080/17531055.2015.1105440

This paper explores the long-term, local-level history of state formation in South Sudan over the past century, by focusing on local government meetings. The resilience of local state institutions and practices has been overlooked in recent state-bui... Read More about Points of order? Local government meetings as negotiation tables in South Sudanese history.

Discourses of violence in the transition from colonialism to independence in southern Sudan, 1955–1960 (2014)
Journal Article
Rolandsen, Ø. H., & Leonardi, C. (2014). Discourses of violence in the transition from colonialism to independence in southern Sudan, 1955–1960. Journal of Eastern African Studies, 8(4), 609-625. https://doi.org/10.1080/17531055.2014.949599

The Torit Mutiny of August 1955 in southern Sudan did not trigger a civil war, but state violence and disorder escalated over the following years. We explore how the outlook and strategies of the government officials who inherited the state apparatus... Read More about Discourses of violence in the transition from colonialism to independence in southern Sudan, 1955–1960.

The power of cultures and the cultures of power: John MacKenzie and the study of imperialism (2013)
Book Chapter
Leonardi, C. (2013). The power of cultures and the cultures of power: John MacKenzie and the study of imperialism. In A. S. Thompson (Ed.), Writing Imperial Histories (49-73). Manchester University Press

South Sudanese Arabic and the negotiation of the local state, c. 1840-2011 (2013)
Journal Article
Leonardi, C. (2013). South Sudanese Arabic and the negotiation of the local state, c. 1840-2011. Journal of African History, 54(3), 351-372. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0021853713000741

This article explores the history of the creole South Sudanese Arabic language from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day. It analyses the historical evidence of language use in the light of insights drawn from linguistic studies of creolisat... Read More about South Sudanese Arabic and the negotiation of the local state, c. 1840-2011.

Dealing with Government in South Sudan: histories of chiefship, community and state (2013)
Book
Leonardi, C. (2013). Dealing with Government in South Sudan: histories of chiefship, community and state. James Currey

Paying 'buckets of blood' for the land: moral debates over economy, war and state in Southern Sudan (2011)
Journal Article
Leonardi, C. (2011). Paying 'buckets of blood' for the land: moral debates over economy, war and state in Southern Sudan. Journal of Modern African Studies, 49(2), 215-240. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0022278x11000024

This paper challenges the prevailing focus on ethnic division and conflict in Southern Sudan in recent years, demonstrating that even within ethnically divisive debates over land, there are shared, transethnic levels of moral concern. These concerns... Read More about Paying 'buckets of blood' for the land: moral debates over economy, war and state in Southern Sudan.

Traditional authority, local government and justice (2011)
Book Chapter
Leonardi, C., & Abdul Jalil, M. (2012). Traditional authority, local government and justice. In J. Ryle, J. Willis, S. Baldo, & J. M. Jok (Eds.), The Sudan handbook (108-121). Rift Valley Institute [digital edition]

The Sudan Handbook, based on the Rift Valley Institute's successful Sudan Field Course, is an authoritative and accessible introduction to Sudan, vividly written and edited by leading Sudanese and international specialists. The handbook offers a conc... Read More about Traditional authority, local government and justice.

The politics of customary law ascertainment in South Sudan (2011)
Journal Article
Leonardi, C., Isser, D., Moro, L., & Santschi, M. (2011). The politics of customary law ascertainment in South Sudan. Journal of legal pluralism and unofficial law, 63, 111-142

This article focuses on a strategy produced by the Government of Southern Sudan and the UNDP in 2009 for a written ascertainment of customary law. It argues that this strategy reflected a legalistic desire to regulate and order the hybrid, composite... Read More about The politics of customary law ascertainment in South Sudan.

Local Justice in Southern Sudan (2010)
Report
Leonardi, C., Moro, L. N., Santschi, M., & Isser, D. (2010). Local Justice in Southern Sudan. United States Institute of Peace and the Rift Valley Institute