(JUBA) – Away from the formal peace tables and political power struggles, South Sudan’s ordinary citizens are quietly shaping their own survival and pathways to peace. Through informal trade networks, traditional mediation, and everyday resilience, communities are challenging the dominance of armed groups and providing alternatives to militarised governance.
Since independence, the state has been defined by power sharing deals and armed patronage. Institutions remain weak and dissent is often punished. Public protest is virtually impossible, with authorities warning openly that demonstrators risk being shot. Yet despite this repressive environment, South Sudanese have not been silent. Their resistance takes subtler forms i.e. cross-border trade, cattle movement, women’s cooperatives, and avoidance of illegal taxation. These practices, though less visible than demonstrations, allow people to preserve autonomy and dignity.
Scholars describe this as “everyday resistance” as quiet acts of survival that undermine elite control. Rather than street protests, resistance here lives in cattle markets, fishing camps, and trade corridors. By building trust across conflict lines, communities show that resilience can be both political and practical.
Informal markets are at the centre of this dynamic. In the absence of stable formal structures, markets become places of negotiation, community control, and shared survival. Traders often bypass armed groups by creating local arrangements that ensure goods move safely. This quiet defiance helps reduce conflict by making cooperation more profitable than violence.
For example, youth from Bor in Jonglei State have long traded with areas controlled by the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-in Opposition (SPLM-IO). Despite risks of arrest or suspicion, they regularly travelled to Nyirol and Uror to buy cattle, negotiating safe passage across battle lines. Murle youth from Pibor made similar journeys to Mogiri market in Juba, navigating routes that required agreements with rival Bor and Mundari communities.
Fishing communities along the Nile have also shown this resilience. By sharing access to waters and processing fish into Rei Awai (salted fish), they created one of South Sudan’s most profitable informal export trades, reaching as far as Congo via Uganda.
Women play a particularly important role. In Jonglei and other states, they have organised cooperatives and savings groups to dominate the Rei Awai trade. These women pool money, buy fish, and coordinate exports, turning what was once household survival work into an inter-regional business. For many women living in Protection of Civilian (PoC) sites run by the UN, such trade offers a way to leave the camps, build trust with other communities, and earn a living.
These everyday markets show how informal economies not only sustain livelihoods but also create networks of trust.
Youth also use cultural traditions as peace tools. Wrestling tournaments between Bor, Terekeka, and Yirol, often called the “Triangle of Peace”, bring together large crowds and rival groups in shared identity. These competitions, hosted without military interference, show that culture can become a powerful space for civic unity.
Customary authorities also remain central to this story. Chiefs, elders, and church leaders mediate disputes, regulate markets, and calm tensions when peace agreements break down. Their influence is rooted in trust, unlike the distant authority of formal state institutions. A historic example was the 1999 Wunlit Peace Conference, where grassroots leaders achieved reconciliation between Dinka and Nuer communities even as national factions fought on.
More recently, local leaders persuaded armed White Army fighters to withdraw voluntarily from Nasir and Ulang, avoiding clashes with government troops. Despite Vice President Riek Machar’s arrest earlier this year, youth did not mobilise violently, thanks to trust networks built across communities through trade and dialogue.
Yet despite these successes, informal actors remain excluded from national peace processes. Negotiations in Juba often focus on elite politicians and armed commanders, sidelining the very people who keep communities alive. Without their inclusion, peace risks remaining distant from the daily struggles of ordinary South Sudanese.
The lesson is clear as the country edges towards another fragile transition. Resilience and peace do not come only from political agreements, but from local practices of survival. Markets, trade routes, fishing nets, wrestling arenas, and customary courts are South Sudan’s hidden peacekeepers.
It is in these everyday acts often invisible to outsiders that citizens reclaim dignity and resist domination. For South Sudan, sustainable peace may depend less on high level deals and more on the quiet defiance of ordinary people who refuse to let war define their lives.
