The Social Life of the Peace Agreement: An Ethnography of Localised Conflict and Coexistence in South Sudan's Equatoria Region

This ethnographic study examines the lived realities of the 2018 Revitalised Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan (R-ARCSS) in the rural communities of Central Equatoria. Based on 14 months of immersive fieldwork, it argues that the formal peace process exists in a complex, often contradictory, relationship with persistent localised conflicts and deeply embedded practices of everyday coexistence. The analysis foregrounds the agency of local actors—including displaced farmers, customary authorities, and women's groups—who navigate and reinterpret the Agreement's provisions to manage insecurity and sustain social order. The findings reveal a fragmented peacescape where national-level political compromises are subsumed by more immediate concerns over land, cattle, and communal identity, challenging top-down models of peacebuilding and highlighting the critical role of ethnographic inquiry in African peace studies.