A poor independence

A poor independence

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Pibor is poor even by South Sudan standards.

In the dry season, the sun bakes the dirt roads so hard they feel like pavement. In the wet season, rain turns the ground to mud. The air buzzes with insects. All but a few people live in one-room, stick-and-mud huts. And this tent, with a tattered poster advertising its wares, is the local barber shop.

. PIBOR, South Sudan. REUTERS/Adriane Ohanesian

A boy in stained, tattered rags sets up his shop, one year after the flag of South Sudan was raised over the world's newest nation.

The first year of independence has brought questions about what it means to be a citizen of South Sudan. This is especially true in states such as Jonglei, where Pibor lies.

Part of the reason for the area's poverty is its isolation, which makes it very costly to bring in basic materials like cement and iron sheeting.

. PIBOR, South Sudan. REUTERS/Adriane Ohanesian

Although some children take lessons at the Pibor Primary School, just one in four people in South Sudan are literate.

. PIBOR, South Sudan. REUTERS/Adriane Ohanesian

Most of Pibor's residents are from the Murle tribe, which is made up of an estimated 150,000 people.

Some Murle leaders and citizens were hopeful that their new government would bring development and security. But many were frustrated by broken promises and increasingly worried that they might have traded one set of remote and neglectful rulers for another.

Crucially, the government has so far failed to convince all South Sudanese residents that they belong.

. PIBOR, South Sudan. REUTERS/Adriane Ohanesian

Women carry food they received at the WFP food distribution site, part of a wider network of NGO's that operate in the area; foreign aid agencies provide almost all the basic facilities in Pibor, including water and health services.

"If we're not there, there is simply no health care," Karel Janssens, a field coordinator for Doctors Without Borders, said of a Murle village near Pibor.

. PIBOR, South Sudan. REUTERS/Adriane Ohanesian

Cows are everything in South Sudan. For Murle and other tribes, cattle are part of nearly every social structure and basic desire: wealth, marriage, status, influence.

. PIBOR, South Sudan. REUTERS/Adriane Ohanesian

A Murle man's family is expected to pay a dowry of cattle to his bride's family. Cow milk mixed with cow blood is a prized drink. If a Murle commits murder, he compensates the victim's family in cows.

. PIBOR, South Sudan. REUTERS/Adriane Ohanesian

Cattle raids and counter-raids have cycled for centuries, gradually becoming bloodier as guns and satellite phones flooded in and young men became less responsive to local elders' pleas for them to stop.

With no real chance for people to appeal to the law when rivals steal their cows, the incentive to steal back is high.