Description
University campuses have often embodied ideological concepts through architectural language. This can be seen in African countries that frequently used the creation of universities to produce or reinforce certain identities, especially when becoming independent states in the twentieth century. In 1975, the Sudanese government passed the University of Juba Act that resulted in the first public university in the southern region of Sudan. Consequently, a campus was constructed in a modernist tradition from the late ‘70s.
This paper highlights the University of Juba, South Sudan as one of few enduring physical manifestations of the peace process that ended the First Sudanese Civil War. The paper positions the university as an ideological manifestation of the progress envisioned in 1972 Addis Agreement that brought peace to Sudan, as seen through its architecture, course structure and student demographic. The author discusses the typology of universities as utopian experiments, gives a historical overview of the politics of Sudan and positions the University of Juba in the historical, cultural, social context of the country during its construction and opening in the late 1970s. The author concludes on the significance of universities in nation-building and comments on the present-day context of the University of Juba as the oldest higher-education institute in the young nation of South Sudan today.
