John Garang
...trument for its implementation. So, certainly, his death is a major blow to how the vision of the peace implementation will move forward.” But before we can talk about his tragic death and its implications of the peace process in Sudan, let’s first talk about his life. The Life of: John Garand de Mabior was born June 23, 1945 in a poor family in the Wagkulei village in the upper Nile region of Sudan. Orphaned at ten, he was encouraged by his elders to work hard and seek an education. He was eventually rewarded in his studies after winning a scholarship that allowed him to attend Grinnell College in Grinnell, Iowa. In 1969, he earned a B.A. in economics but declined to pursue his studies at the Univeristy of California at Berkeley, opting to study East African agricultural economics at the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania. While there, he began involved in the USARF (University Students’ African Revolutionary Front) and eventually left the university to return to Sudan to join the rebel groups. For eleven years, Garang became deeply involved in the Sudanese military and rose to the rank of colonel after taking the Infantry Officer’ Advanced Course at Fort Benning, Georgia. During this period, he went on an academic leave from the military in order to receive a master’s degree in agricultural economics and a Ph.D in economics at Iowa State University, after writing a thesis on the agricultural development of Southern Sudan. In 1983, John Garang abandoned his military career as an officer in the Arab-led Sudanese army and began his career as a rebel leader. After being sent to Khartoum to crush an upris...