01/09/2025
Biography of John Garang de Mabior
Leader and Founder of the Sudan People's Liberation Army
Colonel John Garang de Mabior was a Sudanese rebel leader, founder of the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) which fought a 22-year civil war against the northern-dominated, Islamist Sudanese Government. He was made vice president of Sudan on the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in 2005, shortly before his death.
Date of Birth: June 23, 1945, Wangkulei, Anglo-Egyptian Sudan
Date of Death: July 30, 2005, Southern Sudan
Early Life
John Garang was born into the Dinka ethnic group, educated in Tanzania and graduated from Grinnell College in Iowa in 1969. He returned to The Sudan and joined the Sudanese army, but left the following year for the south and joined the Anya Nya, a rebel group fighting for the rights of the Christian and animist south, in a country which was dominated by the Islamist north. The rebellion, which was sparked by the decision made by the colonial British to join the two parts of Sudan when independence was granted in 1956, became a full-blown civil war in the early 1960s.
1972 Addis Ababa Agreement
In 1972 the Sudanese president, Jaafar Muhammad an-Numeiry, and Joseph Lagu, leader of the Anya Nya, signed the Addis Ababa Agreement which gave autonomy to the south. Rebel fighters, including John Garang, were absorbed into the Sudanese army.
Garang was promoted to Colonel and sent to Fort Benning, Georgia, USA, for training. He also received a doctorate in agricultural economics from Iowa State University in 1981. On his return to the Sudan, he was made deputy director of military research and an infantry battalion commander.
Second Sudanese Civil War
By the early 1980s, the Sudanese government was becoming increasingly Islamist. These measures included the introduction of Sharia law throughout Sudan, an imposition of black slavery by northern Arabs, and Arabic being made the official language of instruction. When Garang was sent south to
