Basics of the South Sudanese Deaf Community and the Sign Language

To date, there has not been any research conducted on the South Sudanese Deaf community and South Sudanese Sign Language (SSSL). This article presents an introductory note about both with information gained from personal observations of the authors and from online resources. It provides an insight for furthering extensive research on the newest nation's sign language and the Deaf community.

The South Sudanese Deaf Community

South Sudan is an East Central African nation (see figure 1) that seceded from North Sudan in 2011. According to the World Population Review, the population size of South Sudan is about 11.19 million. South Sudan is a newly established nation, and Christianity is the largest religion. There are about sixty-two ethnic groups. The official language of South Sudan is English.

As per the database on www.peoplegroups.org, the Deaf South Sudanese population totals about 215,000, with the majority living in the rural area. Juba is the capital city, where there are a relatively greater number of Deaf people than in other cities.

Figure 1.

Map of South Sudan.

Data about the Deaf community in South Sudan is mostly available within the "disability" category. According to the Coalition of Organization of Persons with Disabilities (2016), there are two Deaf associations in South Sudan: the Equatoria States Association of the Deaf and Dumb (ESADD) and the South Sudan National Association of the Deaf. The report mentions that the highest level of education attained by its members is a secondary school education. Few Deaf people are university graduates with the opportunity they gained from abroad, such as in Kenya, Uganda, and North Sudan, before independence. Those who got access to education secured professional jobs at government offices and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). However, most of the Deaf people in the capital are engaged in physical labor, trade, and other private businesses, such as car washing and hair braiding.

Currently, the majority of South Sudanese Sign Language (SSSL) signers reside in the capital Juba, though their exact numbers are not known. One of the social gathering places is at the lone Deaf church in the capital. The other meeting places for the Deaf community are in cafés along the shore of the White Nile.

SSSL Signers

Like most African sign languages, SSSL is an emerging sign language that is named after the formation of South Sudan in 2011. This probably labels it as the world's youngest sign language. Before 2011, it was called Sudanese Sign Language. The SSSL signers in Juba have frequent language contact with Kenyan and Ugandan signers. For crosscultural communication, they also use American Sign Language (ASL). ASL fingerspelling is used to teach and learn SSSL. This is reflected in the production of the national SSSL dictionary, published in 2016. Names of the months and days of the week show variations. Signers have said that some signs are from Kenya, some are from Uganda, and some others are from North Sudan. In fact, there are also indigenous signs observed in daily communications. More detailed analysis needs to be done to identify other areas of variations.

As can be seen in the figures, the names of months and days of the week are entirely different in the two dictionaries. Examples are in figures 2 and 3, compared with their corresponding figures 4 and 5. Similarly, figures 6 and 7 are entirely different from their corresponding

Figure 2.

monday (ESAD, 2010).

Figure 3.

tuesday (ESAD, 2010).

Figure 4.

monday (Light for the World, 2016).

Figure 5.

tuesday (Light for the World, 2016).

Figure 6.

january (ESAD, 2010).

figures 8 and 9. Signers use them interchangeably, where the choice of the signs might be dependent on the sociopolitical and linguistic factors that exist in the entire nation. Sociopolitically, South...