John Garang Mausoleum

The John Garang Mausoleum is in Juba, the capital of South Sudan. It is the tomb of John Garang (1945 to 2005), the leader of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement and Army, who led southern rebels in the Second Sudanese Civil War. It stands on the square in Juba where South Sudan declared its independence in 2011.

Garang died in a helicopter crash on 30 July 2005, only three weeks after becoming First Vice President of Sudan under a peace deal he had helped negotiate. He was buried in Juba after a funeral on 3 August. Many South Sudanese see him as the person who did the most to bring their country's independence about, even though he did not live to see it.

Who was John Garang?

Garang was born on 23 June 1945 in Wangulei village into a poor Dinka family and was an orphan by the age of ten. A relative paid for his schooling. He studied in Tanzania and won a scholarship to Grinnell College in Iowa, and later earned a master's and a PhD in agricultural economics at Iowa State University. He also spent about eleven years as a career soldier in the Sudanese army, rising from captain to colonel.

A rebel with an idea

In 1983 he joined the southern revolt and became the commander of the SPLA, leading it for 22 years. His idea was a united, secular and multiethnic country he called New Sudan, where no religion or ethnic group came first. The war he led is thought to have killed about one and a half million people.

Peace, loss and independence

The Comprehensive Peace Agreement was signed on 9 January 2005, and Garang was sworn in as vice president. On his way back from a visit to Uganda, his helicopter crashed in a mountain range in southern Sudan in poor visibility, killing him and thirteen others. His death set off riots in Khartoum and other cities. In 2011 the south voted for independence and became South Sudan.

On the globe

The model shows the tomb on a public square in Juba. Look for the monument at the center of the plaza.