Joseph Oduho

Joseph Oduho Haworu (15 December 1927 – 27 March 1993) was a leading politician from South Sudan who was active in the struggle for independence and a founding member of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM). He was part of South Sudan liberation

Joseph Oduho was born into the Otuho tribe community of Lobira situated in what is now Ikotos County, Eastern Equatoria State, EES, (now Imotong State) in the Republic of South Sudan on 15 December 1927. He was educated at Isoke Catholic Missionary Elementary School and Okaru Catholic Intermediate School, and became one of the first students at Rumbek Secondary School. He studied in Nyapeya in Uganda, then in Bakht Al Ruda Teacher's Institute, earning a Diploma in teaching in 1950. Following this he was a headmaster in intermediate schools in Maridi, Okaru and P'Lotaha.

In 1953 Joseph Oduho led a protest against the lack of representation of southern, non-Arab people in the negotiations over Sudan's independence. He was arrested in Maridi after the 1955 mutiny in Torit, (his home town, now capital of Imotong State), accused of conspiracy and sentenced to death. He was released in the general amnesty after independence on 1 January 1956. Oduho was elected to the first post-independence parliament in 1957. He spoke in favor of a federal organization for the underdeveloped regions of the south. The army seized power in 1958 and Joseph Oduho fled the country in 1960.

In 1963 and as Joseph Oduho and his colleagues officially launched the Anyanya Movement in Kampala, Uganda, a book was co-authored by him and William Deng Nhial. The book is entitled "The Problem of the Southern Sudan" Joseph Oduho, William Deng. The 60-pages book was published by Oxford University Press, London, United Kingdom, in 1963.

Joseph Oduho was a founding member and the first president of the Sudan African National Union (1962-1964). He and William Deng published the first formal declaration of Southern Sudan objectives in The Problem of the Southern Sudan (1962). In this paper they argued for independence of the non-Muslim south from the Muslim north of Sudan.

Joseph Oduho was one of the leader of the exiles seeking independence. Between 1965 and 1967 he was president of the Azania Liberation Front. He finally broke with the exile groups in 1971 due to disagreement with Joseph Lagu, commander of the Anyanya guerrilla fighters, who wanted to subordinate the political wing of the movement to the military wing. Oduho was committed to the unity of Southern Sudan, while Lagu wanted to withdraw into a smaller "Equatoria" region.

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