The history of Juba is just as much the story of a displacement of the Baris to the extent that the Bari part of the story of their cultural land is receiving only marginal emphasis in historical accounts. The Baris have lost their cultural names to their physical features, such as rivers, streams, mountains and even children.

There are many ways to depict Bari land concessions- by IDP, particular tribes, or by the natural expansion of the city of Juba. In viewing the subject of land from any or all perspectives, it should be kept in mind that for the Baris, land concession is much more than just the lost of real estate. Baris do not see land as a source of profit as many GOSS individuals do but rather as the direct source of life.

In addition to being a source of life, land also represent a way of life. When the Baris speak of land, they are talking in the sense of a womb, which implies a perception of one’s own relation to the land not as ‘ownership’ or possession, but as deep attachment. This belief gives rise to a strong impulse to assume responsibility for this land. To the Baris a garden is not merely a useful piece of ground or a place of recreation, but a location- indeed, the body of the community where God has bestow fertility upon for the continuation of the whole community generation and generation to come.

The Baris land is not only a means of production, but also it is a means by which families and individuals maintain social status, and as a feelings of ancestral belonging as ancestors are buried within traditional lands.

As in Abeyi, the land issue is now embedded within oil production rights between the south and the north. It was grazing land issues between the Dinka and the Arab messiriya..

The Baris do not have a concept of private ownership of land. Lands and the right to use them are and were held by entire communities or extended kin groups. The exclusive right to specific piece of land like Islands is only for the use of the lands, not for the non use or destruction of property as is inherent in the GOSS notion of private ownership. Therefore in the Baris societies, no one individual carries the authority to sign away tribal holdings. It is the community and especially the direct extended family members who are responsible to take decisions on as such matters.
 
The present distribution of Baris land even to those who live in the villages around them is a disorder manufactured by greedy economic structures, which only a few people will profit from. This is an abandonment of future generation for present profits. This cruel act against the very people and is devoid of any legal basis.

While land is very important to the Baris as cows are to the Dinkas, the government should be very careful in altering the relationship between the people and what they hold dear. In Africa, the relationship between land and conflict has been the subject of intense debate for the past fifteen years or so.

Like in most African countries, land rights, like all property rights, are socially mediated entitlements. Land establishes a relationship between the holder and what comes out of it. Land reform should be done within the strategy of poverty reduction not to create more poor people. By taking land away from the Baris you will be creating more poor Baris than empowering them. While some can make some money by land sales, fragmentation of land will lead to impoverishment of thousand of rural Baris. This is because they will be deprived from their means of production.

Although the argument that Baris elders are involved in this negotiations does not hold water, these elders are lumpen-proletariat living in urban centers with little or no connections with the rural populations.

Yes, it is common knowledge that the area around Juba will undergo rapid development of its natural resources as security conditions improve and investment increases. The indigenous people of Tokiman, Luri, Kwarigi, and Elibari have traditionally practiced a form of shifting agriculture, but this way of life is increasingly threatened by land encroachment by new settlers. 
 
The Bari people are the original inhabitants of these areas and have cultivated and managed the lands, forests and fisheries for generations. These people have practiced for many generations’ customary rights of access to land for cultivation on the basis of membership in a community rather than on the basis of private ownership. These communities have continuously occupied and used defined areas for residence and cultivation.

In most communities, a traditional land tenure system is respected, which defines territories limiting the extent of land, which can be used for cultivation by the members of that community. This system is recognized internally by the members of each community and by neighboring village and can be delineated on map.

The practice of the traditional land tenure system results in all or some of the following benefits in the national interest:
 
1} maintains the livelihood security of local people;
2) protects the environment by maintaining: the forest ecosystem and biodiversity; wildlife habitat; watershed protection; climate and hydrologic cycle regulation;
3) maintains options for sustainable economic development.

Most Bari people have a clear sense of the physical extent of traditional or customary village boundaries, marked by streams, a hill, a path or forest. The indigenous people respect the customary village boundaries. Inhabitants from one village will not encroach on the land of another village without prior permission.

Cultivation land is distributed according to decisions by village elders and spiritual beliefs, but often the result is that the land is distributed equitably. For example among different villages in Tokiman village, the average number of people per square kilometer is roughly the same regardless of village population size. Areas of old growth forest outside the customary village boundaries are protected and maintained by the Bari people as reserves for collecting non-timber forest products such as bamboo, grass, vegetables and fruits.

There are strongly differing visions on the way of life Bari people, the use, management and protection of their natural environment, and what sustainable, equitable and appropriate development should look like. The Bari people have a near total lack of power/rights to determine these issues for themselves, and even the provincial authorities claim never to have been consulted nor informed of decisions of the national government with regard to investments and concessions in Bari Land.

In the past, Bari land conflicts tended to occur only between adjacent villages, and the solution worked out between village elders was often to split the disputed parcel of land and expand the village boundary. But now, because of outside encroachment and other economic pressure, the extension of village land is not always feasible.

There are many disadvantages at present for the Baris. The price of land is increasing, the population is increasing, and investors are coming. Meanwhile the Baris need a lot of land to sustain their lifestyle.

Therefore if we look clearly at this, new rulers of the south may take over the land because the Baris have no land title certificates. The Baris are very worried about this. Unless government of the South think about this problem and how to intervene, the whole peaceful co-existence between south tribes will collapse. END