Oliver Batali Albino

Oliver Batali Albino
Oliver Batali Albino in Juba in July 2011
Personal details
Born	(1935-11-11)11 November 1935 Yei, Yei River State, Anglo-Egyptian Sudan (present-day South Sudan)
Died	4 January 2020(2020-01-04) (aged 84) Augusta, Georgia, United States
Nationality	South Sudanese
Occupation	Politician, former civil servant

Oliver Batali Albino (11 November 1935 – 4 January 2020) was a South Sudanese politician and civil servant.

Background

Oliver Albino was born on 11 November 1935 in Yei, South Sudan. He was a member of the Makaraka or Adio ethnic group in the Yei – Maridi area of Central Equatoria, closely related to the Azande ethnic group.^[1] He completed secondary school in Rumbek and studied at the University of Khartoum. In the early 1960s he went in exile and joined the Anya-Nya resistance movement in Kenya. In 1965 Oliver Albino became part of the Sudan African National Union (SANU) in Uganda. In the late 1960s and early 1970s he was a teacher at a secondary school in Gulu, northern Uganda.^[2] During that period he wrote his first book, The Sudan: a Southern Viewpoint (Oxford University Press, 1970). Oliver Albino was also a member of the Southern Sudan Liberation Movement’s delegation to the Addis Ababa peace talks of 1972. From 1975 – 1978 he was the Minister of Housing and Public Utilities in the Southern Sudan Regional Government led by Abel Alier.^[3] For only two months in 1985, April - May, Oliver Albino was the Sudanese Minister of Labour in Khartoum.^[4]

In 1996 – 1997 Oliver Albino was a fellow at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Harvard University. ^[5] In 2006 Oliver Albino published his second book "Democracy and power in the Sudan: How Decentralization Hurts". through AuthorHouse UK in Bloomington, USA. ^[6] After the Independence of South Sudan in July 2011, Oliver Albino was appointed by President Salva Kiir as a member of the Council of States. ^[7]

On 4 January 2020, Albino died in Augusta, Georgia from heart failure.^[8]

References

1. p. 117, Scopas S. Poggo, "The First Sudanese Civil War", Palgrave MacMillan 2009
2. Scopas S. Poggo, “Albino, Oliver Batali”, pp57 – 58 in Robert Kramer et al. “Historical Dictionary of the Sudan”, 4th edition, 2013, Scarecrow Press
3. Mohamed Beshir Hamid, "Sudan: Attempts at National Reconciliation", in: African Contemporary Record, vol. 10, 1977 - 1978
4. Kuyok Abol Kuyok, "South Sudan: The Notable Firsts", published in 2015 through AuthorHouse UK, Bloomington USA
5. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-09-16. Retrieved 2018-02-20.
6. see e.g. https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss/134-2072629-5941366?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=oliver+albino
7. "REPRESENTATIVES OF THE FORMER COUNCIL OF STATES OF THE REPUBLIC OF SUDAN FROM SOUTH SUDAN AS FOLLOWS". Fortune of Africa South Sudan. 2013-07-07. Retrieved 2021-08-24.
8. "Hot in Juba", Veteran Politician Batali Albino Dies https://hotinjuba.com/veteran-politician-batali-albino-dies/; cf. Obituary https://www.everhere.com/us/obituaries/ga/augusta/oliver-batali-albino-10229276