BIOGRAPHY OF RTD. GENERAL JOSEPH LAGU YANGA.

By: Victor Keri Wani

His Excellency General Salva Kiir Mayardit, President of the Republic of South Sudan has announced the death of H.E. General Joseph Lagu Yanga on Tuesday, October 27, 2026 in Juba.

The President also declared National mourning with National flag flying low at half-mast. General Lagu was the former leader and commander-In-chief of the Former Anya-Anya liberation army and the Former Vice President of Republic of Sudan and former President of High Executive Council for Southern Region and Former Senior Advisor for the President of Republic of South Sudan.

Rtd. General Joseph Lagu Yanga was born on 21^st November, 1931 at Momokwe, Moli east of Mojoro village. The name of his father is Yakobo Yanga Lagu while his mother was called Kaluma Marini of Beka clan of Bori-Opari. The father of Joseph Lagu was a member of the Kiloloro clan of Moli but this clan is widely spread throughout the Ma’di land. The members besides being found in Moli, are also present in Erepi (Kerepi) especially in Lungayo. Many live in Iyii in the extreme northern part of Ma’di land and they are also found in small pockets in Bori-Opari, Patibi, Pageri, Arapi, Loa, Jeleyi, Nimule and Mugali. This clan recognizes themselves by treating some small birds which sing a song sounding like the name of the clan called kiloloro and are protected by the members of the clan as their totem. Lagu is the first child of Yakobo Yanga with his second wife Marini Kaluma. He grew up in Nimule and what is very unique with him is his tendency for over 90 years to speak Burulu, a trait of Ma’di language spoken in Moli, part of Erepi and in Bori-Opari while he grew up in middle of the tribe land where the variant of Ma’di called Lukayi is spoken.  

Lagu and his half-brother, Jabulon Jada were briefly enrolled by their father in the bush school of Nimule located in Motoyo in 1944. Their father Yakobo Yanga was one of the sons of notables and chiefs given the privilege by the Inspector of Opari District, Captain E.N. T. Groove (Sanderson 1979:67) to have them enrolled in school at Opari-Nyakaningwa. Actually, Yakobo was one of the first men among the Ma’di to get some education which enabled him to work with the Church Missionary Society (CMS) under missionary Archdeacon Shaw from UK in Malek near Bor. So he decided to send his two sons, Lagu and Jada to Akot East of Rumbek in the Dinka heartland where they attended the elementary school there for four years in which they learned Arithmetic, English and Dinka language which both Lagu and Jada speak fluently. In 1948, Lagu had the privilege of joining the Nugent School Loka located between Yei and Juba. From there he sat the intermediate school leaving examination in 1951 and was admitted to Rumbek Secondary School in 1952. In 1955, the mutiny of August 18^th, 1955 by the company number two of equatorial corps resulted to instability in the South and interrupted education and so Rumbek secondary school was transferred to Khartoum where Joseph Lagu sat for the Cambridge School Certificate examination in 1956. He passed with distinction and was admitted to Faculty of Law of Khartoum University. After a brief attendance of the law school, he decided to leave it and instead joined the military academy in Omdurman in 1958 and after two years he graduated as an officer cadet and was commissioned as a second lieutenant with one star in 1960.

Lagu was promoted to the rank of first lieutenant and posted consecutively to several units of the army in Wadi Halfa, Shendi, El Obeid, Juba and Ikotos near Torit. In 1963, he was supposed to be sent to military training college in Great Britain to specialize in military police. At that time the South was gathering forces to launch a full-fledged civil war after the Torit mutiny of 18^th August, 1955. So, Lagu while on annual leave decided on 13^th June, 1963 to cross over into Uganda to join the rebel movement. As a career officer, the movement under the patronage of Father Saturnino Ohure and Joseph Oduho engaged Lagu whom they promoted to the rank of Colonel to organize the force and lead it as a professional military officer. There were a lot of confusion caused by the politicians over positions in the movement. The famous Southern leaders who competed for the position of the president of the party called Sudan African National Union (SANU) included Aggrey Jadden, Joseph Oduho and William Deng Nhial.  When Father Saturnino Ohure the patron of the movement was assassinated by Uganda special police force under Prime Minister Milton Obote in 1967 near Lokung in Northern Uganda, the movement was left in limbo and after tolerating the inaction by the politicians to lead the resurrection against the then Sudan government, Lagu was forced to reorganize the liberation movement to do its work of fighting to liberate Southern Sudan first and politics to follow last. So, in 1967, after the death of Father Saturnino he decided to reorganize the Anya-Nya force in a single liberation force for the whole Southern Sudan and brought good friends from Israel who supplied the Anya-Nya with weapons in 1969 and the movement became strong till it forced the Sudan government into negotiations instead of fighting which they could have lost because the Anya-Nya were armed and strong. Peace talks were initiated and conducted leading to the Addis Ababa Agreement of 1972. Lagu was promoted to the position of Major General in Sudan Armed Forces till he reached the post of Lieutenant General becoming the Officer Commanding the First Division of the army in the Southern Sudan.

In 1978, he retired from the army and contested for the position of the President of High Executive Council for the Southern Region of the Sudan which he won overwhelmingly.  This position was attractive to other Southern politicians and Lagu spent only two years in it and was removed by President Jaafar Mohammed Nimeiri in 1980 following political instability in the South and never to return to the position again. In 1981, he was appointed assistant secretary general for Sudanese Socialist Union (SSU) by President Jaafar Mohammed Nimeiri who was the leader of the party. In 1982, Rtd. General Joseph Lagu was appointed Vice President of the Republic and remained in this position till 1985 when the May Regime of Nimeiri was overthrown in April of that year. In the post Mayo system, Rtd. General Joseph Lagu spent some time out of politics and was brought in the Foreign Service by Field Marshal Suwar al-Dahab as a diplomat and sent to UK as ambassador. During Sadig Al Mahdi’s short period civilian government, he kept Joseph Lagu as a diplomat and transferred him from London to the United Nations in New York as permanent member of Sudan Republic in the UN. Lagu relocated to London as an asylum seeker and returned home during Al-Bashir’s leadership where he was engaged in internal conference on peace search. Unsatisfied with the Turabi-al Bashir alliance not interested in peace in Southern Sudan, Lagu decided to go back to London where he was granted political asylum by the British Government till after the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) of 2005 when he returned to Sudan.

Rtd. General Joseph Lagu witnessed two important political activities in South Sudan, the holding of nationwide referendum for self-determination and celebration of glorious independence of South Sudan on July 9, 2011 in Juba. Thereafter he was appointed special advisor to the President by General Salva Kiir Mayardit in 2011 till 2016.

Lagu was  a married member of Ma’di community and has two wives, Mama Julia Kabaa and Mama Amuna Abdrahman who passed on in 2021 in London. He has five children with the elder wife and four children with the second wife. One of his beloved daughter, Halima sadly passed on in 2012.  

General Lagu was the author of the book–The Odysseus of  State, from Ruin to Hope, 2006 and a small booklet titled: The Anya-Nya, What We Fight For, highlighting the objectives of the liberation armed wing printed in early 1972. Ironically the booklet was released in April 1972, two months after the signing of the Addis Ababa Peace Agreement in February, 1972 between Sudan government and the Southern Sudan Liberation Movement/Anya-Nya (SSLM/A).

Sources:

-Lagu, Joseph (2006). Odysseus of a State, from Ruin to Hope, Mohammed Omer Bashir, Ahlia University Omdurman.

– An African Genealogy from South Sudan, Acci Lineage of Kiloloro Clan among the Madi, unpublished.

– Personal knowledge about Joseph Lagu by the biographer.