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About the Twic Federation
Our history, purpose, and the principles that guide our work.
Vision & Mission
Our Vision
A united Twic community that maintains its cultural identity while improving social cohesion and stability across all regions — a community where tradition and progress coexist, where diaspora and homeland remain connected, and where every generation understands and values the heritage that binds them together.
Our Mission
To strengthen unity and mutual understanding among the Twic people. To preserve, document, and promote the shared cultural heritage and identity. To support community-led peace efforts, dialogue, and conflict resolution. To connect Twic communities across regions and the diaspora. To coordinate practical initiatives addressing pressing challenges.
Our Core Values
These five values are not abstract principles. They are practical commitments that shape how the Twic Federation operates, how decisions are made, and how the organization relates to the communities it serves.
UNITY
Unity is the foundation upon which the Federation is built. It is the recognition that the Twic people share an identity that transcends geographic boundaries. Unity does not mean uniformity — it means respecting the distinct experiences and circumstances of each community while affirming the bonds that connect them. In practice, this means ensuring balanced representation in Federation structures, rotating events and meetings, and making decisions that reflect the interests of all communities.
HERITAGE
Heritage is the living memory of the Twic people — their language, their oral traditions, their ceremonies, their genealogies, their knowledge of cattle and land, their music and dance. The Federation is committed to documenting this heritage before it is lost, supporting its practice in daily life, and transmitting it to younger generations who may not have had the opportunity to learn it in traditional settings. This includes support for the Dinka language, recording of oral histories, and organization of cultural events.
PEACE
Peace is not merely the absence of conflict. It is the active cultivation of relationships and structures that prevent disputes from escalating and that resolve them constructively when they arise. The Federation promotes peace by facilitating dialogue between community leaders, engaging elders in mediation, and coordinating community responses to tensions before they become violent. The commitment to peace extends to promoting reconciliation and healing for those affected by past violence.
INTEGRITY
Integrity means that the Federation operates with transparency, accountability, and honesty in all its dealings. This includes clear financial practices, open communication with the community about its activities and decisions, and leadership that is answerable to the people it represents. The Federation rejects any form of corruption, nepotism, or self-dealing, and commits to using whatever resources it holds for the benefit of the community as a whole.
SOLIDARITY
Solidarity is the practical expression of unity — the willingness to act together to address shared challenges and to support those within the community who are in need. It means that the Federation and its members respond collectively to crises such as flooding, displacement, or conflict. It means that the diaspora communities remain engaged with the situation of those at home. And it means that the Federation works to include marginalized voices — women, youth, the elderly, people with disabilities — in its processes and programs.
Our Story
The Twic Federation was born from a recognition that has existed for generations among the Twic people — that the communities of Twic East and Twic West are bound together by far more than geography or administrative designation. They are united by blood, by language, by custom, and by a shared understanding of who they are as a people.
The Dinka people of South Sudan have long organized themselves around clan identities, lineage systems, and territorial affiliations that predate modern borders. Within this broader framework, the Twic identity occupies a distinctive place. The communities on both sides of the regional divide have maintained their connection through intermarriage, shared cattle camps, mutual participation in ceremonies, and oral histories that trace their origins to common ancestors.
In recent decades, however, the challenges facing these communities have grown more complex. Prolonged conflict in South Sudan has displaced populations, separated families, and disrupted traditional patterns of interaction. The diaspora communities in East Africa, North America, Australia, and elsewhere have expanded, creating both new opportunities for connection and new risks of cultural dislocation. Environmental pressures, including recurrent flooding, have tested the resilience of communities already burdened by hardship.
It was in response to these realities that community leaders and elders from the Twic communities began to discuss the need for a formal structure — not a political body competing with existing authorities, but a cultural and social federation capable of sustaining connection, preserving heritage, and mobilizing collective response to shared challenges. Those discussions led to the formation of the Twic Federation in 2026.
The Federation is explicitly voluntary in nature. It claims no governmental authority and seeks no administrative power. Its legitimacy derives entirely from the recognition and participation of the communities it serves. It operates through consensus, respects the autonomy of local leadership structures, and seeks to complement rather than replace existing institutions.
This approach reflects a fundamental conviction: that the strength of the Twic people lies not in any single leader or structure, but in the active, ongoing participation of community members across all divisions — generational, geographic, and gender-based — in the work of sustaining their shared identity and improving their collective circumstances.
United in Heritage, United in Purpose. This is the commitment of the Twic Federation to the Twic people everywhere.