This piece tries to make the conflicts in Jonglei State comprehensible to you by delving in to landmark historical events that have shaped inter-ethnic relations in Jonglei State. inter-communal violence in Jonglei has been attributed to number of factors by several authors:Tribalism, proliferation of small arms, ethnicity, cattle rustling, and marginalization among others. However, in this piece, I have attributed relevance of the above factors in inter-communal violence in Jonglei State to perennial absence of the state in the peripheries, to dominate the spaces and have monopoly over the instruments of violence.