According to his autobiography How a Slave Became a Minister, Stanislaus was born into the Fur people in South Darfur and was captured by Baggara slavers around 1904.
Later he was freed and taken to Wau in what today is Western Bahr el Ghazal state, where he was educated, converted to Christianity and gained employment as a clerk in the British administration.
The original aim was to form a "social society" of clerks and bookkeepers, but the committee soon took on a political role, and became active in promoting the Southern cause.
After violent riots in 1964, Abbud dissolved the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces and appointed a transitional government in November 1964, with elections scheduled for April 1965.
The Southern Front under Payasama contested the elections in the south with the Sudan African National Union (SANU) led by William Deng.