Peter Martell has reported from South Sudan for more than a decade, including as the BBC correspondent in Juba for the three key years around independence. He later ran AFP's East Africa bureau as its news editor
"Contains fascinating tales from his reporting as South Sudan
prepared for, celebrated and then dealt with the realities of
independence. . . . detailed, wonderfully accessible work for those
interested in South Sudan and the dilemmas of new
statehood."--Washington Post, The Monkey Cage blog
"It's [Martell's] first-person account that drives this compelling,
harrowing story. . . . This is an important and deeply moving
book."--Geographical
"Peter Martell's combination of eye-witness reporting and
historical research makes for a compelling account of the bloody
birth of South Sudan. A highly readable book about the world's
newest country, and a study of what it means to be a nation."--
Lindsey Hilsum, International Editor, Channel 4 News, and author of
Sandstorm: Libya in the Time of Revolution
"First Raise a Flag is an engrossing read that combines years of
journalistic insight with compassionate storytelling and deciphers
the complex recent history of the world's youngest country."--
Levison Wood, author of Walking the Nile and other works of
non-fiction
"First Raise a Flag is an eloquently written and admirably lucid
account of the dramatic birth, and ongoing death, of South Sudan.
It is a remarkable story. As the world's newest nation plunged into
civil war and became a failed state, Peter Martell has been a
stubborn, compassionate eyewitness, and he deserves high praise for
this unflinching elegy for an ill-starred place that he has --
despite everything -- come to love." -- Jon Lee Anderson, New
Yorker staff writer, and author of Guerrillas: Journeys in the
Insurgent World
"[A] readable, rigorous and important account of the tragedy of the
world's youngest nation . . Martell's experience, gained over years
of living in and reporting on the country, is invaluable . . . his
writing is powerful and moving."--The Observer (London)"I relished
Peter Martell's First Raise a Flag, which examines how Africa's
newest nation state plunged back into civil war so soon after its
hopeful, excited birth. Martell spent more than a decade reporting
the story and it's an account full of vivid, telling detail." -
Michela Wrong, The Spectator Books of the Year 2018"One of those
who has covered South Sudan the longest, Martell combines
eyewitness reporting with extensive research to produce a solid
account of this tragedy."-- Atlantic Council"[A] striking and
moving evocation of the terrible last sixty years [South Sudan] has
undergone . . . this book is a labour of love for the people of
South Sudan and an expression of hope for their future."--The New
Statesman"Peter Martell arrived earlier and stayed longer than any
of us who covered South Sudan's independence and the bloody
catastrophe that followed. Here he reveals the foundation of his
insightful, precise reports: a deep, first-hand knowledge of the
centuries of history of how the world's newest nation came to be,
stuffed with insightful research, delightful details and searing
lessons for those bright-eyed foreigners of yesterday and today so
in love with their own idea of freedom that they feel they must
impose it on others. Lyrical, revelatory, quietly outraged and
deeply moving."-- Alex Perry, author of The Rift: A New Africa
Breaks Free"This is a remarkable piece of work. It manages to pull
off the rare feat of being both meticulously-researched and
extremely accessible. Putting any journalistic ego to one side,
Martell gives us the benefits of over a decade of reportage. He
wades through yellowing colonial archives, tracks down Mossad
operatives and quizzes white mercenaries, but it's the experiences
and reflections of the South Sudanese men and women who shaped and
lived this turbulent history that dominate the narrative."--
Michela Wrong, author of Borderlines and It's Our Turn to Eat
"[A] gut-wrenching chronicle of human depravity that shows how
ordinary people can become barbarians.' -- Foreign Affairs
"I was utterly gripped by Peter Martell's superbly written ^lFirst
Raise a Flag: How South Sudan Won the Longest War but Lost the
Peace. It's expertly organized and holds the reader from start to
finish." -- ^lMiddle East Eye Books of the Year 2019, selected by
Peter Oborne
"[Martell conducts] remarkable interviews with ageing mercenaries
and retired spies ... [his] account elegantly reinforces again and
again how almost none of [the] foreign interventions were about
South Sudan itself." -- Rory Stewart in The New York Review of
Books
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