Zach Vertin - A Rope from the Sky: The Making and Unmaking of the Worlds Newest State

The still-unfolding tragedy of South Sudan is too little understood and too little known, even among foreign policy experts. Zach Vertin is a rare exception. He has spent his life not just explaining how the promise of this young nation, for which so many sacrificed, was broken so badly, but helping end the bloodshed for a people who have seen far too much of it.... An important read.

John Kerry , 68th U.S. Secretary of State,
author of Every Day is Extra

A political roller coaster from Africa to the White House and back. Vertin skillfully guides us through South Sudans euphoric independence and its devastating descent into war. A compelling read.

Barton Gellman , Pulitzer Prizewinning
journalist and author

Zach Vertin had a front row seat. With a journalists verve he takes us through the cast of charactersand forceswhich put this country together and then tragically combined to dismantle it. This is a tale of leaders illusions and of a terrible violence consequently unleashed. And its a story that has not been properly told till now.

Lord Mark Malloch-Brown , former United Nations
Deputy Secretary-General

An engrossingly written account.... A Rope from the Sky is an essential guide to one of the worlds most intractable conflictsa must-read for warriors, diplomats, relief experts, and would-be peace negotiators anywhere in the world.

Jon Lee Anderson , Staff Writer, The New Yorker

Zach Vertins pages bring close real Africa in South Sudanviolence, great hearts, leadership duels, insoluble problems, and a striking landscape. Honesty about his subject dunks your head deep in the muddy waters of realityincluding the naive, close American connection as it moves from euphoria to anguish. Offering keen insights into the nations big men and a feel for the hopes and travails of ordinary people, this is a rich and well-written narrative.

Thomas R. Pickering , former U.S. Under Secretary
of State and Ambassador to Jordan, Nigeria,
El Salvador, Israel, India, Russia, and the UN

A hugely important contribution to the debate about one of Africas longest running tragedies.

Chris Patten , Chancellor of Oxford University

Zach Vertin matches expert political analysis with a journalists knack for storytelling, and the result is an exciting and immersive book that will be read for years come. He was present at the creation and could not be better suited to tell this story.

Haile Menkerios , former United Nations
Under-Secretary-General and Special Envoy
to Sudan and South Sudan

A highly readable, well-informed and people-centered account. Essential reading for anyone seeking to understand why South Sudan has unraveled.

Dame Rosalind Marsden ,
Former British Ambassador to Sudan
and European Union Special Envoy

A brilliant, authoritative, and colorful insight into the hope and despair that is the worlds youngest country. Unique in modern history, this untold story of South Sudans birth carries lessons not just for Africa but for the rest of the world.

Jon Snow , Journalist and Anchor, Channel 4 News,
author of Shooting History

The Making and Unmaking
of the Worlds Newest State

ZACH VERTIN

A ROPE FROM THE SKY

Pegasus Books Ltd.
148 W 37th Street, 13th Floor
New York, NY 10018

Copyright 2019 by Zach Vertin

First Pegasus Books edition January 2019

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in whole or in part without written permission from the publisher, except by reviewers who may quote brief excerpts in connection with a review in a newspaper, magazine, or electronic publication; nor may any part of this book be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or other, without written permission from the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

ISBN: 978-1-64313-051-4

ISBN: 978-1-64313-088-0 (ebk.)

Distributed by W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
www.pegasusbooks.us

For Princeton Lyman

a rope from the sky

In the Nilotic folktales of South Sudan, the earth and sky were once linked by a rope. This rope gave the people direct access to God, the heavens, and eternal life. But the rope was severed, tragically, on account of human action. And forever since, the fate of the people has been bound to the earth and to the difficulties, suffering, and mortality that constrain the human condition. This book, too, is a story of paradise lost.

S udan is a faraway place, but its extraordinary stories register widely in popular consciousness. For some, Sudan is the devastating war in Darfur, and the popular Western campaign to stop it. For others, the first words that come to mind are George Clooney, the celebrity activist who introduced millions of Americans to a righteous cause. Many know of the Lost Boys from popular books and film, the refugee children who walked thousands of miles to escape war, famine, and wild animals before assimilating in towns across Europe and North America. Others simply know that many Sudanese are tall, and that a select few have achieved success at the highest levels of American professional basketball.

But most do not know the extraordinary story that led SudanAfricas largest countryto be split in two. On July 9, 2011, the Republic of South Sudan declared its independence from Sudan, marking an end to generations of repression and neglect. The euphoric birth of the worlds newest nation was celebrated the world round, a triumph for global justice and a signal that one of the worlds ugliest wars was finally over. A proud flag flies over Juba, read a declaration from President Barack Obama, and the map of the world has been redrawn.

But the honeymoon did not last long. South Sudan came undone just two years later, when its liberation heroes turned their guns on each other, plunging their new nation back into war. The shocking events that followed shattered the promise of freedom that had won the hearts and minds of so many champions around the globe.