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Michela Wrong (Born 1961), is a British journalist and author who spent more than two decades writing about Africa. Her postings as a journalist began in Europe and then West, Central and East Africa. She has worked for Reuters, the BBC, and the Financial Times before becoming a freelance writer.
Her debut book, In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz (2001), covers the time she spent in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) as it transitioned from the leadership of Mobutu Sese Seko to that of Laurent-Désiré Kabila. Her second book, I Didn't Do It For You: How the World Betrayed a Small African Nation (2004), discusses the nation of Eritrea and the role foreign nations have played in its history during the 20th century. [1]
Her third book, It's Our Turn to Eat: The Story of a Kenyan Whistle-Blower (2009), tells the story of John Githongo, a Kenyan journalist and civil society activist, who in 2002 took on a senior anti-corruption role within the newly elected government of President Mwai Kibaki. In this role, Githongo uncovered widespread evidence of corruption (notably the Anglo-Leasing scandal) located high up within the Kibaki government. The book also discusses the role of ethnicity in Kenyan politics and is strongly critical of the response of the international aid community to Githongo's case. The World Bank and the British government's aid department (the Department for International Development) come in for particularly strong criticism, though notable exceptions are also highlighted, such as Edward Clay, the then British High Commissioner to Kenya. It's Our Turn to Eat was censored in Kenya, leading to PEN Kenya president and activist Philo Ikonya acquiring books and bringing them into the country for wider distribution. [2]
In 2009 she authored a novel, Borderlines, a legal thriller with a female lawyer protagonist. It focuses on a border dispute between two fictional states in the Horn of Africa, which the Financial Times reviewer thought resembled the Ethiopia-Eritrea disputes in 1998–2000. [3] [4]
In 2021 she published Do Not Disturb: The Story of a Political Murder and an African Regime Gone Bad , about Rwanda, its president Paul Kagame, and the murder of Patrick Karegeya. [5] A review of the book in The Washington Post called the book "devastating", [6] while The Guardian called it "uncomfortable reading." [7] Rwandan journalist Vincent Gasana, however, criticized the book as "the latest bid to cast the RPF as the villain of any piece, while attempting to delegitimise the Rwanda government." [8]
She was awarded the 2010 James Cameron prize for journalism “that combined moral vision and professional integrity.” [9]
Wrong lives in London and is regularly interviewed by the BBC, Al Jazeera, and Reuters on her areas of expertise. She has published opinion pieces and book reviews in The Observer , The Guardian , Financial Times , New York Times , New Statesman , Spectator , Standpoint , Foreign Policy , and travel pieces for Condé Nast's Traveler magazine. She speaks fluent Italian and French. [10]
She is a former literary director of the Miles Morland Foundation, an organisation that actively supports writers and literary projects across Africa. [11]
Wrong is the granddaughter of Oxford historian Edward Murray Wrong and daughter of the nephrologist Oliver Wrong.
Juvénal Habyarimana was a Rwandan politician and military officer who served as the second president of Rwanda, from 1973 until his assassination in 1994. He was nicknamed Kinani, a Kinyarwanda word meaning "invincible".
Paul Kagame is a Rwandan politician and former military officer who has been the fourth President of Rwanda since 2000. He was previously a commander of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), a rebel armed force which invaded Rwanda in 1990. The RPF was one of the parties of the conflict during the Rwandan Civil War and the armed force which ended the Rwandan genocide. He was considered Rwanda's de facto leader when he was Vice President and Minister of Defence under President Pasteur Bizimungu from 1994 to 2000 after which the vice-presidential post was abolished.
The Rwandan Patriotic Front is the ruling political party in Rwanda. Led by President Paul Kagame, the party has governed the country since its armed wing defeated government forces, winning the Rwandan Civil War in 1994.
The Rwandan genocide, also known as the genocide against the Tutsi, occurred between 7 April and 15 July 1994 during the Rwandan Civil War. During this period of around 100 days, members of the Tutsi minority ethnic group, as well as some moderate Hutu and Twa, were killed by armed Hutu militias. Although the Constitution of Rwanda states that more than 1 million people perished in the genocide, the real number killed is likely lower. The most widely accepted scholarly estimates are around 500,000 to 800,000 Tutsi deaths.
Pasteur Bizimungu is a Rwandan politician who served as the third President of Rwanda, holding office from 19 July 1994 until 23 March 2000.
The First Congo War (1996–1997), also nicknamed Africa's First World War, was a civil war and international military conflict which took place mostly in Zaire, with major spillovers into Sudan and Uganda. The conflict culminated in a foreign invasion that replaced Zairean president Mobutu Sese Seko with the rebel leader Laurent-Désiré Kabila. Kabila's unstable government subsequently came into conflict with his allies, setting the stage for the Second Congo War in 1998–2003.
The Rwandan Civil War was a large-scale civil war in Rwanda which was fought between the Rwandan Armed Forces, representing the country's government, and the rebel Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) from 1 October 1990 to 18 July 1994. The war arose from the long-running dispute between the Hutu and Tutsi groups within the Rwandan population. A 1959–1962 revolution had replaced the Tutsi monarchy with a Hutu-led republic, forcing more than 336,000 Tutsi to seek refuge in neighbouring countries. A group of these refugees in Uganda founded the RPF which, under the leadership of Fred Rwigyema and Paul Kagame, became a battle-ready army by the late 1980s.
Linda Melvern is a British investigative journalist. Early in her career, she worked for The Evening Standard and then The Sunday Times (UK), including on the investigative Insight Team. Since leaving the newspaper she has written seven books of non-fiction. She is a former Honorary Professor of the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, in the Department of International Politics.
Human rights in Rwanda have been violated on a grand scale. The greatest violation is the Rwandan genocide of Tutsi in 1994. The post-genocide government is also responsible for grave violations of human rights.
Seth Sendashonga was the Minister of the Interior in the government of national unity in Rwanda, following the military victory of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) after the 1994 genocide. One of the politically moderate Hutus in the National Unity Cabinet, he became increasingly disenchanted with the RPF and was eventually forced from office in 1995 after criticizing government policies. After surviving a 1996 assassination attempt while in exile in Kenya, he launched a new opposition movement, the Forces de Résistance pour la Démocratie (FRD). Sendashonga was killed by unidentified gunmen in May 1998. The Rwandan government is widely believed to be responsible for the assassination.
Presidential elections were held in Rwanda on 9 August 2010, the second since the Rwandan Civil War. Incumbent President Paul Kagame of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) was re-elected for a second seven-year term with 93% of the vote.
Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa is a Rwandan former Lieutenant general who formerly was the Chief of Staff of the Rwandan Army from 1998 to 2002. He was also head of Rwandan intelligence from 1998 to 2002 and served as Rwanda's ambassador to India between 2004 and 2010. Nyamwasa has been an opposition leader in exile since as part of the Rwanda National Congress.
Patrick Karegeya was a head of intelligence in Rwanda. He was a member of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) group that took power in Rwanda following the genocide and civil war. After becoming a critic of RPF leader Paul Kagame, he was stripped of his rank and jailed. Following a time in exile, he was assassinated in Johannesburg, South Africa on December 31, 2013.
The role of France in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi has been a source of controversy and debate both within and beyond France and Rwanda. France actively supported the Hutu-led government of Juvénal Habyarimana against the Tutsi-dominated Rwandan Patriotic Front, which since 1990 had been engaged in a conflict intended to restore the rights of Rwandan Tutsis both within Rwanda and exiled in neighboring countries following over four decades of anti-Tutsi violence. France provided arms and military training to Habyarimana's militias, the Interahamwe and Impuzamugambi, which were among the government's primary means of operationalizing the genocide following the assassination of Juvénal Habyarimana and Cyprien Ntaryamira on April 6, 1994.
Philo Ikonya is a writer, journalist and human rights activist from Kenya. Her articles and books often cover the current political situation in Kenya. She was the president of Kenya's branch of PEN, the international association of writers. After several arrests for her activism and a severe beating in 2009 while in police custody, she left Kenya in political exile.
Since the end of the Rwandan Civil War, many forms of censorship have been implemented in Rwanda.
In Praise of Blood: The Crimes of the Rwandan Patriotic Front is a 2018 non-fiction book by Canadian journalist Judi Rever and published by Random House of Canada; it has also been translated into Dutch and French. The book describes alleged war crimes by the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), Rwanda's ruling political party, during its ascent to power in the 1990s.
Susan Michelle Thomson is a Canadian human rights lawyer and professor of peace and conflict studies at Colgate University. She worked in Rwanda for years in various capacities and is known for her books focusing on the post-genocide history of the country, which have received good reviews. Although she initially supported the ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), Thomson later reevaluated her position.
Do Not Disturb: The Story of a Political Murder and an African Regime Gone Bad is a 2021 book by British journalist Michela Wrong, published by Fourth Estate and PublicAffairs. The book focuses on the 2014 murder of Rwandan defector Patrick Karegeya, for which the Rwandan government denied responsibility.
Michela Wrong has built a distinguished literary career telling stories of African corruption and Western complicity. A former Africa correspondent for Reuters and The Financial Times, Wrong attracted wide attention with her first book, In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz: Living on the Brink of Disaster in Mobutu's Congo, a chronicle of societal collapse in the country then known as Zaire.
Michela Wrong, half Italian, half British, has been writing about Africa as a journalist for more than 20 years, including for the Financial Times. Borderlines, her debut novel, is set in a fictional country on the Horn of Africa called North Darrar, which in many ways resembles post-fascist Ethiopia. The novel centres on a border dispute between North Darrar and the neighbouring Federal Democratic Republic of Darrar; Ethiopia's murderous border dispute with Eritrea in 1998-2000 was perhaps on Wrong's mind.
Wrong has an accomplished history of writing non-fiction about African politics. Her debut novel has much to say about Africa in the still unsettled aftermath of colonialism, and even more to say about the western powers who scrambled to divide up the continent and who now seek to influence it for their own purposes.
A British-based journalist with more than two decades of experience covering Africa, Wrong acknowledges that she, along with other Western commentators and historians, contributed to the mythmaking.
Do Not Disturb will make uncomfortable reading for those who still adhere to that view, even if some will argue that Wrong does not take enough account of Rwanda's efforts to address the legacy of genocide and a country awash in murderers.
the book is the latest bid to cast the RPF as the villain of any piece, while attempting to delegitimise the Rwanda government, by always referring to it as the "Kagame regime." As well as the theory of the "Untold Story" within the strategy of Rwanda's mass murderers to rewrite history, was the emphasis to always target the person of Paul Kagame, a much hated figure to them, much as was his predecessor as leader of the RPF, the late Gisa Rwigyema.
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