Michela Wrong

Scarred by decades of conflict and occupation, the craggy African nation of Eritrea has weathered the world's longest-running guerrilla war. The dogged determination that secured victory against Ethiopia, its giant neighbor, is woven into the national psyche, the product of a series of cynical foreign interventions. Fascist Italy wanted Eritrea as the springboard for a new, racially pure Roman empire, Britain sold off its industry for scrap, the United States needed a base for its state-of-the-art spy station, and the Soviet Union used it as a pawn in a proxy war. Michela Wrong reveals the breathtaking abuses this tiny nation has suffered and, with the sharp eye for detail and taste for the incongruous that was the hallmark of her account of Mobutu's Congo, tells the story of colonialism itself. Along the way, we meet a formidable African emperor, a pigheaded English suffragette, and a guerrilla fighter who taught himself French cuisine in the bush. Michela Wrong tells this devastating but important story with exemplary clarity. The way international power politics can play havoc with a country's destiny gives the story of Eritrea a resonance and a tragic dimension beyond imagining.

He was known as "the Leopard," and for the thirty-two years of his reign Mobutu Sese Seko, president of Zaire, showed all the cunning of his namesake, seducing Western powers, buying up the opposition, and dominating his people with a devastating combination of brutality and charm. While the population was pauperized, he plundered the country's copper and diamond resources, downing pink champagne in his jungle palace like some modern-day reincarnation of Joseph Conrad's crazed station manager. Michela Wrong, a correspondent who witnessed firsthand Mobutu's last days, traces the rise and fall of the idealistic young journalist who became the stereotype of an African despot. Engrossing, highly readable, and as funny as it is tragic, her book assesses how Belgium's King Leopold, the CIA, and the World Bank all helped to bring about the disaster that is now the Democratic Republic of Congo. If, in this poignant account, the villains are the "Big Vegetables" ( les Grosses légumes ) -- the fat cats who benefited from Mobutu's largesse -- the heroes are the ordinary citizens trapped in a parody of a state. Living in the shadow of a disintegrating nuclear reactor, where banknotes are not worth the paper they are printed on, they have turned survival into an art form. For all its valuable insights into Africa's colonial heritage and the damage done by Western intervention, In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz is ultimately a celebration of the irrepressible human spirit.

A gripping account of both an individual caught on the horns of an excruciating moral dilemma and a continent at a turning point. When Michela Wrongs Kenyan friend John Githongo appeared one cold February morning on the doorstep of her London flat. carrying a small mountain of luggage and four trilling mobile phones he seemed determined to ignore. it was clear something had gone very wrong in a country regarded until then as one of Africas few budding success stories. Two years earlier. in the wave of euphoria that followed the election defeat of long-serving President Daniel arap Moi. John had been appointed Kenya's new anti-corruption czar. In choosing this giant of a man with a booming laugh. respected as a longstanding anti-corruption crusader. the new government was signalling to both ...

A powerful investigation into a grisly political murder and the authoritarian regime behind it: Do Not Disturb upends the narrative that Rwanda sold the world after one of the deadliest genocides of the twentieth century.We think we know the story of Africa’s Great Lakes region. Following the Rwandan genocide, an idealistic group of young rebels overthrew the brutal regime in Kigali, ushering in an era of peace and stability that made Rwanda the donor darling of the West, winning comparisons with Switzerland and Singapore. But the truth was considerably more sinister. Vividly sourcing her story with direct testimony from key participants, Wrong uses the story of the murder of Patrick Karegeya, once Rwanda’s head of external intelligence and a quicksilver operator of supple charm, to paint the portrait of a modern African dictatorship created in the chilling likeness of Paul Kagame, the president who sanctioned his former friend’s assassination.

The debut novel by a British writer with nearly two decades of African experience – a compelling courtroom drama and a gritty, aromatic evocation of place, inspired by recent events.British lawyer Paula Shackleton is mourning a lost love when a small man in a lemon-coloured suit accosts her over breakfast in a Boston hotel. Winston Peabody represents the African state of North Darrar, embroiled in a border arbitration case with its giant neighbour. He needs help with the hearings in The Hague, Paula needs to forget the past.She flies to the state’s capital determined to lose herself in work, but soon discovers that even jobs taken with the purest intentions can involve moral compromise. Taking testimony in scorching refugee camps, delving into the colonial past, she becomes increasingly uneasy about her role. Budding friendships with a scarred former rebel and an idealistic young doctor whittle away at her pose of sardonic indifference, until Paula finds herself taking a step no decent lawyer should ever contemplate.Michela Wrong has been writing about Africa for two decades. In this taut legal thriller, rich with the Horn of Africa’s colours and aromas, she probes the motives underlying Western engagement with the continent, questioning the value of universal justice and exploring how history itself is forged. Above all her first novel is the story of a young woman’s anguished quest for redemption.

« Un récit important et passionnant » Stephen Smith, ex-journaliste au Monde et Libération. « L'une des révisions historiques les plus approfondies de Kagamé et son régime. » The Guardian « Une épopée de sang, d'amertume et de trahison. Une histoire captivante » The Times Best seller cité comme meilleur livre de l’année par le Financial Times et The Economist, Cette enquête journalistique est une refonte dramatique de l'histoire moderne du Rwanda, pays ravagé par l’un des plus grands génocides du XXe siècle. Ce récit audacieux, tiré des témoignages directs et proches de Paul Kagamé, déchire le script officiel, selon lequel un groupe idéaliste de jeunes rebelles aurait renversé le régime génocidaire de Kigali, inaugurant une ère de paix, de prospérité et de stabilité, jusqu’à faire du Rwanda, le chouchou des donateurs occidentaux. Michela Wrong détaille en particulier l'histoire de Patrick Karegeya, ex-chef du renseignement extérieur du Rwanda, pour dresser le portrait d'une dictature africaine à l'image de son président, qui a érigé la vengeance en signature de son règne, en poursuivant ses anciens compagnons d'armes jusqu'au bout du monde. La journaliste examine les questions qui hantent le passé : pourquoi tant d'ex-rebelles contestent la version officielle du missile qui a tué les présidents rwandais et burundais ? Pourquoi les massacres n'ont-ils pas pris fin lorsque les rebelles ont pris le contrôle du pays ? Pourquoi plusieurs de ces mêmes rebelles, la victoire assurée, ont préféré fuir le pays ? Michela Wrong est une journaliste anglaise (Reuters, BBC, Financial Times) connue dans le monde entier pour sa connaissance de l’Afrique. Elle a couvert à la fois les derniers jours du dictateur Mobutu et le génocide au Rwanda. Elle a reçu le prix James Cameron 2010 « pour sa vision morale et son intégrité professionnelle ».

« Un récit brillant sur le dictateur le plus extraordinaire d’Afrique » The Economist« Provocateur, brillamment documenté et remarquablement écrit » The Sunday Times« C’est le livre le plus captivant et étincelant sur l’Afrique » The TimesLa chute du léopard est un classique de la littérature anglo-saxonne. En 2023, The Economist l’a salué comme l’un des cinq meilleurs livres jamais écrits par des correspondants étrangers.Michela Wrong, qui a assisté aux derniers jours de Mobutu, retrace l’ascension et la chute du jeune journaliste idéaliste devenu le stéréotype du despote africain. Surnommé « le léopard », le président du Congo (ex-Zaïre) a utilisé toutes les ruses pour accéder au pouvoir et y rester pendant trente-deux ans. Il a séduit les puissances occidentales, acheté l’opposition et dominé son peuple avec un mélange dévastateur de brutalité et de charme. Alors que la population était appauvrie, il buvait du champagne dans son palais au milieu de la jungle comme une réincarnation moderne du chef de gare fou de Joseph Conrad.Bien que Mobutu soit mort en 1997, le diagnostic de Michela Wrong sur son régime prédateur reste pertinent pour comprendre les turbulences actuelles des Grands Lacs africains.