71) Dark Side of Rwanda's Regime
Rwanda has been heralded as an African success story by the international community: its people, ravaged by genocide, have become unified and prosperous under Paul Kagame's regime. The conventional narrative of Rwanda's post-conflict development is challenged by today's guest, journalist and author, Michela Wrong. Her book, Do Not Disturb: The Story of a Political Murder and an African Regime Gone Bad, tells the wild story of Patrick Karegeya, as she reveals the dark and compelling reality of a regime that is extensively commended by the Western World.
Shortened Bio:
Half-Italian, half-British, Michela Wrong grew up in London. She took a degree in Philosophy and Social Sciences at Jesus College, Cambridge and a diploma in journalism at Cardiff.
She joined Reuters news agency in the early 1980s and was posted as a foreign correspondent to Italy, France and Ivory Coast. She became a freelance journalist in 1994, when she moved to then-Zaire and found herself covering both the genocide in Rwanda and the final days of dictator Mobutu Sese Seko for the BBC and Reuters. She later moved to Kenya, where she spent four years covering east, west and central Africa for the Financial Times newspaper.
Whether fiction or non-fiction, Michela Wrong's books on contemporary Africa aim to be accessible to both members of the general public and experts in the field. Backed up by nearly three decades of experience writing about the continent, they have become a must-read for diplomats, aid workers, journalists a{and strategists and regularly feature on the "required reading" lists of International Relations and African Studies courses at university.
She was awarded the 2010 James Cameron prize for journalism "that combined moral vision and professional integrity." She is regularly interviewed by the BBC, Al Jazeera and Reuters and has published opinion pieces, features and book reviews in the Observer, Guardian, Financial Times, New York Times, New Statesman, Spectator, Standpoint, Foreign Policy magazine, and Conde Nast's Traveler magazine. She is a consultant for the Miles Morland Foundation, which funds a range of literary festivals, workshops and scholarships for African writers, and an advisor to the Centre for Global Development.
Website - https://michelawrong.com/