MICHELA WRONG

¿Puede un solo hombre acabar con décadas de corrupción? John Githongo lo creyó así cuando fue elegido para velar por la honestidad del nuevo gobierno de Kenia, en 2003. No pasó mucho tiempo antes de que Githongo descubriera que las promesas de transparencia y democracia del nuevo presidente, Mwai Kibaki, eran sólo palabras vacías. Kenia seguía sumida, como siempre, en una corrupción absoluta, un cáncer que crecía en el mismo palacio presidencial y se extendía hasta los más ínfi mos estratos de la sociedad. Githongo comprobó cómo los mismos que denunciaban los excesos del régimen anterior ahora se apuntaban a la vieja máxima de "ahora comemos nosotros." Armado con una grabadora bajo la camisa, Githongo tuvo el valor de permanecer fi el a sus principios. Tras denunciar el escándalo Anglo Leasing, que salpicó al propio presidente, se refugió en Londres en casa de su amiga la periodista Michela Wrong. El relato de la aventura de Githongo, narrado por Wrong con el ritmo de un auténtico thriller, es una obra imprescindible para entender los posteriores y violentos acontecimientos en Kenia, y la misma naturaleza del problema de desarrollo en África.

Una historia sobre la traición, la belicosidad y el derramamiento de sangre; No lo hice por ti, nos ofrece el retrato de un país desgarrado por la guerra y sacudido por las caprichosas maniobras de poderes extranjeros, que mantiene un tono desafiante a lo largo de sus paginas. Es una historia que revela la herencia que las colonias y las superpotencias legaron a un continente. Ningun pais encarna mejor la humillante historia de Africa que la testaruda Eritrea. Con las huellas de sus ocupantes aun presentes (incluyendo el mejor espresso del continente y el peor sistema ferroviario), Eritrea ha servido de plataforma de lanzamiento a las ambiciones imperiales de la Italia fascista, de base de espionaje a EE. UU. y de titere a las agresiones de poder durante la Guerra Fria. Michela Wrong expone con brillantez los conflictos y la comicidad del Africa del siglo XX, a la vez que se sirve de una aguda vision para captar los detalles mas peculiares. Una combinacion de documental de viajes y de historia, No lo hice por ti, rasga el corazon de nuestro pasado colonial.

¿Cómo llego el Congo al borde del colapso? En este libro se explican las consecuencias del colonialismo y los motivos por los que un ser como Mobutu pemaneció treinta años en el poder. Michela Wrong es una de las periodistas que mejor conoce el continente africano, tras muchos años como corresponsal de diferentes medios internacionales. Con una combinacion de reportaje y documental de viajes relata la historia reciente del Congo, uno de los paises que simbolizan las esperanzas perdidas de Africa durante la segunda mitad del siglo XX. Una descripcion cruda pero fascinante de un continente tan complejo como incomprendido.

Joyous a book that makes other journalists weep with envy The Economist Provocative, touching, and sensitively written an eloquent, brilliantly researched account Sunday Times One of The Economists best books by foreign correspondents.A story of grim comedy amid the apocalypse and a celebration of the sheer indestructibility of the human spirit in a nation run riot: Michela Wrongs vision of Congo/Zaire during the Mobutu years is incisive, ironic and revelatory. Mr Kurtz, the colonial white master, brought evil to the remote upper reaches of the Congo River. A century after Conrads Heart of Darkness was first published, Michela Wrong revisits the Congo as the era of Mobutu Sese Seko collapses into absurdity, anarchy and corruption. Hers is a brilliant portrait of the grotesque as confusion takes over: pink lipsticked rebel soldiers mingle with tracksuited secret policemen in hotels where fin de siecle dinner parties are ploughing through hotel wine cellars rather than see bottles lost to the new regime. Congo, Africas richest country in terms of its natural resources, has institutionalised kleptomania: everyone is on the take. In a country where the minimum wage has dropped to below $150 a year, the government over twenty-five years spent $250 million providing courtesy cars. Congo has a vanity nuclear reactor built on a subsiding slope and one of its uranium rods is missing The Mobutu reign, successor to Belgiums failed imperial experiment in Africa, was fed by World Bank dollars and IMF loans. Having presided over unprecedented looting of the countrys wealth, Mobutu, like Kurtz, retreated deep within the jungle to his absurdly overwrought palace of marble floors and gold taps. A century on, nothing seems to have changed at the heart of Africa: it is lawless, graceless and it slaughters its own.

"Un récit important et passionnant" Stephen Smith, ex-journaliste au Monde et Libération. "Lune des révisions historiques les plus approfondies de Kagamé et son régime." The Guardian. "Une épopée de sang, damertume et de trahison. Une histoire captivante" The Times. Best seller cite comme meilleur livre de lannee par le Financial Times et The Economist, Cette enquete journalistique est une refonte dramatique de lhistoire moderne du Rwanda, pays ravage par lun des plus grands genocides du XXe siecle. Ce recit audacieux, tire des temoignages directs et proches de Paul Kagame, dechire le script officiel, selon lequel un groupe idealiste de jeunes rebelles aurait renverse le regime genocidaire de Kigali, inaugurant une ere de paix, de prosperite et de stabilite, jusqua faire du Rwanda, le chouchou des donateurs occidentaux. Michela Wrong detaille en particulier lhistoire de Patrick Karegeya, ex-chef du renseignement exterieur du Rwanda, pour dresser le portrait dune dictature africaine a limage de son president, qui a erige la vengeance en signature de son regne, en poursuivant ses anciens compagnons darmes jusquau bout du monde. La journaliste examine les questions qui hantent le passe : pourquoi tant dex-rebelles contestent la version officielle du missile qui a tue les presidents rwandais et burundais ? Pourquoi les massacres nont-ils pas pris fin lorsque les rebelles ont pris le controle du pays ? Pourquoi plusieurs de ces memes rebelles, la victoire assuree, ont prefere fuir le pays ?

« 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

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 states 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 Africas 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 womans anguished quest for redemption.

One small East African country embodies the battered history of the continent: patronised by colonialists, riven by civil war, confused by Cold War manoeuvring, proud, colorful, with Africas best espresso and worst rail service. Michela Wrong brilliantly reveals the contradictions and comedy, past and present, of Eritrea. Just as the beat of a butterflys wings is said to cause hurricanes on the other side of the world, so the affairs of tiny Eritrea reverberate onto the agenda of superpower strategists. This new book on Africa is from the author of the critically acclaimed In the Footsteps of Mr Kurtz. Eritrea is a little-known country scarred by decades of conflict and occupation. It has weathered the worlds longest-running guerrilla war, and the dogged determination that secured victory against Ethiopia, its giant neighbour, is woven into the national psyche. Fascist Italy wanted Eritrea as the springboard for a new, racially-pure Roman empire, Britain sold off its industry for scrap, the US needed headquarters 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 that was the hallmark of her account of Mobutus Congo, she tells the story of colonialism itself. Along the way, we meet a formidable Emperor, a guerrilla fighter who taught himself French cuisine in the bush, and a chemist who arranged the heist of his own laboratory. An arresting blend of travelogue and history, I Didnt Do It For You pierces the dark heart of our colonial history.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE 2022 Superb The Times Engrossing and revelatory Observer Powerful, compelling and meticulously researched New Statesman A new book from the award winning author of In the Footsteps of Mr Kurtz,Do Not Disturb explores the controversial career of Paul Kagame and the legacy of the Rwandan genocide Do Not Disturb is a dramatic recasting of the modern history of Africas Great Lakes region, an area blighted by the greatest genocide of the twentieth century. This bold retelling, vividly sourced by direct testimony from key participants, tears up the traditional script. In the old version, an idealistic group of young rebels overthrows a genocidal regime in Kigali, ushering in an era of peace and stability that makes Rwanda the donor darling of the West, winning comparisons with Switzerland and Singapore. The new version examines afresh questions which dog the recent past: Why do so many ex-rebels scoff at official explanations of who fired the missile that killed the presidents of Rwanda and Burundi? Why didnt the mass killings end when the rebels took control? Why did those same rebels, victory secured, turn so ruthlessly on one another? Michela Wrong uses the story of Patrick Karegeya, once Rwandas 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 friends murder. A withering assault on the murderous regime of Kagame, and a melancholy love song to the last dreams of the African Great Lakes John Le Carre

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 Kenyas 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 its own public and the world at large that it was set on ending the practices that had made Kenya an international by-word for sleaze. Now John was on the run, having realised that the new administration, far from breaking with the past, was using near-identical techniques to pilfer public funds. Johns tale, which has all the elements of the political thriller, is the story of how a brave man came to make a lonely decision with huge ramifications. But his story transcends the personal, touching as it does on the cultural, historical and social themes that lie at the heart of the continents continuing crisis. Tracking this story of an African whistleblower who started out as a pillar of the establishment, Michela Wrong seeks answers to the questions that have puzzled outsiders for decades. What is it about African society that makes corruption so hard to eradicate, so sweeping in its scope, so destructive in its impact? Why have so many African presidents found it so easy to reduce all political discussion to the self-serving calculation of which tribe gets to "eat"? And at what stage will Africans start placing the wider interests of their nation ahead of the narrow interests of their tribe?