Michela Wrong

Her first book, In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz (2001), documents her experiences in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) during its transition from Mobutu Sese Seko to Laurent-Désiré Kabila.{{Cite book |last=Wrong |first=Michela |title=In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz: Living on the Brink of Disaster in the Congo |date=2 July 2001 |publisher=Fourth Estate, 2000 |isbn=9781841154213 |edition=illustrated}} Her second book, I Didn't Do It For You: How the World Betrayed a Small African Nation (2004), explores the 20th-century history of Eritrea and the role of foreign powers in shaping its fate.{{Cite web |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/19/books/review/Hammer-t.html |title=Rooting Out Evil |last=Hammer |first=Joshua |work=The New York Times |date=July 17, 2009 |access-date=January 3, 2021}}

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 government of President Mwai Kibaki.{{Cite news |date=June 16, 2009 |title=Author Tells Story Of Kenyan Whistle-Blower |url=https://www.npr.org/2009/06/16/105430267/author-tells-story-of-kenyan-whistle-blower |access-date=2025-03-25 |work=NPR |language=en}} In this role, Githongo uncovered evidence of corruption (notably the Anglo-Leasing scandal) within the Kibaki government.{{Cite news |last=Hammer |first=Joshua |date=2009-07-17 |title=Rooting Out Evil |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/19/books/review/Hammer-t.html |access-date=2025-04-02 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}} The book also discusses the role of ethnicity in Kenyan politics and is critical of the response of the international aid community to Githongo's case.{{Cite news |last=Hammer |first=Joshua |date=2009-07-17 |title=Rooting Out Evil |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/19/books/review/Hammer-t.html |access-date=2025-04-02 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}} The World Bank and the British government's aid department (the Department for International Development) faced criticism, with exceptions such as Edward Clay, the then British High Commissioner to Kenya, noted.{{Cite web |date=2018-04-24 |title=Opening remarks by the UK High Commissioner to Kenya at the 5th Annual Devolution Conference |url=https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/opening-remarks-by-the-uk-high-commissioner-to-kenya-during-the-5th-annual-devolution-conference |access-date=2025-04-12 |website=GOV.UK |language=en}} 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 distribution.{{Cite web |url=http://www.sampsoniaway.org/literary-voices/2011/08/01/dark-secrets-of-kenya-an-interview-with-writer-philo-ikonya/ |title=Dark Secrets of Kenya: An Interview with Writer Philo Ikonya |last=Barnes |first=Madeleine |date=2011-08-01 |website=Sampsonia Way Magazine |language=en-US |access-date=2018-07-21}}

In 2009, Wrong published the novel Borderlines. The story concerns a border conflict between two imaginary states in the Horn of Africa that, according to a Financial Times reviewer, bears similarities to the Ethiopia-Eritrea conflicts from 1998 to 2000.{{Cite web |url=https://www.ft.com/content/a1352d74-52ee-11e5-b029-b9d50a74fd14 |title='Borderlines', by Michela Wrong |last=Thomson |first=Ian |work=Financial Times |quote=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. |date=September 11, 2015 |access-date=January 3, 2021}}{{Cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/aug/22/borderlines-michela-wrong-review-thriller |title=Borderlines by Michela Wrong review – a gripping debut thriller |last=Kola |first=FT |work=The Guardian |quote=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. |date=August 22, 2015 |access-date=January 3, 2021}}

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.{{cite book |last1=Michela Wrong |title=Do Not Disturb: The Story of a Political Murder and an African Regime Gone Bad |date=Mar 2021 |isbn=978-1610398428}} A review of the book in The Washington Post called the book "devastating",{{cite news |title=He's been hailed as Rwanda's hero. But is he really his country's villain? |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/hes-been-hailed-as-rwandas-hero-but-is-he-really-his-countrys-villain/2021/04/29/c810aa62-a203-11eb-a774-7b47ceb36ee8_story.html |access-date=March 27, 2023 |newspaper=Washington Post |date=April 30, 2021 |quote=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.}} while The Guardian called it "uncomfortable reading".{{cite news |title=Do Not Disturb review – the disturbing death of a Rwandan dissident |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/apr/13/do-not-disturb-review-the-disturbing-death-of-a-rwandan-dissident |access-date=April 28, 2023 |work=The Guardian |date=April 13, 2021 |quote=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.}} Rwandan journalist Vincent Gasana criticized the book as an attempt to "cast the RPF as the villain of any piece, while attempting to delegitimize the Rwandan government".{{cite web |last1=Gasana |first1=Vincent |title=Rwanda: 'Do Not Disturb' – Less about the RPF, more about rewriting history |url=https://www.theafricareport.com/85836/rwanda-do-not-disturb-less-about-the-rpf-more-about-rewriting-history/ |publisher=The Africa Report |access-date=April 28, 2023 |date=May 7, 2021 |quote=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.}}

She was awarded the 2010 James Cameron Prize for journalism “that combines moral vision and professional integrity”.{{Cite web|url=https://www.city.ac.uk/arts-social-sciences/journalism/james-cameron-memorial-lecture/winners|title=Award winners|website=City, University of London|language=en|access-date=2018-02-08}}

Wrong lives in London.{{Cite web |title=Michela Wrong |url=https://www.harpercollins.com/blogs/authors/michela-wrong-20651 |access-date=2025-04-08 |website=HarperCollins |language=en}} She has published opinion pieces and book reviews in The Observer, The Guardian, The Financial Times, The New York Times, New Statesman, The Spectator, Standpoint, Foreign Policy, and travel pieces for Condé Nast's Traveler magazine. She speaks fluent Italian and French.{{Cite web |title=Michela Wrong |url=https://harpercollins.co.uk/blogs/authors/michela-wrong |access-date=2023-03-27 |website=HarperCollins Publishers UK}}

She is a former literary director of the Miles Morland Foundation, an organization that supports writers and their projects, focusing on Africa and other global regions.{{Cite web|url=https://milesmorlandfoundation.com|title=Home – The Miles Morland Foundation|website=The Miles Morland Foundation|access-date=8 February 2018}}

Wrong is the granddaughter of Oxford historian Edward Murray Wrong and daughter of the nephrologist Oliver Wrong.{{Cite web |date=2012-03-15 |title=Professor Oliver Wrong |url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/science/article/professor-oliver-wrong-ldbxvdh8wmt |access-date=2025-04-02 |website=www.thetimes.com |language=en}}

• {{cite book |title=In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz: Living on the Brink of Disaster in the Congo |last=Wrong |first=Michela |year=2001 |publisher=HarperCollins |isbn=978-0-06-018880-1 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/infootstepsofmrk00wron/page/352 352] |url=https://archive.org/details/infootstepsofmrk00wron/page/352 }}
• {{cite book |title=I Didn't Do It for You: How the World Betrayed a Small African Nation |last=Wrong |first=Michela |year=2005 |publisher=HarperCollins |isbn=978-0-06-078092-0 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/ididntdoitforyou00wron/page/448 448] |url=https://archive.org/details/ididntdoitforyou00wron/page/448 }}
• {{cite book |title=It's Our Turn to Eat: The Story of a Kenyan Whistle-Blower |last=Wrong |first=Michela |year=2009 |publisher=Harper |isbn=978-0-06-134658-3 |pages=368}}
• {{cite book |title=Borderlines |last=Wrong |first=Michela |year=2015 |publisher=Fourth Estate |isbn=978-0-00-814740-2 |pages=352}}
• {{cite book |last1=Michela Wrong |title=Do Not Disturb: The Story of a Political Murder and an African Regime Gone Bad |title-link=Do Not Disturb (book) |date=2021 |isbn=978-1610398428}}

{{Reflist|30em}}

• [http://www.michelawrong.com Michela Wrong's website]
• [https://www.guernicamag.com/githongo_yes_but_dambisa_is_wr/ Going Too Far] an interview with Wrong in Guernica Magazine

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Category:1961 births

Category:Living people

Category:British women journalists

Category:British women non-fiction writers

Category:British anti-corruption activists

Category:British women novelists

Category:20th-century British journalists

Category:20th-century British women writers

Category:21st-century British journalists

Category:21st-century British novelists

Category:21st-century British non-fiction writers

Category:21st-century British women writers