Michela Wrong

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Michela Wrong
Born	1961 (age 63–64)
Occupation(s)	Journalist, author, freelance writer
Father	Oliver Wrong
Awards	James Cameron prize for journalism (2010)

Michela Wrong (born 1961) is a British journalist and author who has spent over two decades writing about Africa. She began her career covering European affairs before expanding her focus to Western, Central, and Eastern Africa. Wrong has worked for Reuters, the BBC^[1], and the Financial Times before transitioning to a career as a freelance writer.

Her debut book, In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz (2001), chronicles her experiences in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) during its transition from the leadership of Mobutu Sese Seko to Laurent-Désiré Kabila.^[2] Her second book, I Didn't Do It For You: How the World Betrayed a Small African Nation (2004), examines Eritrea's history throughout the 20th century and the significant roles foreign powers have played in shaping its fate.^[3]

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) came in for particularly strong criticism, though notable exceptions were 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.^[4]

In the year 2009, she crafted a novel named Borderlines, showcasing a female attorney as the lead character in a thrilling legal story. The story revolves around a border conflict between two imaginary states in the Horn of Africa, which a reviewer from the Financial Times noted bore similarities to the Ethiopia-Eritrea conflicts that occurred from 1998 to 2000.^[5][6]

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.^[7] A review of the book in The Washington Post called the book "devastating",^[8] while The Guardian called it "uncomfortable reading."^[9] 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 delegitimize the Rwanda government."^[10]

She was awarded the 2010 James Cameron prize for journalism “that combined moral vision and professional integrity.”^[11]

Wrong lives in London and is regularly interviewed by 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.^[12]

She is a former literary director of the Miles Morland Foundation, an organisation that provides support to writers and literary projects, focusing on Africa and other regions globally.^[13]

Wrong is the granddaughter of Oxford historian Edward Murray Wrong and daughter of the nephrologist Oliver Wrong.

• Wrong, Michela (2001). In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz: Living on the Brink of Disaster in the Congo. HarperCollins. pp. 352. ISBN 978-0-06-018880-1.
• Wrong, Michela (2005). I Didn't Do It for You: How the World Betrayed a Small African Nation. HarperCollins. pp. 448. ISBN 978-0-06-078092-0.
• Wrong, Michela (2009). It's Our Turn to Eat: The Story of a Kenyan Whistle-Blower. Harper. p. 368. ISBN 978-0-06-134658-3.
• Wrong, Michela (2015). Borderlines. Fourth Estate. p. 352. ISBN 978-0-00-814740-2.
• Michela Wrong (2021). Do Not Disturb: The Story of a Political Murder and an African Regime Gone Bad. ISBN 978-1610398428.

• Michela Wrong's website
• Going Too Far an interview with Wrong in Guernica Magazine