Some years ago, for reasons I could explain, I had need to know about Mobutu Sese Seko and his regime in Zaire (as he renamed the country). I was led to a book called “In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz,” by Michela Wrong, a British journalist (or, more specifically, an Italo-English journalist). I couldn’t put it down. Ms. Wrong is my latest guest on Q&A, here.
She has written four other books, all concerning Africa, the latest being Do Not Disturb: The Story of a Political Murder and an African Regime Gone Bad. (That would be the regime in Rwanda, led by the atrocious Paul Kagame.)
Ms. Wrong has reported from Africa for three decades, and is one of the most admired Africa correspondents in the world. People say to her, “Oh, you must have fallen in love with Africa.” Or, “I bet you come from colonial stock.” No: She got assigned. She had wanted to go to Israel, or to Romania, after the downfall of Ceausescu. But Reuters sent her to the Ivory Coast. And she had a slew of Africa assignments thereafter.
Before going to Africa, she reported on fashion from Paris. And on the scene at the Cannes Film Festival. And on Church affairs at the Vatican. Etc. She says, “I tend to insist that whatever you write about is fascinating. All realms of human endeavor are. It’s a question of how you write about it and the depth you go into and the human angles you draw out.”
I could not agree more. Also, I think that, at a certain level, a writer is a writer. I remember an essay that William F. Buckley Jr. wrote for Cigar Aficionado. There are few subjects I could care less about than cigars. WFB’s essay, of course, was delicious.
Michela Wrong grew up in London (and for a brief period in Scotland). Her mother was Italian (hence “Michela”). Her father, Oliver Murray Wrong, was an eminent doctor and educator. One of her great-grandfathers, George Wrong, wrote standard histories of Canada. Another great-grandfather, A. L. Smith, was the master of Balliol College, Oxford.
As for Michela, she went to the Camden School for Girls in London — the alma mater also of Emma Thompson — and then to Jesus College, Cambridge. She belonged to one of the first classes that admitted women. Jesus College is known for rowing, in addition to academics. Michela rowed. (“It was the fittest I’ve ever been.”) And studied.
Being a seasoned Africa correspondent, she must have a taste for adventure, right? “No. I’m a real scaredy-cat.” As a rule, she sees the effects of conflict and violence — not the conflict and violence themselves. For example, she went into Rwanda after the genocide. Photographers and cameramen — they have to be there when the bullets are flying, she says. Text journalists are something else.
Has she ever worried about reprisals for her reporting? Yes. Kagame, for example, is famous, or infamous, for reprisals. He hunts down dissidents, journalists, and human-rights activists, not just in Rwanda itself but also abroad (“transnational oppression”). “There are moments when you get a little bit antsy,” Ms. Wrong says (in a characteristically British way). The most worrisome time, perhaps, is when you’ve done all your interviewing and gathered all your material but have not yet gone to print — “because then it would be worth taking you out.” Once you’ve gone to print, “I think you’re safer, in a way.”
The late George Ayittey, the Ghanaian economist and champion of liberty, used to say, “Africa is poor because she is not free.” Ms. Wrong says that Africa suffers from bad leadership. The continent has many countries with mineral assets, oil, hydroelectric power, forestry, and other “wonderful blessings from nature.” They ought to be “steaming ahead,” but they are held back by rotten leadership. Everyone knows about corruption. But there is also capital flight, Ms. Wrong says. And this flight reflects a belief that it’s not worth investing in your own country, your own continent.
Westerners like to talk about foreign aid, she says — aid and its effects. But you know what? Aid has damn little to do with Africa’s condition and prospects. So says Michela Wrong, and she is a damn interesting interviewee. A true-blue foreign correspondent. Again, to hear our Q&A, go here.