Michela Wrong presents,
“Do Not Disturb: The Story of a Political Murder and an African Regime Gone Bad“
When: Wednesday, September 8, 2021, 4:00 p.m. (NOTE: earlier time than usual due to speaker’s location in England)
Where: Online on Zoom. Register in advance to receive the link via email.
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Presenter: Michela Wrong, author and journalist
The Topic: “Do Not Disturb: The Story of a Political Murder and an African Regime Gone Bad,” based on Wrong’s book of the same name, available for purchase from local bookstore Bank Square Books.
In the wake of the 1994 genocide, Rwanda under President Paul Kagame has been hailed as a model of a modern African state: spotlessly clean, well-run and scoring impressively on every development index. A new book by writer Michela Wrong challenges this portrayal, highlighting instead a long history of violence by Rwanda’s ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front and the extraordinary lengths to which it goes to hunt down perceived enemies abroad.
She tells the story through the men and women who have known Kagame since childhood, who befriended, fought, and worked alongside him only to eventually fall out and be dubbed enemies of the state. The picture she paints suggests a fundamental reassessment of Kagame’s legacy and the West’s relationship with authoritarian regimes in Africa is long overdue.
Michela Wrong has spent nearly three decades writing about Africa, first as a Reuters correspondent based in Cote d’Ivoire and former Zaire, and then as the Financial Times Africa correspondent, based in Kenya. From journalism, she moved into book-writing.
Previous books include “In the Footsteps of
Mr. Kurtz”, the story of Mobutu Sese Seko, “I Didn’t do it for You”, focussing on Eritrea, “It’s Our Turn to Eat”, an examination of Kenyan corruption, and “Borderlines”, a novel set in the Horn of Africa. Her latest book, “Do Not Disturb”, is a scathing assessment of the Rwandan Patriotic Front and President Paul Kagame. She is based in London.
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