I Didn’t Do It For You: How the World Betrayed a Small African Nation - Hardcover

Wrong, Michela

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0007150962 ISBN 13: 9780007150960

Publisher: Fourth Estate, 2005

Synopsis

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 Africa's 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 butterfly’s wings is said to cause hurricanes on the other side of the world, so the affairs of tiny Eritrea have reached onto the agenda of superpower strategists. The new book on Africa from the author of the classic, 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 world's 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 and taste for the incongruous that was the hallmark of her account of Mobutu's Congo, 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 Didn't Do It For You’ pierces the dark heart of our colonial history.

About this title

About the Author

Michela Wrong is a distinguished international journalist, and has worked as a foreign correspondent covering events across the African continent for Reuters, the BBC and the Financial Times. Based on her experiences in Africa, In the Footsteps of Mr Kurtz, won the PEN James Sterne Prize for non-fiction. I Didn’t Do It for You builds upon her shocking experiences, and focuses on Eritrea. In 2015, she published Borderlines, her first novel.

Edition details

• Publisher: Fourth Estate
• Publication date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0007150962
• ISBN 13: 9780007150960
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 448