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Scarred by decades of conflict and occupation, the craggy African nation of Eritrea has weathered the world's longest-running guerrilla war. The dogged determination that secured victory against Ethiopia, its giant neighbor, is woven into the national psyche, the product of cynical foreign interventions. Fascist Italy wanted Eritrea as the springboard for a new, racially pure Roman empire; Britain sold off its industry for scrap; the United States needed a base for its state-of-the-art spy station; and the Soviet Union used it as a pawn in a proxy war.
In I Didn't Do It for You, Michela Wrong reveals the breathtaking abuses this tiny nation has suffered and, with a sharp eye for detail and a taste for the incongruous, tells the story of colonialism itself and how international power politics can play havoc with a country's destiny.
"Vivid, penetrating, wonderfully detailed. Michela Wrong has written the biography of a nation and more—she has excavated the very heart and soul of the Eritrean people and their country." —Aminatta Forna, author of The Devil That Danced on Water
"Engrossing, vividly written in the style of the best thrillers . . . I've read nothing that's told me as much about either Eritrea or Ethiopia. It should become that standard work on the region." —Anthony Sampson, author of Mandela: The Authorized Biography
"Wrong excels as a storyteller, providing evocative descriptions of Eritrea's dramatic topography and gripping dollops of military history." —The Washington Post
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
March 19, 2024 -
Formats
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Kindle Book
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OverDrive Read
- ISBN: 9780061860669
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EPUB ebook
- ISBN: 9780061860669
- File size: 1143 KB
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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March 14, 2005
Much like Wrong's In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz
(2001), covering the reign of Zaire's brutal dictator Mobutu Sese Seko, this book taps at the world's conscience, asking who is to blame for the suffering and neglect of postcolonial African states; it takes Eritrea as case study—and victim. A veteran Africa correspondent for the Financial Times
, Wrong writes in a pointedly digressive style full of narrative side roads that accommodate a daunting level of geographical and historical detail. Historical highlights include a colorful profile of the late 19th-century writer and Italian parliamentarian Ferdinando Marini that draws on his extensive memoirs about his tenure as the first civil governor of the region as an Italian colony. The early 1960s conflict, occupation and independence of this small neighbor to Ethiopia also make for a terrible, gripping story, including border disputes and bloody war with Ethiopia. A complicated history so punctuated with violence is not exactly easy to read about, but the author's extraordinary grasp of the postcolonial psyche and tormented national identity of this country makes it fascinating. Agent, Joy Harris.
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