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Poking holes in Wrong's new book 'Do not Disturb'
Michela Wrong’s new book, Do not Disturb, is the story of a political murder and an African regime gone bad.
The writer, who has made a career
trading in demeaning stereotypes of Africans in previous works that include In
the Footsteps of Mr Kurtz about the last days of Zairean president Mobutu Sese
Seko, and It’s our Turn to Eat billed as “an analysis of why Kenya descended
into political violence”, is at it again. This time she has the president of
Rwanda in her crosshairs.
In Wrong’s words, the Congolese
have been portrayed in barely disguised terms as a people that only like to
have a good time, and dance in the bars as if there isn’t a worry for tomorrow
although their ruler long ago took the country to the cleaners. As for any
Kenyan that goes into politics, especially members of the Kikuyu community, the
takeaway is that in them corruption is a near congenital illness.
But in none of her previous books
is the British journalist’s racist stereotyping of an African people more
pronounced than in Do Not Disturb.
The book opens by calling all
Rwandans, literally, liars. Wrong, of course, has a character witness. It is
none other than Ewart Grogan, like Wrong, a white Briton. Citing a trip to
Rwanda in 1899, Wrong writes that Grogan “railed bitterly about the mendacity”
of local guides. “Lies, lies, lies, I was sick to death of them. Of all the
liars in Africa, I believe the people of Ruanda are by far the most thorough,”
Wrong quotes Grogan.
Kenyans know Grogan as one of the
most brutal colonial settlers. In March 1907, Grogan brutally whipped three
Kenyan porters, crippling two and causing the death of another. Their crime?
They had given Grogan’s sister and her friend too bumpy a ride in the rickshaw!
You have to marvel that, in the 21st century, Wrong passes off the racist
rantings of Grogan as confirmation of what she herself has to say about
Africans. Even more astonishing is that the editors and publishers saw no problem
with this.
Murder in South Africa
Do Not Disturb centres on the
murder of Patrick Karegeya, a former Rwandan intelligence chief, in a hotel
room in Johannesburg on New Year’s Day 2014 — a crime that Wrong flatly
accuses, in fact indicts, President Paul Kagame for.
South African authorities —
including the elite Hawks, equivalent of the FBI — investigated the crime but
were unable to reach any conclusion to indicate anyone from Rwanda was
responsible. On January 19, 2019, the Randburg Magistrates Court ruled that it
was striking the murder inquest from its rolls.
When he fled to South Africa in
2007, Karegeya declared violent insurrection. He and his friend Kayumba
Nyamwasa — also a former member of the Rwandan military — co-founded a
political group, Rwanda National Congress (RNC), in 2010. Its purpose, they
declared, “was to take power in Rwanda, by any means possible”. But would this
be the basis for one to declare Rwanda the culprit in Karegeya’s demise? We are
not talking of conversations in bars, but the authoritative words of an
established author.
Wrong’s sources throughout the book
should raise an eyebrow. First up are Karegeya’s family and close circle: his
wife, his (grown) children, his surrogate son, his partner Nyamwasa, even his
mother. In other words, people with a sense of grievance, and those with the
most interest in demonising President Kagame.
Wrong did not speak to anyone in
the government, and early in the book pre-empts questions about her choice with
an unconvincing explanation.
Over the years, however, the
narratives Wrong adopts, and promotes, aimed at delegitimising the
administration in Kigali have unravelled. Take the biggest issue, the 1994
Genocide against the Tutsi. Even before Genocide began, the extremist Hutu Power
planners had designated the RPF as the perpetrator. This myth continued and was
amplified in the countries to which the biggest suspects had fled — mainly
France — where the family of the former president Habyarimana had settled,
along with key former officials.
The RNC continues to push this
conspiracy theory, and have found an enthusiastic megaphone in Wrong.
But two French magistrates, Marc
Trevidic and Nathalie Poux in 2017, declared there was no way the RPF could
have brought down Habyarimana’s plane. No prizes for guessing why Wrong fails
to mention any of the reports that discredit what her friends have told her.
Admitting one truth sends wrong’s
whole case cascading, like a house of cards.