British journalist and writer who tracked Angola's 1977 massacre through interviews
Her posting as BBC correspondent in Luanda from 1998, reporting on the civil war, was what set her on the later investigation of the events of 27 May 1977.
British journalist and writer born in London. She studied African politics and history at SOAS, University of London, then worked for the BBC World Service from 1996 to 2007, based in and travelling across Angola, Ivory Coast, Mali and Ghana. Reporting on Angola's civil war as BBC correspondent in Luanda from 1998 prompted her later investigation of the events of 27 May 1977. Her book In the Name of the People: Angola's Forgotten Massacre (2014) relied on interviews in London, Lisbon and Angola because almost no archival or official documents on the massacre survive; it is not an academic history but an account of her research process that makes her own political opinions and self-questioning part of the narrative. She later published the fragmentary memoir This Is the Place to Be (2016) and the novel Spent Light (2024), and has taught creative writing at Royal Holloway.
Career Timeline
- 1990–1994BA and MSc in African politics with history, SOAS, University of London
- 1996–2007Journalist, mainly BBC World Service, reporting from Angola, Ivory Coast, Mali and Ghana
- 1998–2000BBC correspondent in Angola, reporting on the civil war
- 2006–2008Press Fellow, Wolfson College, Cambridge; Fellow, Wits Institute of Economic Research
- 2014Published In the Name of the People: Angola's Forgotten Massacre