Mary Anne Fitzgerald
Mary Anne Fitzgerald has covered eastern and West Africa for the Financial Times, International Herald Tribune, the Economist, and the Sunday Times of London. She is the author of 11 books on Africa, including the bestselling Nomad: One woman's journey into the heart of Africa. Most recently she was the lead writer for Ethiopia: The living churches of an ancient kingdom. As a co-founder of SAIDIA, a sustainable development organisation serving 50,000 in northern Kenya, she teaches women to become politicians and renovates schools. While heading the Africa office of a Washington-based human rights organisation she brought the existence of slaves in Libya and child soldiers in Ethiopia to the attention of the US Senate and the UN. Her advocacy has changed policy toward famine alleviation in Ethiopia and the resettlement in the US of South Sudan's 'Lost Boys' and unaccompanied children. She lives with her family in Nairobi.