African Reading Challenge 2008: I didn't do it for you

Finally, since I definitely signed up a long time ago....

Not that much has been written by Western journalists about Eritrea. Michaela Wrong decided to write all of it. While I thought her tome "I didn't do it for you: How the West betrayed a small African nation," was interesting and informative, it was way too long - like a Horn of Africa marathon that never ended.

Parts of it were fascinating, especially the chapter on Kagnew, an American military base just outside the capital Asmara. Wrong shows just how bad Americans in other parts of the world can be, from innocuous farting contests to children born to an Eritrean prostitutes and American fathers who could not be identified and would never take responsibility for their well-being.

Perhaps more books aren't written about the Horn because the level of government surveillance and disruption there functions as an effective deterrent. (But then again, that also applies to other countries that have lots of books written about them.)

I'm glad Wrong wrote this book because I'm glad to have it on my shelf as a reference and now have a better baseline of knowledge, yet I wish I could recommend it more whole-heatedly as there are so few alternatives.

Anyone else know of better books on Eritrea? Let me know.