Keith Richburg /
Keith Richburg of The Washington Post was promoted to foreign editor after showing brilliance as a foreign correspondent. And he left that to go back to the road where the story is. An inner city kid from Detroit, son of a tough union negotiator, Richburg went from the University of Michigan to an advanced degree from the London School of Economics. At the Post, editors heard his shaky French and sent him to cover trouble in Haiti. That turned out to be the dramatic fall of Baby Doc, Francois Duvalier. He soon found himself in Asia.
Richburg’s specialty is devouring books and then dumping them in a corner to see news through the eyes of the ordinary people who make it, in Europe’s urban jungles or real jungles from Sumatra to Kasai. Based in Manila and Hong Kong, he developed a deep love for Asia. Traveling from Nairobi, he looked at Africa as a reporter must: 50-odd countries and hundreds of tribes which elude any generality or simplification. Being black, he saw, was neither a cultural nor a sociological definition.
As Paris bureau chief, Richburg explored a rich texture of immigrant societies. After 9/11, he rode a horse into Afghanistan and then drove a jeep into Iraq. He watched world opinion turn against America – and Americans who turned against journalists who pointed this out.
-
Contributions
-
RSS
Facebook
Twitter