Mary Harper

Mary Harper is a journalist and author. She is Africa Editor at BBC News. She has reported from the continent for the past twenty-five years, especially conflict zones. She has a special interest in the Horn of Africa, sea piracy and migration. She is the author of Getting Somalia Wrong? Faith, War and Hope in a Shattered State (Zed Books) and Everything You Have Told Me Is True (Hurst). She contributes to academic journals and writes for publications including The Economist, Granta, The Guardian, The Times and The Washington Post.

Mary is a Fellow of the Rift Valley Institute and the Mogadishu-based Heritage Institute for Policy Studies. She has conducted research on Somalia and other African countries for the United Nations, USAID, Small Arms Survey and other clients, and advises many institutions, including the European Commission and the British Foreign Office, on migration and the Horn of Africa. She speaks regularly at events, including conferences and literary festivals, and moderates panel discussions. She has degrees from Cambridge University and the School of Oriental and African Studies. She speaks English, French, Portuguese, Wolof and some Somali.