George Alagiah

George Alagiah talked to Newstalk on Sunday 17 May.

Listen to him answer your questions about his reporting and the changing face of Africa.

Biography

George Alagiah was born in Sri Lanka in 1955 but spent his early years in Ghana - just as African independence was emerging, a development he watched with fascination and what has proved to be enduring interest.

George was educated in Britain, gaining a degree in politics from Durham University.

His journalistic career began on the international news magazine South. George worked as Africa correspondent in Zimbabwe for a number of years before eventually becoming Africa Editor of the magazine.

He joined the BBC in 1989 and worked as a foreign correspondent specialising in Africa and the developing world until June 1994 when he was appointed South Africa correspondent, based in Johannesburg.

During that time he reported on many issues and events including the trade in human organs in India, the plight of street children in Brazil, the civil war in Liberia, the Earth Summit in Rio, Saddam Hussein's campaign against the Iraqi Kurds and the inter-ethnic massacres in Burundi and Rwanda.

George has also made to in-depth Assignment programmes. "Dereliction of Duty" looked at the role of the UN in the Somalian famine, and "Terror on Trial" which exposed war crimes following the brutal Mengistu regime in Ethiopia.

In 1993 his reporting of the famine in Somalia won him many awards and in 1994 he was awarded TV journalist of the year.

George's stint as BBC Southern Africa correpondent is shortly to come to an end, but he is currently in Sudan covering the famine. He is married with two sons.