INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
SIMON BARBER: Trump’s Africa desk deputy cut his teeth on continent
Tibor Nagy has spent almost all of his 25-year career as a foreign service officer in one or other African post
The first triplets born in Zimbabwe after independence were American, much to Robert Mugabe’s irritation. Their father was the Hungarian refugee who Donald Trump has finally got around to asking the Senate to confirm as his assistant secretary of state for Africa. Tibor Nagy was an administration officer at the US embassy in Lusaka, Zambia, in 1980 when his wife, Eva Jane, went into labour. She had a bad case of toxemia. The nearest hospital equipped to save her was in Harare, Zimbabwe. Nagy, 69, spent almost all of his 25-year career as a foreign service officer in one or other African post, ending as ambassador in Ethiopia (during the Ethiopian-Eritrean war) and Guinea, before returning in 2003 to his alma mater, Texas Tech University, to head its international affairs programme. In 2010, he sat down to be interviewed for a candid oral history. That he cleared the transcript for public release suggests he was not expecting a return to African diplomacy. As a child in Budapest, he ...
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.
Subscribe now to unlock this article.
Support BusinessLIVE’s award-winning journalism for R129 per month (digital access only).
There’s never been a more important time to support independent journalism in SA. Our subscription packages now offer an ad-free experience for readers.
Cancel anytime.
Questions? Email helpdesk@businesslive.co.za or call 0860 52 52 00. Got a subscription voucher? Redeem it now.