Today we’d like to introduce you to Ken Lizzio.
Hi Ken, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I had lived and worked in Africa for many years and, for that reason, decided I wanted to write a book about it. I started—as I often do—by perusing old diaries and journals of Europeans in Africa. After hours of searching various university catalogues, I stumbled across a narrative by a naval commander named James Hingston Tuckey. Tuckey was an English captain who led an expedition in 1816 to find the source of the Congo River. I had read all the books by explorers like Livingston, Stanley and Speke but I had never heard of Tuckey. I had lived there, in Kinshasa, for two years, so the discovery of Tuckey book seemed like an omen. I pursued it further and the result was this book on little known British explorers of the early 19th-century.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
My experience has been that writing a book always has challenges unique to it. In the case of Spectacular Failures, it was often impossible to keep track of where the explorers were and when. Some of them were not good writers and it required a lot of time to decipher the timeline. This was particularly the case with William Gray’s journey since he was in the African bush nearly five years looking for the Niger River.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I suppose you could say I have career Attention Deficit Disorder as I did not stay long in a particular position or career path. My first job was as a teacher of English in Iran where I was planning to learn Persian to pursue an interest in Sufism. But that was cut short by the Iranian Revolution in 1979. I then worked as an intelligence analyst for the CIA before transitioning as a diplomat to Zaire. I eventually returned to my one true interest earning a doctorate in Islamic mysticism based on my study under a Sufi shaikh in Afghanistan. I had no intention of pursuing a career in academe and went to work for USAID managing democracy programs in Rwanda, Tanzania, Guyana, Macedonia and elsewhere. If I am proud of anything it is for fighting to good fight, as it were, doing the right thing regardless of the consequences to me professionally or personally. Working at a senior level in the U.S. government sometimes means having to navigate highly treacherous political waters. I have seen individuals left hung out to dry because a superior, for reasons of self-interest, failed to protect a member of his staff.
Let’s talk about our city – what do you love? What do you not love?
The architecture.
The summer heat.
Contact Info:
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ken.lizzio.7
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ken-lizzio-615a2577/
