Paul Raffaele

Award-winning foreign correspondent Paul Raffaele has written more than a dozen feature articles for Smithsonian since 2005. At the height of the rebellion, Raffaele visited northern Uganda three times to investigate Kony, the LRA and their crimes against the 25,000 children they abducted.

Raffaele began his journalism career as a cadet broadcast reporter for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation covering China, Cambodia and Vietnam in 1965. As an ABC correspondent based in Bangkok, Thailand, he further developed an already avid interest in the culture and practices of remote tribes. He went on to write features stories from Africa, Asia and Australia for Reader’s Digest in Sydney, Australia, and then turned to freelance writing in 1976.

A “professional adventurer” in the vein of 19th-century British explorer-writers, Raffaele is the author of three books: The Last Tribes on Earth: Journeys Among the World’s Most Threatened Cultures, Among the Cannibals: Adventures on the Trail of Man’s Darkest Ritual, and Among the Great Apes. He has also written features for Parade, Smithsonian magazine and numerous other media outlets.

In April 2008, while on assignment for Smithsonian in Afghanistan with photographer Steve Dupont, Raffaele suffered severe head injuries from a suicide bomb blast. His doctors report that he has now largely recovered, but some of the effects will remain with him for the rest of his life.