- Author: Tim Butcher
- Publisher: Grove Press
- Published: September 1, 2009
- Pages: 384
- ISBN: 978-0802144331
This is a travelogue where the author tries to re-create a journey by Henry Stanley through the Congo in the 1870s. He mapped the river for the first time, and then helped Belguim take over the region which turned into a genuine disaster.
I have mixed feelings about this book. It kept me turning the pages and gave a solid introduction to the history of the Democractic Republic of the Congo. I’ve visited north Africa, grew up in England surrounded by people from south-east Africa, and I’ve been fortunate to know and work with many great people from west Africa. But I knew next to nothing about the Congo area and this book filled that gap. I didn’t realize how often the area appeared in western culture: the author covers books including Heart of Darkness and The Poisonwood Bible to movies like the The African Queen.
On the negative side, there was a “ruin porn” vibe. At some points, the Congo felt like a place from a dystopian novel, a real-life version of “The Last of Us”. Was that overblown? I wasn’t there on the author’s journey, but the whole approach matched the subtitle “The Terrifying Journey Through The World’s Most Dangerous Country”. The author aims to show that this was a high-functioning region until the 1950’s but has suffered multiple decades where that development was thrown into reverse.
The author’s history lesson was more interesting this his journey (which he didn’t complete). I don’t know enough to judge if the bleakness of the book is fair.