Congo: The Epic History of a People

Product Information

Neocolonialism takes various forms, including the sponsorship of culture. This study of the CIA during the cold war reveals the story of the Congress for Cultural Freedom, a CIA front based in Paris, which was active on five continents, including Africa. Among an astonishing breadth of activities, it subsidised conferences, cultural centres, books and magazines, including Encounter in London. “Soon enough”, exclaimed the Nigerian writer Wole Soyinka in disgust, “we would discover that we had been dining, and with relish, with the original of that serpentine incarnation, the devil himself, romping in our postcolonial Garden of Eden and gorging on the fruits of the Tree of Knowledge!” Imagine an entire population of people who cannot survive without scrounging in hazardous conditions for a dollar or two a day. There is no alternative there. The mines have taken over everything. Interview Highlights On how "artisanal" cobalt mines continue to operate in the DRC — despite being illegal

That’s a masterpiece. A must for anyone willing to approach the subject of the DRC, a very complex subject that can be understood with this book.

There are some incidents that are just so burned into me that they'll come at me just like a terror, and it's hard. I just hope I've done justice to those stories and to the people who shared their tragedies with me, courageously shared these tragedies with me. I just want their voices [to] reach the world and then the world will decide what to do with the truth and the testimonies of the Congolese people. But if I've done some justice to bringing those voices out into the world that can scarcely function without the suffering of the Congolese people, then it's all worth it. Even the nightmares and the terrors, it's all worth it. Senate - percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party - PCT 46, independent 12, MAR 2, RDPS 2, UPADS 2, DRD 1, FP 1, MCDDI 1, PRL 1, Pulp 1, PUR 1, RC 1; composition - men 58, women 14, percent of women 19.4% The Poisonwood Bible spans 30 years in the life of the family as it slowly implodes – under pressures brought on by the intransigent father and political and social upheaval in the country – and then rebuilds itself. The naturalist and travel writer sets off on an intrepid river journey in search of the legendary Mokele-mbembe. O'Hanlon confronts natural perils, corruption and poverty with his trademark mixture of gallows humour and laconic understatement, offering a perspective on the Congo focusing more on the people and animals who live there than the region's troubled politics. A more convincing account of the turbulent start to Congo colonialism. Ward was one of the foot soldiers hired by Stanley when he returned to claim the vast river basin, employed by the Belgian king, Leopold II. Ward learnt river languages to fluency, survived paddling thousands of miles up and down disease-ridden reaches and managed to retain some sense of humility throughout. 3. Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad (1899)

A searing analysis of the 1994 Rwandan genocide which unleashed a wave of instability in the Congo region. Gourevitch combines interviews with victims and their killers and his own first-hand accounts of travelling around the region in the aftermath of the Interahamwe killings. He also builds a powerful case against the international community, whose inaction made it the unwilling accomplice of Hutu power. The Minister is attracted by the wealth and power of office, and appears to have little concern for his country or its people. Ya left her village to avoid an arranged marriage, and has her heart set on enjoying life in the big city. She wants nothing to do with the anti-government rebellion of her tribe, which is led by her father, a village chief. Their personal stories are inextricably linked to the turmoil within the country as it struggles for nationhood. Each has committed a grievous act of betrayal against the other, which costs them dear. Loyalty, deceit and greed lie at the heart of the tale.Stearns bravely sets out to counter the west's indifference and ignorance, doing much dangerous and arduous legwork to hear from key players – both perpetrators and victims – and eyewitnesses. He attempts to understand why Congo has been in turmoil for decades and stability has been so elusive. The novel is written from the perspectives of Orleanna Price and her daughters, who tell the story in turn. We never hear directly from Nathan, but his presence and stifling righteousness loom large, and the King James Bible echoes through the storytelling. This business of discrimination against and oppression of women is the world’s most poisonous curse. Nowhere is it felt with greater catastrophic force than in the AIDS pandemic. This audience knows the statistics full well: you’ve chronicled them, you’ve measured them, the epidemiologists amongst you have disaggregated them. What has to happen, with one unified voice, is that the scientific community tells the political community that it must understand one incontrovertible fact of health: bringing an end to sexual violence is a vital component in bringing an end to AIDS. Foreign powers have been meddling in the Congo ever since the Belgian king Leopold II sent Stanley off in pursuit of the region's enormous mineral wealth. And central Africa's crises and conflicts have been charted by novelists and historians from Joseph Conrad to John Le Carré. Just as Conrad was instrumental in confronting westerners with the brutality of colonialism, writers such as Philip Gourevitch have been crucial in highlighting the instability and chaos which have swept through the region since the Rwandan genocide of 1994. Here we gather together some of the best writing about the region, both fiction and non-fiction. domestic: fixed-line infrastructure inadequate, providing less than 1 fixed-line connection per 100 persons; mobile-cellular 97 per 100 persons (2021)

Written in the mid-1960s but only published recently, this book reminds us of the heady days when lefties acted on their belief that revolution was to be exported. Guevara found himself fighting against white mercenaries in the eastern badlands of the Congo. Four decades later, and the fighting has still not really stopped. 10. A Bend In The River, VS Naipaul (1979)Sankara, the president of Burkina Faso from 1983-1987, is currently in the news because an investigation has just begun into his assassination. This collection of his interviews and speeches provides a window on his programmes to improve people’s lives, involving land redistribution, literacy and education, a focus on women’s rights and a massive vaccination scheme. Revered as Africa’s Che Guevara, Sankara defied neocolonial control by France, the former colonial power, and the US. He described debt, presented as aid, as “neocolonialism, in which colonisers transformed themselves into ‘technical assistance’. We should say ‘technical assassins’.” The author says she "spent nearly 30 years waiting for the wisdom and maturity to write this book". The result is hugely ambitious and enjoyable. Before the Birth of the Moon by Valentin Y Mudimbe