Congo: The Epic History of a People

Product Information

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.

Some 20,000 people work at Shabara artisanal mine in the DRC, in shifts of 5,000 at a time. The DRC produced approximately 74% of the world's cobalt in 2021. Interview Highlights On how "artisanal" cobalt mines continue to operate in the DRC — despite being illegalA 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) 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. Bennett confronts the question of an artist's role in a time of conflict as an Irish novelist follows his lover to Leopoldville on the verge of independence in 1959. The brave groups of women who dare to speak up on the ground, in country after country, should not have to wage this fight in despairing and lonely isolation. They should hear the voices of scientific thunder. You understand the connections between violence against women and vulnerability to the virus. No one can challenge your understanding. Use it, I beg you, use it.” Magical, multi-voiced account of a family's spiralling doom at a remote mission station in the Congo around the time of independence in 1960. Narrated in turns by the mother and the daughters, it captures the singsong sound of Lingala, the language of the lower river, and the jungle's hidden terrors. The day the ant column comes, consuming all before it, forcing the villagers to decide what - and whom - they can leave behind is unforgettable. 8. The Catastrophist, Ronan Bennett (1998)

This deeply symbolic novel is dedicated: “To all Kenyans struggling against the neocolonial stage of imperialism.” It was written on toilet paper in prison, when Ngũgĩ was detained without trial. Here, the devil represents the international financiers and bankers, in collaboration with Kenya’s elite. One of the devil’s disciples advocates extreme versions of privatisation, including the sale of bottled air. “We could even import some air from abroad, imported air, which we could then sell to the people at special prices!” The story ends with a thrilling act of resistance by its heroine, Jacinta Wariinga. The form of the novel is itself an act of resistance: it was originally written in Gikuyu, not English, to foster a national literature in one of the Kenyan languages. The Republic of the Congo is one of the most urbanized countries in Africa, with nearly 70% of Congolese living in urban areas. The population is concentrated in the southwest of the country, mainly in the capital Brazzaville, Pointe-Noire, and along the railway line that connects the two. The tropical jungles in the north of the country are sparsely populated. Most Congolese are Bantu, and most belong to one of four main ethnic groups, the Kongo, Teke, Mbochi, and Sangha, which consist of over 70 subgroups. Kingsolver wears her politics on her sleeve and fearlessly skewers colonialism, patriarchy and religious fanaticism, while also reflecting on guilt and personal responsibility. We Wish To Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families by Philip Gourevitch (1999) 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’.” Imagine a mountain of gravel and stone just avalanching down on people, crushing legs and arms, spines. I met people whose legs had been amputated, who had metal bars in where their legs used to be. 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. Mudimbe, a respected philosopher and writer on Africa, was born in what was then the Belgian Congo. He teaches literature at Duke University in the US. Dancing in the Glory of Monsters by Jason Stearns