Book Description

In the 1880s, as the European powers were carving up Africa, King Leopold II of Belgium seized for himself the vast and mostly unexplored territory surrounding the Congo River. Carrying out a genocidal plundering of the Congo, he looted its rubber, brutalized its people, and ultimately slashed its population by ten million--all the while shrewdly cultivating his reputation as a great humanitarian. Heroic efforts to expose these crimes eventually led to the first great human rights movement of the twentieth century, in which everyone from Mark Twain to the Archbishop of Canterbury participated. King Leopold's Ghost is the haunting account of a megalomaniac of monstrous proportions, a man as cunning, charming, and cruel as any of the great Shakespearean villains. It is also the deeply moving portrait of those who fought Leopold: a brave handful of missionaries, travelers, and young idealists who went to Africa for work or adventure and unexpectedly found themselves witnesses to a holocaust. Adam Hochschild brings this largely untold story alive with the wit and skill of a Barbara Tuchman. Like her, he knows that history often provides a far richer cast of characters than any novelist could invent. Chief among them is Edmund Morel, a young British shipping agent who went on to lead the international crusade against Leopold. Another hero of this tale, the Irish patriot Roger Casement, ended his life on a London gallows. Two courageous black Americans, George Washington Williams and William Sheppard, risked much to bring evidence of the Congo atrocities to the outside world. Sailing into the middle of the story was a young Congo River steamboat officer named Joseph Conrad. And looming above them all, the duplicitous billionaire King Leopold II. With great power and compassion, King Leopold's Ghost will brand the tragedy of the Congo--too long forgotten--onto the conscience of the West. ... Read more

Reviews (123)

10 Million Dead - Hochschild documents the Congo holocaust
Researcher Adam Hochschild provides a lurid and surprisingly fascinating account of the brutal exploitation of the Congo under the rule of King Leopold II of Belgium and beyond. With the real-life stories of Henry Morton Stanley, William Sheppard, Leon Rom, Joseph Conrad, Roger Casement and others as foundation, Hochschild is able to outline the rise of Leopold, and to paint a vivid portrait of his development from an unlikable and oafish young heir of the Belgian throne to a cunning and vicious ruler responsible for the death of approximately 10 million African men, women and children. More than that, this book is also the story of E.D. Morel, an Englishman whose chance discovery of apparent misdeeds in so-called "trade" with the Congo gave rise to the most extensive and politically powerful anti-slavery and anti-colonization movements of the century.

I recommend this title for its readability (few historians ever make their subject matter as accessible to general readers), its underlying - and savvy - political analysis of the brutality of European colonization across Africa, and its detailed account of what it took to launch, extend and sustain a human rights movement.

I recommend pairing this work with Michela Wrong's "In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz," which details Congo's later struggles under dictator Mobutu Sese Seko.

Horrifying history of colonial cruelty!
Lets face it! Belgium is not a country that readily springs tomind when one thinks of perpetrators of mass murder &genocide. This makes the harrowing story of King Leopold's Ghost all the more harrowing. His single-minded, obsessive desire to carve out a piece of the "African cake", that most of his neighbouring European colleagues were busy doing in the late 19th. century, is fascinating enough. His cunning use of contempory international personalities, the manipulation of the media, the guise of an anti-slavery organisation to further his ends, might even allow one a grudging admiration for the man's abilities. However, his cavalier indifference to the suffering & death of millions of the Congo natives that he caused in the sordid pursuit of personal profit, is quite simply appalling. One is left with a feeling of admiration for the fierce & dauntless opponants of this tyranical regime, contempt for the lily-livered support they received from statesmen of so-called enlightened countries & loathing for the king that brought these deeds to pass. The book, I would mention, is well written, well researched & recommended.

The Unknown???
King Leopold-this is a story that deserved to be told but wasn't. It was one of the biggest and one of the cruelest colonial regimes in Africa. It is a story of manipulation, drama, brutal murders, corruption, and immorality. In my opinion, King Leopold of Belgium is one of history's most notorious characters. Due to Leopold being the heir to the throne, as a child he was drawn towards wealth and indulgence. Greed drove him. Even into his adulthood, greed and self-indulgence were the traits that surfaced when he realized through gaining colonies he could continue to accumulate his riches. He positioned himself as a concerned leader of the people who wanted to combat the Arab slave trade that pervaded Africa. In the public eye, he was seen as a humanitarian, but the real facts didn't support that popular opinion and contradicted his image. Leopold used unethical methods to acquire his land. He ordered his men to force the natives, the Congolese, into manual labor. His inhumane treatment of them was characterized by killings, whippings, destruction of crops and local villages, and taking, as hostages, the wives and children for those who resisted or didn't produce enough rubber or ivory for the day. According to the author, Adam Hochschild, there was an estimated ten million Congolese deaths during Leopold's colonization process. (That sounds familiar.) Sadly, King Leopold's name isn't mentioned with the Hitlers and the Stalins of world history in the classrooms, as it rightfully should be. As people during that time started to find out the truth, Leopold resorted to cover-ups, lawsuits and bribery. In my opinion, Hochschild has done a fantastic job telling a story that most haven't heard to enable them to understand the outcome and, more importantly, the motives behind it.

A great read
This is a must read if you are at all interested in Africa and the atrocities commited there. Normally i don't like history books, but after reading the introduction I was hooked. it is very easy to read, and reads like a novel. It is a history of King leopold's Congo, how came to be and how it was brought down by the hard work of a few individuals that created a world wide mouvement to stop him. The book discribes in detail the horrors that occured and how the people of the Congo were mistreated. Hochschild has a way of bringing the charachters to life through revealing their past and showing them as real human beings as opposed to one dimentional characters from history. In the beging of the book he discribes the history of the Congo, and how King Leopold aquired it. In the second half of the book he shows how his rein was pulled down by the first major humanitarian effort of the last century.

A Colonial Morality Play
The story in "King Leopold's Ghost" is a powerful one -- colonization taken to its extreme -- but the book is rendered mediocre by the author's trite moralizing, lack of historical rigor, and tiresome reliance on depicting every actor with either a halo or horns.

Hochschild's constant speculation into motives and fits of amateur psychoanalysis made it difficult to separate the matters of record from dramatic characterizations. The substantive research is rather thin and commonly presented in relative terms such as "many", "some", and "few" without context for comparison. At no point did I gain a clear insight into how widespread or coordinated were the atrocities or how damaging the secondary effects may have been (the chapter addressing this is awfully feeble). Leopold, here an antagonist of extraordinary guile, is only weakly connected to the governmental and business interests with which he worked; the reader is given pages of anecdote concerning the king's depravity with nearly no overview of the system in which he operated.

The final chapter is a model of the book's flaws. It considers the Belgian process of forgetting which followed their foray into colonialism, aided by international sympathy during the first world war. Instead of pursuing this interesting and somewhat complicated topic in more detail, however, we are duly regaled with additional vignettes of heroism and villainy. The book then concludes with a sermon aimed squarely at us in the choir. While some readers might find this inspirational, it bored me.

Assuming that research into the history of the Belgian Congo is ongoing, I'll look for a more definitive and less melodramatic account. ... Read more

Book Description

This book combines ethnography with the study of art topresent afascinating new vision of African history. It contains the paintings ofa singleartist depicting Zaire's history, along with a series of ethnographicessaysdiscussing local history, its complex relationship to forms of self- expressionand self-understanding, and the aesthetics of contemporary urban AfricanandThird World societies. As a collaboration between ethnographer andpainter, thisinnovative study challenges text-oriented approaches to understandinghistoryand argues instead for an event- and experience-oriented model,ultimatelyadding a fresh perspective to the discourse on the relationship betweenmodernity and tradition. During the 1970s, Johannes Fabian encouraged Tshibumba Kanda Matulu topaint thehistory of Zaire. The artist delivered the work in batches, togetherwith anoral narrative. Fabian recorded these statements along with his ownquestion- and-answer sessions with the painter. The first part of the book is thecompleteseries of 100 paintings, with excerpts from the artist's narrative andtheartist-anthropologist dialogues. Part Two consists of Fabian's essaysabout thisand other popular painting in Zaire. The essays discuss such topics asperformance, orality, history, colonization, and popular art. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Manylayered views of Congo/Zaire's history [4 1/2 stars]
Anthropologist Johannes Fabian performed an outstanding service in sponsoring painter/historian Tshibumba's unique vision of his country's history. His words and the paintings themselves offer a rather romantic look at precolonial life, but a searing indictment of the epoch of Belgian rule. The interpretation of the Mobutu period is more equivocal, partly due to living under the authority of that regime, but also because Tshibumba genuinely admired some of Mobutu's achievements. Our painter vanished (presumably deceased) in the mid to late 1970s just as the tyrant's control began to go sour; it would be fascinating to read and see how Tshibumba assessed Mobutu's decline and fall.

His history operates on three levels---through his startling folk images, his own words, and the dialogue which emerges out of interviews with Fabian. The result is probably the most fully realized popular interpretation of the history of any African country, though oriented toward Tshibumba's home province of Katanga (Shaba). Fabian's essays in Part II further enhance our understanding of their joint project, though some are dense enough to deter some students and lay readers, thus 4 1/2 stars. Overall, a stunning and memorable collaboration. If only we had more like it....

For another indigenous perspective on many of the same events, by a Katangan girl who grew to womanhood during the Mobutu era, see Suruba Wechsler, "By the Grace of God," less penetrating but rather more accessible. Useful background material is also available in works by Eduard Bustin, Crawford Young, and Phyllis Martin and David Birmingham.

Manylayered views of Congo/Zaire history [4 1/2 stars]
Anthropologist Johannes Fabian performed an outstanding service in sponsoring artist/historian Tshibumba's unique vision of his country's history. His words and the paintings themselves offer a rather romantic look at precolonial life, but a searing indictment of the epoch of Belgian rule. The interpretation of the Mobutu period is more equivocal, partly due to living under the authority of that regime, but also because Tshibumba genuinely admired some of Mobutu's achievements. Our artist vanished (presumably deceased) in the mid to late 1970s just as the tyrant's control began to go sour; it would be fascinating to read and see how Tshibumba assessed Mobutu's decline and fall.

His history operates on three levels---through his startling folk images, his own words, and the dialogue which emerges out of interviews with Fabian. The result is probably the most fully realized popular interpretation of the history of any African country, though oriented toward Tshibumba's home province of Katanga (Shaba). Fabian's essays in Part II further enhance our understanding of their joint project, though a couple are dense enough to deter some students and lay readers, thus 4 1/2 stars. Overall, a stunning and memorable collaboration. If only we had more like it....

For another indigenous perspective on many of the same events, by a Katangese girl who grew to womanhood during the Mobutu era, see Suruba Wechsler, "By the Grace of God," less penetrating but rather more accessible. Useful background material is also available in works by Edouard Bustin, Thomas Kanza, Crawford Young, and David Birmingham & Phyllis Martin. ... Read more

Book Description

This book begins with a survey of Congo's early history, when diverse peoples such as the Luba, the Kuba, and the Nilotic inhabited the area, and continues by tracing the country's history through the Belgian period of colonization and the dictatorships of Mobutu and Kabila. Biographical portraits present important figures in Congo's storied history. ... Read more

Book Description

Reviews (1)

Endless Tragedy
Edgar O'Ballance gives an even-handed account of the tragic history of the Congo from its independence to 1998. Talk about a country that never got a break - from Belgian colonizers, cold-war intrigues, tribal rivalries, mercenaries and despots. As a journalist who has covered the country since 1960 and has interviewed a number of the major power-brokers, O'Ballance leads the reader through the timeline in detail and depth - though maybe more than a newcomer to the subject can initially grasp. This is an especially timely piece for anyone who wants to understand not only the complexities of the current war in the Congo, but also the troubles in neighboring countries, Rwanda and Burundi. ... Read more

Book Description

Written over a century ago, Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness continues to dominate our vision of the Congo, unlikely as it might seem that a late-Victorian novella could encapsulate a country roughly equal in size to the United States east of the Mississippi. Conrad's Congo is hell itself, a place where civilization won't take, where literal and metaphor darknesses converge, and where human conduct, unmoored from social (Western, in other words) norms, turns barbaric. As Robert Edgerton shows in this crisply narrated yet sweeping work of history, the Congo is still trying to awaken from the nightmare of its past, struggling to pull free from the grip of the "heart of darkness" cliche.

Plundered for centuries for its natural resources (which remain Africa's most abundant), the Congo was not always a place of horror. Before the Portuguese landed on its shores at the end of the 15th century, it was a prosperous and thriving region. The Congo River, the world's second longest as well as the deepest, and one of the only routes to the continent's interior, provided indigenous populations with ample means for living and trading. What the Portuguese found first to exploit were people, and with the slave trade began a dizzying downward spiral of conquest and degradation that continued for centuries. By the 19th century the race to explore the full length of the legendary river masked a fight for territorial and moral control among the French, Arabs, British, Germans, as well as American missionaries, all of whom dreamed of possessing Africa's very heart. When King Leopold of Belgium managed to solidify control in 1885, the Congo "question" seemed solved. His reign, of course, was almost pathological in its cruelty-the true source of Conrad's "horror"-and its grim legacy endures to this day.

Edgerton documents the Congo's long, sad history with a sense of empathy with and admiration for the character of the land and its inhabitants. Since independence in June 1960, the country has endured the machinations and disappointments of one dictator after another, beginning with Patrice Lumumba, and continuing through Joseph Mobutu, Laurent Kabila, and today Kabila's son, Joseph, who assumed power after his father was assassinated in January 2001. Whether called the "Congo Free State," or "Zaire," or the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the country remains perilously unstable.

The Troubled Heart of Africa is the only book to give a complete history of the Congo, filling in the blanks in the country's history before the advent of Henry Stanley, David Livingstone, King Leopold, and other figures, and carrying us straight into today's headlines. The Congo continues today to be the subject of intense speculation and concern, and with good reason: upon it hangs the fate of sub-Sahara Africa as a whole. Here is a book that helps us face the stark truths of the Congo's past and appreciate both the enormous potential and uncertainty of its future.
... Read more

Reviews (1)

A summary history of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Another fine book from Edgerton. For an anthropologist, Edgerton does a good job writing history. There have been several fine books about the Congo Free State and even Mobutu's Zaire, but none have wrapped up the history of this huge country as Edgerton has in this recent book. Basically, the author starts out with the description of the country, followed by a chapters on discovering the Congo, the Congo Free State, Belgian Congo, the independence and civil war period, and Mobutu's Zaire.

The history goes through 2001.
I would have loved to see some views on what will happen to the Congo. Edgerton states that this country is rich in natural resources, but I wonder if it can really remain one single country due to the many tribes who live in the DRC. Ethnic hatreds flamed by neighboring aggressive countries will test the strength of this country remaining as one. If not, perhaps the DRC and it's people will continue to hang on after more bad governments. For those interested in Africa, this is a worthwhile book. ... Read more

Book Description

??lfirst-hand account of inexplicable brutality, day-to-day suffering, and survival, Marie Beatrice Umutesi sheds light on the other genocide that targeted the Hutu refugees of Rwanda after the victory of the Rwandan Patriotic Front in 1994. Umutesi's documentation of the flight and terror of these years provides the world a veritable account of a history that is still widely unknown. After translations from its original French into three other languages, this important book is available in English for the first time. It is more than a testimony to the lives and humanity lost; it is a call for those politicians, military personnel, and humanitarian organizations responsible for the atrocious crimes--and the devastating silence--to be held accountable. ... Read more

Book Description

A Colonial Lexicon is the first historical investigation of how childbirth became medicalized in Africa. Rejecting the “colonial encounter” paradigm pervasive in current studies, Nancy Rose Hunt elegantly weaves together stories about autopsies and bicycles, obstetric surgery and male initiation, to reveal how concerns about strange new objects and procedures fashioned the hybrid social world of colonialism and its aftermath in Mobutu’s Zaire.

Relying on archival research in England and Belgium, as well as fieldwork in the Congo, Hunt reconstructs an ethnographic history of a remote British Baptist mission struggling to survive under the successive regimes of King Leopold II’s Congo Free State, the hyper-hygienic, pronatalist Belgian Congo, and Mobutu’s Zaire. After exploring the roots of social reproduction in rituals of manhood, she shows how the arrival of the fast and modern ushered in novel productions of gender, seen equally in the forced labor of road construction and the medicalization of childbirth. Hunt focuses on a specifically interwar modernity, where the speed of airplanes and bicycles correlated with a new, mobile medicine aimed at curbing epidemics and enumerating colonial subjects. Fascinating stories about imperial masculinities, Christmas rituals, evangelical humor, colonial terror, and European cannibalism demonstrate that everyday life in the mission, on plantations, and under a strongly Catholic colonial state was never quite what it seemed. In a world where everyone was living in translation, privileged access to new objects and technologies allowed a class of “colonial middle figures”—particularly teachers, nurses, and midwives—to mediate the evolving hybridity of Congolese society. Successfully blurring conventional distinctions between precolonial, colonial, and postcolonial situations, Hunt moves on to discuss the unexpected presence of colonial fragments in the vibrant world of today’s postcolonial Africa.

With its close attention to semiotics as well as sociology, A Colonial Lexiconwill interest specialists in anthropology, African history, obstetrics and gynecology, medical history, religion, and women’s and cultural studies. ... Read more

Book Description

Book Description

There is a broad consensus among those who are concerned with Africa that the plight of the continent isapproaching the catastrophic. Partly the roots of the problem are historical, stemming from the exploitation and colonisation of the continent by European powers. An appreciation of the history of the relationship between Europe and Africa, a major episode of which this book examines, is indispensable to an understanding of the continent's present predicament. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries King Leopold II of the Belgians established a colony in Africa, which, as the Congo Free State, became a byword for unremitting exploitation and widespread atrocities. This book describes the creation, the development and the collapse both of this regime and of the Belgian colony that replaced it. Conclusions are drawn about the nature of European colonialism in Africa and the consequences for Europe itself. ... Read more

Book Description

Congo-Paris investigates the transnational trade between Central Africa and Europe by focusing on the lives of individual traders from Kinshasa and Brazzaville who operate across national frontiers and often outside the law. The personal networks of ethnicity, kinship, religion, and friendship constructed by the traders fashion a world of their own, whether in Cairo or Paris. This lively book shows that it is not just the big multinationals who benefit from jets and mobile phones. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

This lively book shows benefit from jets and mobile phones.
Congo-Paris: Transnational Traders on the Margins of the Law is about globalization as practiced by Congolese traders who operate a thriving second economy linking Central Africa and Europe. She investigates the transnational trade between Central Africa and Europe by focusing on the lives of individual traders from Kinshasa and Brazzaville, who operate across national frontiers and often outside the law. Challenging the boundaries of anthropology, Janet MacGaffey follows complex international networks to examine the ways in which the African second economy has been extended transnationally and globally on the margins of the law. Who are these traders? What strategies do they have, not only to survive but also to shine? What kinds of networks do they rely on? What implications does their trade have for the study of globalization? The personal networks of ethnicity, kinship, religion, and friendship constructed by the traders fashion a world of their own. From Johannesburg to Cairo and from Dakar to Nairobi as well as in Paris, the Congolese traders are renowned and envied. This lively book shows that it is not just the multinationals that benefit from jets and mobile phones.

Crossing boundaries, in more ways than one
"Congo-Paris" is a fine example of the recent trend in anthropology away from the localized study of communities and towards analysis that transcends geographic boundaries. Not that this study is "multi-sited" (to use the dominant buzzword): MacGaffey and Bazenguissa conducted their fieldwork for the book entirely in Paris, interviewing dozens of subjects from both Congo-Brazzaville and Congo-Kinshasa. But Paris is just one venue in these transnational subjects' life histories as they range back and forth across national, legal, commercial, and cultural frontiers.

While the authors set out to validate the Congolese quest for relief from political and economic hardship at home, the image they present of this loosely-defined community of traders will do nothing for its image abroad. These individuals define themselves through the act of quietly circumventing the rules (particularly import duties and immigration laws), resisting governmental authority without manifesting any visible signs of dissent. This is understandable, given the corrupt and authoritarian Congolese regimes of recent decades. But the transnational traders' ethos of stealthy noncompliance extends to their overseas existence as well, with the result in these Parisian cases being a gamut of criminal activity from smuggling and apartment squatting to drug dealing and theft. "Model immigrants" they are not, regardless of whether their behavior represents a survival strategy. One wonders just how representative this underworld is of the larger community of Congolese living in Paris, and whether those Congolese living more lawful existences there object to being tarred with this brush of illegality.

Such moral qualms aside, I give "Congo-Paris" high marks for its thorough and penetrating analysis of its subjects, a very difficult group to interview given its members' legal status and clandestine activities. No doubt its success owes much to the collaboration between MacGaffey (British) and Bazenguissa (Congolese). The book also skillfully negotiates the difficult and shifting theoretical territory of anthropology to bring outside perspectives to bear on its subjects. Finally, it makes a strong case for redefining anthropology in the context of ongoing processes of globalization. I suspect that we will be seeing a good many more studies like this one in the future. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

A must read for those interested in Che
Filled with excerpts from Che's own Congo diary and replete with insights into the failures of the Cuban backed People's Liberation Army. A haunting look at some of the same failures that would befall Che and lead to his capture and execution in Bolivia. A great read!

Che's episodes in Africa
A great and detailed account of Che's not so famous campaign in Africa. Well written; you can actually capture Che's philosophy and lifestyle.

juarez sant' anna filho
adress:av. getulio vargas, 1351/607 - porto alegre-rs-brasil - cep; 90150-005 ... Read more

Book Description

Ernesto "Che" Guevara was one of the greatest exemplars of the revolutionary 1960s, a man whose heroic adventures were essential to the success of the Cuban Revolution and whose legend fired the imaginations of a whole generation. In 1965, amid worldwide conjecture, Guevara left Cuba, where he was a minister in Fidel Castro's postrevolutionary government, and traveled incognito to the heart of Africa. People's hero Patrice Lumumba had recently been assassinated, and Guevara was to put his theories of guerrilla warfare to use helping the oppressed people of the Congo throw off the yoke of colonial imperialism. The first task was to assist the young Laurent Kabila in his struggle against Mobutu and Tshombe, the two key figures in the newly independent nation. For the first time, The African Dream collects Guevara's unabridged journals of the expedition. They are the record of the bitter failure of a political and ideological dream, and a telling complement to the subsequent rise of Kabila and his recent demise. Most of all, the diaries afford the reader a very personal insight into the thoughts and emotions of Che Guevara, the twentieth century's great revolutionary martyr. ... Read more

Book Description

The Belgians commonly referred to their colonisation of the Congo as a 'civilising mission', and many regarded the introduction of western bio-medicine as a central feature of their 'gift' to Africans. By 1930, however, it was clear that some features of their 'civilising mission' were in fact closely connected to the poor health of many of the Congolese. The Europeans had indeed brought scientific enquiry and western bio-medicine; but they had also introduced a harsh, repressive political system which, coupled with a ruthlessly exploitative economic system, led to the introduction of new diseases while already-existing diseases were exacerbated and spread. Tropical, or 'colonial', medicine was a new field at the turn of the century, linked closely both to European expansionism and human trypanosomiasis, or sleeping sickness. In 1901 a devastating epidemic had erupted in Uganda, killing well over 250,000 people. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Africa's Unique Environmental Problem
The tsetse fly, and the animal and human trypanosomiasis ("nagana") it transmits, is a major, uniquely African problem, causing misery and hindering economic development over huge regions. Lyons's book adds greatly to our understanding of efforts to control the "fly," not least because she very effectively exploits Belgian, British and Sudanese archives. As a full study of policy and practice in the major colony of the Belgian Congo, it also adds an important dimension to the history of African environments, previously dominated by research on British Africa. The main contrast between the two approaches was that Britain sought to control tsetse-friendly areas by modifying the landscape, basically waging war against vegetation, while Belgium sought to minimize infection among human populations through forced resettlement and coercive quarantine measures. This enhanced Africans' resentment and sense of injury under Belgian rule, but both policies barely grasped how colonial-era changes aided the spread of fly belts. "Colonial Disease" is a fine if primarily documentary study, and would probably be better with more access to materials in Congo/Zaire. Though it has some good interview data, its fieldwork component is less strong than J. Giblin, "The Politics of Environmental Control in Northeastern Tanzania," and the forbidding classic by J. Ford, "The Role of the Trypanosomiases in African Ecology." F. Lambrecht, "In the Shade of an Acacia Tree" is a Belgian-American's vivid memoir of 1950s glossinology, or tsetse science. ... Read more

Reviews (7)

First-hand testimony of the end of the Batista dictatorship
Written by a soldier who fought in the Cuban revolution, Victor Dreke's From The Escambray To The Congo is a personal memoir and first-hand testimony of the end of the Batista dictatorship and the attempts to create a better government in its place. An insert of black-and-white photographs adds a visual touch to the gripping experiences both on and off the battlefield described in this memorable, gut-wrenching, up close and personal account of the modern history of a nation. From The Escambray To The Congo is a welcome and much appreciated addition to the growing library of personal memoirs and eye-witness accounts of the Cuban Revolution and its aftermath.

A lesson on how to bring down racism
In New Zealand, politicians, government agencies, and many businesses like to crow about how much they oppose discrimination of any kind. However, most working people who come up against racist practices know there is big gap between what these institutions say and do when it comes to dealing with instances of racism.

"From the Escambray to the Congo" is a powerfully account of how after the 1959 victory of Fidel Castro's 26 July movement over the Batista dictatorship in Cuba, the new revolutionary government set out close to gap between the word and the deed.

How the Cuban government went about eradicating Jim Crow type racism, is told through the words of Victor Dreke, a leading participant of Cuba's revolutionary movement for half a century. The capitalist foundations that propped up racism in Cuba collapsed under the weight of the hundreds of thousand workers, peasants and young people - both black and white - coming to the realisation that racism was incompatible with the new society they were fighting to transform.

As a young teenager Dreke was advised by his father to "Study and get an education and don't mess with strikes or any of that; it won't get you anywhere. Besides, that stuff's not for blacks." Fortunately Dreke did not follow his fathers advice and threw himself into revolutionary activity. Beginning as a high school activist, then Rebel Army fighter. He was a commander in the fight to root out the counterrevolutionary bands operating in central Cuba and has been an internationalist combatant and representative of the Cuban revolution in Africa.

What comes across strongly for me is how the Cuba's determination to end racism in it's own country was inextricably linked to the liberation of the Africa continent from imperialist exploitation

For the millions of young Victor Dreke's - male or female - in the mines, factories and on the high school and university campuses around the world - this book is for you.

A Living Revolution
Read this small book for a series of snapshots of what it was like to be a participant in the Cuban revolution that triumphed in January 1959. From a high school activist under the Batista dictatorship, Victor Dreke joined the Rebel Army and fought in many campaigns. The Escambray mountains in central Cuba were the scene of a bloody five-year-long attempt by Washington-organized groups to undermine the new regime. Like the Contras in Nicaragua 20 years later, these 'Bandidos' murdered literacy volunteers, health workers, and peasants who backed the revolutionary government. Dreke was a leader in the military and militia campaigns that wiped them out. His description of the Cuban mid-1960s contingent to aid revolutionary fighters in the Congo complements Che Guevara's own recently published account of this. Dreke notes how the Congo campaign, though not a success at the time, paved the way for critically important Cuban efforts to aid African liberation struggles, such as the decisive victory at Cuito Cuanavale, Angola, against South African forces in 1988. As with all Pathfinder titles, the well-thought-out maps, footnotes and glossary in this book help the reader with unfamiliar names and events. Numerous photos bring Dreke's story even more to life.

from such material revolutionaries are made
What is striking about Victor Dreke's story is not what is different about the man, but how similar the youth was to so many others in his day and in ours. It also shows the kind of person who is made by, and makes, a great revolution.
Dreke was a Afro-Cuban teenager of the 1950s who did not know that you can't fight city hall -- or in his case, the presidential palace. He joined the battle against the vicious and corrupt Batista dictatorship, and the social and economic system it defended. In doing so, he joined the struggle of sugar refinery workers and met the militants of Fidel Castro's Rebel Army. He stuck with the struggle for the long term, taking leadership responsibilities in everything from the fight against counter-revolutionary gangs, organized and directed by the U.S. government, to armed combat in the Congo against Mobutu Sese Seko's regime.

Removing the Ropes of Oppression
This is a captivating book and must reading for progressive-minded people everywhere. Pre-revolutionary Cuba was a place of discrimination and segregation against Blacks similar to the U.S. South or South Africa's Apartheid. Dreke grew up in one of the more backward areas-- much like Mississippi, the state where I was born.

Fresh from having defeated the U.S.- backed Batista regime, the rebel army took down the rope separating Blacks and whites at a celebratory dance. Dreke, an Afro-Cuban, relates how Cuba's revolutionary government policy was to take down all the ropes of oppression and keep them down in Cuba and to help others internationally do the same. ... Read more

Book Description

The contributors to this volume trace the life history of artifacts that were brought to Europe and America from Congo toward the end of the nineteenth century, and became the subjects of museum displays.They also present fascinating case studies of the pioneering collectors, including such major figures as Frobenius and Torday, discuss the complex and sensitive issues involved in the business of "collecting," and consider how these objects were used in the invention of Africa by the West. ... Read more

Book Description

Patrice Lumumba, first prime minister of the Republic of Congo and a pioneer of African unity, was murdered on 17 January 1961. Lumumba was at the center of the country's popular defiance towards the relentless exploitation of its Belgian colonizer. When independence was finally won in June 1960, his unscheduled speech at the official ceremonies in Kinshasa, which described Belgian rule as 'a humiliating slavery imposed by brute force,' received a standing ovation and made him a hero to millions. Within months he was arrested, tortured and executed. This book unravels the appalling mass of lies and betrayals that have surrounded accounts of the murder. Employing an array of official sources as well as extensive personal testimony, it reveals a network of complicity ranging from the Belgian government, across the United Nations leadership, to the CIA. Chilling official memos which detail 'liquidation' and 'threats to national interests' are analyzed alongside macabre tales of the destruction of evidence, placing in stark and dignified contrast Lumumba's personal strength and his quest for African independence. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

A Painful but educational reading for Congolese generations
This book is an outstanding piece of work that reflects the author's intellectual honesty and his passion for the truth. A truth that has been hidden and distorted in so many ways, for so long. Ludo De Witte's detailed account of The Assassination of Lumumba finally makes a breakthrough. The book is both enlightening and disturbing but, above all, educational. While providing powerful and troubling data about this horrific event, it also helps to understand the facts from the context of the struggle against the neo-colonial order in which they occurred.

It is my hope that this well documented and careful study about this important period of Congolese history will serve as basic reference and become a classic textbook for educators and anyone interested in the long and complex history of the struggle for freedom, dignity and justice in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The Ghost of Patrice Lumumba
You may recall Adam Hochschild's book of a couple years ago where he intimated that KING LEOPOLD'S GHOST remains a malevolent force guiding the carnage that is taking place in the present day Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Well here's one for the Congolese. Forty years after his assassination Patrice Lumumba remains a haunting presence, forever reminding Belgium of its past misdeeds in Africa. Broader still his death bears testimomy to the fact that so much of what Europe and our government talks about as human rights concerns is self-serving and empty rhetoric.

Enough with the anger though as I don't want to go overboard and see it in the stark ideological terms as the author does when he says that what happened in the Congo in 1960 is a "staggering example of what the Western ruling classes are capable of when their vital interests are threatened." That is too trite an answer for the circumstances surrounding Lumumba's assassination and way too simple an analysis of the complex situation in the Congo at the time of independence.

THE ASSASSINATION OF LUMUMBA looks at a tiny fraction of Congo's history. The book is almost entirely confined to the period from June 30th, 1960 (when the country became independent from Belgium) to January 17th, 1961, when Lumumba and two of his former ministers of government were executed in the breakaway province of Katanga. During that period the country went through crisis, with Belgium, France, the US, the USSR and the UN all wanting to have a say. There were at least three substantive leaders of the Congolese: Lumumba as prime minister, Joseph Kasavubu the president, and the usurper Joseph Mobuto (who after all was said and done emerged in 1965 as the dictator Mobuto Sese Seko). Throw into the mix a mutinying army, a secession in Katanga province and rebellions in two other provinces.

In investigating these events Belgian sociologist Ludo DeWitte focused his research on recently declassified Belgian documents. His thesis is that the conventional wisdom that Lumumba's death was "a Bantu affair" - as his countrymen called it - was all wrong. He argues that Belgium was instrumental in setting up, participating in, and covering up Lumumbas death. This book caused such a stir in Belgium that the government opened a parliamentiary enquiry to investigate the facts and the foreign minister promised that if proven true, an official apology would be offered.

Subsequent to the publishing of this book the commission released its findings. It said "certain members of the Belgian government and other Belgian figures have a moral responsibility in the circumstances which led to the death of Lumumba." Will the man's spirit be able to rest in peace with this? De Witte's specific point that an order for Lumumba's "definite elimination" came out of the offices of Count d'Aspremont-Lynden's Department of African Affairs, however still remains unproven. The Commission says plainly "in no document or witness account could it be found that the Belgian Government, or one of its members, gave the orders to physically eliminate Lumumba." If this means that there is still no resolution to this issue, we can nevertheless rest assured that in the words of Lumumba's last letter to his wife "the day will come when history will have its say."

"Assassination is the extreme form of censorship" (George Bernard Shaw)

The Story of a Death Foretold
...Five stars for the incredible amount of research that went into the writing of this book.. It is a book that was necessary and long overdue. For the first time we have clear proof of all the players, what they did and when they did it. Lumumba was assassinated by Tshombe?s police, with the help of Belgian officials. They can not any longer deny it.

De Witte depicts Lumumba as a fierce nationalist but denies that he was left-leaning. That claim may have to be investigated further. Lumumba did have strong connections to Russia and surely there is a reason why the university in Moscow for foreign students is named "Lumumba University". There is no doubt, though, that he presented himself as a socialist.

The author repeatedly mentions that Lumumba's rise to the presidency of the Congo was the story of a death foretold. Western governments repeatedly sais that Lumumba had to be "eliminated". But the interpretation was left open: did they mean "physically" or "politically"? It is interesting to note that it took them almost seven months to kill him. An assassin hired by the Belgians was called back. The CIA delivered a box of poison that was never used. Why this delay, when an invented illness would have been faster and politically more acceptable?

De Wittte also claims that Lumumba had to fail with his government because he lacked a functioning army and police force to back him up. What he never examines, unfortunately, is the fact that Belgium withdrew its administrative apparatus upon independence. And they had never trained any natives to be administrators. On July 1, 1960, The Congo had only a handful native lawyers, physicians, or even people with a higher education. Under those conditions you cannot run a country (you have to know where the telephones are).

Because of this book, Belgium officially apologized to the Congo ... Mr. de Witte could hardly wish for a better acknowledgement of his work.

Putting Lies to Death
This book is certainly well written to the extent that it is a historical account of the early life of independent Congo up until the assasination of the first premier. It has taken over three deacades for such a foreceful and convincing counterfactual case to emerge, but it is just proof that "No lie(s) can live forever". The author has done well on this score.

The connivance of a whole set of opportunists in the Congo and some players in the international arena would be shocking for a person otherwise unfamiliar with this period. This book is proof that Lumumba's life could have been saved but it was not politically expedient to do so. Most of all, the author has led to the questioning of the assumption that the U.N. is an enduring friend of developing countries.

The author deserves unqualified credit for painstakingly seeking the facts through which to support the central thesis that the assassination was planned even if not very neatly executed.While the author's work is certainly not the last word on this issue, it has helped to put to death the lies that were advanced in the period following the assassination. Compared to other publications on the subject, I consider this a definitive text and perhaps an indispensable book in the history section of all college and public libraries.

The author is genuinely moved to expose the great injustice that was perpetrated against Lumumba, Mpolo and Okito and by extension to the Congolese people. It is not difficult to understand how the series of events led to the increased militarisation of Congolese politics. Belgium and its monarchy owes the Congolese people an apology.

While Mr. De Witte appears to me as an admirer of Lumumba, he balances his admiration by stating the fact that Premier Lumumba had not sufficiently consolidated his polictical power and neither had he developed a coherent economic and political programme that could have frustrated the conspiracy. In essence, Africa's first generation of leaders relied heavily on charisma without the political organisation that was desperately needed. I think that this point is still valid.

While the book is a good read, (I went through it twice), I think that the author could have been carried away by his enthusiasm in the concluding portion. He set out to investigate and set the facts about the assassination but was concluding with a political sermon on the class factor and a slight leftist bent. This could have been relevant if he sought to explain Lumumba's political philosophy. In the absense of this, I asked myself, "Why is Ludo going this far?"

I would recommend this book to anyone with an open (not empty) mind. A good read and a classic. In the meantime, we hope that Lumumba's last prayer may come true soon.

A penetrating truthful analysis of Lumumba's assassination
After seeing the film Lumumba (directed by Raoul Peck),I searched for more information about the assassination of Patrice Lumumba and discovered Ludo De Witte's book. "The Assassination of Lumumba" is a penetrating examination of the role of Belgium, the United States government, the CIA, the United Nations, and of other Western powers in the assassination of Patrice Lumumba. It includes detailed documentation, comprehensive bibliographic references, a chronology of events, and photographs. Learning about this period in world history is critical because it increases our awareness and understanding of this present era of globalization and the forms of imperialist oppression that persist in our world today. The assassins are still among us. ... Read more

Book Description

There was always music along the banks of the Congo River-lutes and drums, the myriad instruments handed down from ancestors. But when Joseph Kabsele and his African Jazz went chop for chop with O.K. Jazz and Bantous de la Capitale, music in Africa would never be the same. A sultry rumba washed in relentless waves across new nations springing up below the Sahara. The Western press would dub the sound Soukous or rumba rock; most of Africa called it Congo music.Born in Kinshasa and Brazzaville at the end of World War II, Congo music matured as Africans fought to consolidate their hard-won independence. In addition to great musicians - Franco, Essous, Abeti, Tabu Ley, and youth bands like Zaiko Langa Langa - the cast of characters includes the conniving King Leopold, the martyred Partrice Lumumba, corrupt dictator Mobutu Sese Seko, military strongman Denis Sassou Nguesso, heavyweight boxing champs George Foreman and Muhammad Ali, along with a Belgian baron and a clutch of enterprising Greek expatriates who pioneered the Congolese recording industry. Rumba on the River portrays an era when the currents of tradition and modernization collided along the banks of the Congo Rivers. It is the story of twin capitals engulfed in political struggle and the vibrant new music that flowered amidst the ferment. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

How changing times and ancient traditions blended
Ably written by a published author of articles on African and Caribbean music whose work has appeared in "The Beat", "Option", "West Africa" and more, Rumba On The River: A History Of The Popular Music Of The Two Congos is an enthralling dissemination of how changing times and ancient traditions blended to create a distinctive type of music along the Congo River. From the currents of political struggle to the tides of self-expression, the history, vibrancy, and popularity of this music flowed, and its indelible impressions upon the human psyche are succinctly framed in an unforgettable prose.

Une oeuvre de toute une vie! A lire absolument
Sorry: I'll write my appreciation in french.
Après avoir lu les 23 chapitres de cet ouvrage, j'avoue avoir été impressionné par la quantité d'informations, la qualité du matériel et des sources historiques auxquelles l'auteur (Gary Stewart) a eu recours pour réaliser son ouvrage. Il s'agit de l'oeuvre de toute une vie, car l'auteur ne se contente pas de retracer le parcours historique de la musique congolaise (les deux Congo), mais se donne la peine de situer les événements dans leur contexte socio-politique aussi bien au niveau local qu'international.
Je rends un vibrant hommage à Gary Stewart. Avec son ouvrage, il met les pendules à l'heure et ouvre les voiles sur plusieurs zones d'ombre de l'évolution de la musique congolaise. Grâce à son ouvrage, nous pouvons dessiner l'arbre généalogique de cette musique. Nous pouvons remonter dans le temps avec les premiers phonos en 1904, Henri Bowane, Wendo Kolosoy et les autres. L'apport de Nicolas Jeronimidis, des frères Papadimitriou et de Bill Alexandre dans l'édification de l'industrie du disque au Congo est exposé avec une verve digne d'un véritable historien.
Lorsqu'arrive les temps modernes avec le Grand Kallé, nous pouvons nous rendre compte de la contribution hautement significative, si pas décisive, du Dr Nico Kasanda dans le façonnnement de ce qu'on peut appeler l'École "African Jazz". Bien sûr, le Grand Kallé reste le monument incontournable, le père fondateur incontestable de cette musique et de cette école. Mais c'est le Dr Nico qui, par son ingéniosité, sa virtuosité, par la "magie" de sa guitare, qui en est l'icône, l'artisan incontesté. Ignorer ce détail ou faire semblant de l'ignorer comme le fait Tabu Ley Rochereau dans son témoignage sur "La musique congolaise et son évolution dans le temps" est de la pure malhonneteté intellectuelle et une abjecte méprise qui enlève toute crédibilité à son fameux "témoignage". Quelle ingratitude! De cette école sont issus de grands orchestres, notamment Africa Fiesta Sukisa, Africa Fiesta National (plus tard Afisa International), Vox Africa, Les Grands Maquisards, Bamboula etc.
Luambo Franco (surnom qu'il emprunta d'un autre chanteur du nom de François Engbondu) est présenté comme fondateur de l'école OK Jazz. À la suite de cette école, naîtront des rejetons dont Congas Succès, Negros Succès, Cobantou et Los Angel pour ne citer que ceux-là. Qui a oublié L'orchestre Bantous avec Essous Jean-Serge et Les Bantous de la Capitale?
Le livre met à jour les implications politiques pendant le règne dictatorial de Mobutu sur le financement de certains orchestres. Il retrace l'évolution jusqu'à la génération présent. Le lecteur sera comblé par les nombreuses anecdotes sur la vie des musiciens, les alliances, les aspects financiers ainsi que l'éclosion du phénomène "Ngulu".
Les générations suivantes: Pépé Kallé, Les Frères Soki, Zaïko Langa Langa, Lokasa, Emeneya, Papa Wemba, Koffi Olomide ainsi que les jeunes de Wenge (diverses branches) y sont également traités. L'exposé sur la contribution de la junte féminine Photas (African Fiesta), Abeti, Mpongo Love, Tshiala Muana, Mbilia Bel est suffisamment étoffé.
Le livre met également à jour une évidence: le façonnement d'un rythme (rumba dans ses variantes "soucous", "kono", "kiri-kiri" et autres "kwempa-kwempa", "ndombolo") n'est jamais l'affaire des seuls chanteurs: les instrumentistes y sont pour beaucoup. Ainsi, les guitaristes comme Pépé Felly Manuaku Waku, Tshimpaka Roxy "Nyau" et les jeunes d'aujourd'hui sont des véritables "créateurs" rythmiques. À l'exemple de Déchaud Muamba et son frère Nicolas Kasanda, Simarro Lutumba (un compositeur de talent), Noel Nedule (Papa Noel) ils ont su valablement prendre la relève.
Un autre point fort de cet ouvrage, c'est la compilation bibliographique, presque complète. Le repertoire par l'index est une excellente idée pour guider le lecteur à travers ces 400 pages et plus.

Des nombreuses photos inédites: Le célèbre guitariste Déchaud, à 14 ans, en culotte, accompagnant au chant (et nom à la guitare!) le magicien de l'époque Jhimmy L'Hawaïen. Image saisissante!
Par contre, permettez-moi de souligner une grande omission: l'absence de l'apport des "Belgicains": Zatho Kinzonzi, Maxime Mongali ("Idi Mane") Tony Dee, Zizi, Joe Rhino et les autres est difficilement justifiaable dans un ouvrage d'une telle envergure. Pourtant, les orchestres comme Zaïko LL et Thu Zhaïna à leurs débuts puisaient leur inspiration de Los Nickelos et de Yéyé National, lesquels s'inspiraient des rythmes des deux grandes écoles. Quoi qu'il en soit, cet ouvrage est unique en son genre et tout le mérite revient à son auteur qui a eu le reflexe de le dédier aux "immortels" musiciens qui ont quitté ce monde. Encore une fois, Félicitaions Gary!
Un livre à lire absolument et à faire lire!

Labor of Love and Remarkable Accomplishment
Gary Stewart's book is so very well researched. If you are not familiar with the Congolese Rumba, the material will not really interest you and be difficult if not impossible to read. If you are familiar with this remarkable music in any way, you will end up seeking out and acquiring as much of this music and record titles as you can afford. I must have bought about 150 CD titles of the artists mentioned in the book.Stewart's book puts these artists and their music in the context of a history previously unwritten about in the English language. The only other book that comes to mind is Graeme Ewens' "Congo Colossus", but that title is more confined to the history of Franco (Francois Luambo Makiadi) and Le T.P. OK Jazz.If there is a criticism, it is a small one. He leaves out Orchestra Super Mazemba and Samba Mapangala. Although those artists made their mark in Kenya, they were in fact major Rumba artists from the Congo. However, Mr. Stewart performed remarkable research not to mention a history book that moves like an impossible to put down novel. ... Read more