Steve's Reviews > Congo: The Epic History of a People

This book was widely popular in Van Reybrouck's native Belgium when it first came out in 2010, and with good reason. He goes back to essentially prehistoric times and traces the history of the Congo (or today, The Democratic Republic of the Congo, DRC) up until the times leading up to just a few years ago.

It is an expansive history which of course encompasses the history of Central Sub-Saharan Africa, and per usual much attention is given to colonial times, through independence and up until the present day. However, Van Reybrouck pulls this off without coming across as Eurocentric; instead he wonderfully incorporates what must have been hundreds of in-person interviews with more academic and political histories, using the personal narratives to illustrate and add life to the facts and dates. We get to witness the rise of the Congo Free State, the independence movement, the development of the resource economy, the accent of Mobutu and the kleptocracy that followed, all through the eyes, sounds and words of those who lived through these periods. He does actually interview two people who claim to be over 100 years old, and therefore provide an otherwise unlikely firsthand source to the horrors and corruption of the Free State period. The men's stories back up their alleged ages.

Any history of the Congo will include descriptions of some of the most inhumane acts and blatant evisceration of human rights ever recorded in print. This work is no different. While certainly not exclusive to the Congo, these parts of the nation's history are tough to read. I've read extensively about the Khmer Rouge period in Cambodia and am also well-read on the brutality of apartheid South African, and yet I still had to pause and reflect at times over what I was reading. But the histories of nations is rarely sparkling clean, and they certainly are not when Central Africa is concerned.

I enjoyed the book's depth of coverage of the independence period and the numerous players who were associated with this time. We get a well-explained background of how the structure of the independence government came about in 1960, including a not-always-flattering picture of Patrice Lumumba, Congo's first prime minister, who is often portrayed as a martyr for Congolese freedom to the West. While he indeed was a staunch supporter of independence, he, like all of the men involved, was not without fault and had little to absolutely no experience with how to run a country. Van Reybrouck presents all of these players, warts and all.

Then of course we get to witness the Mobutu regime in all of it's glory. His is largely a textbook story of a Mid-20th Century dictatorship and it's inevitable evolution (devolution?) into extreme, naked corruption and paranoia. But it is interesting to watch it unfold and I found that this book filled in many of the gaps I had in the history of this part of the world. It is interesting to see how Mobutu used the Cold War rivalries, and an almost "Second Scramble for Africa" to his advantage.

Finally, the only thing that bothered me about this book was something I've never encountered before - an amazing amount of typos, almost all included in the first few chapters. It was uncanny. I almost grabbed a red pen to mark them, just to keep count. I understand that this happens nowadays with all the spellcheck and editing programs being used. And, it must be noted, this is the first English-language edition as translated from the original Dutch. But read this edition and tell me if you think a human being (who was fluent in English at least, if not a native speaker) couldn't have read it over once and made the elementary-level corrections. Tsk tsk.

Overall, an excellent, vastly interesting and encompassing read on the history of this ravaged nation, a country which will only play a larger factor on the world scene as the 21st Century proceeds.