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Ram's Reviews > Congo: The Epic History of a People
Congo: The Epic History of a People
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by
This review is partly written with sarcasm but has no intention to offend any of the people of Congo or any other African state.
An interesting well researched book that presents the History of Congo from the beginning of the slave trade until modern times (2010). Some parts of the book were very complex and hard to follow because there are so many people and organizations involved, it became hard to follow. Altogether a nice read if you manage to follow all the different names and organizations and wars and incidents.
CAN YOU SEE THE ABSURD IN THIS REVIEW??????
If the people of Congo would only have a history with less incidents and strange names and organizations and politics then more people would read about them and give this book a high mark in goodreads and then maybe someone would do something !!!!!
However………..
The people of Congo were raped and murdered and robbed and oppressed and sold to slavery and left to starve and forced to work in mines and had their hands cut of and had their children stolen and had their villages burnt and had there minerals stolen were forced to work on rubber plantations and died from sleeping sickness and died from smallpox and had to fight in two world wars and corrupted and caused to live without roads and caused to live without electricity and forced to become refugees and forced to admit refugees from other countries and caused to participate in bogus elections and forced to live without elections
By.......
The slave traders and the King Leopold II of Belgium (and the conference of Berlin that "gave" him the land) and the Belgians and the Force Publique army and Baron Wahis and tribunaux indigènes and Moise Tshombe and South Kasai and Joseph Ileo and Cyrille Adoula and Joseph Mobutu and the U.S (support for Mobuto) and U.S. Presidents Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush (who met with Mobuto) and Rwanda and the Hutu militia forces (Interahamwe) and the FAZ and the Tutsi's and Uganda and Laurent-Désiré Kabila and the Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo AFDL and Paul Kagame and the Rassemblement Congolais pour la Democratie (RCD) and the MLC leaded by Jean-Pierre Bemba and Laurent Nkunda and the RCD-GOMA and the CNDP and Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda – FDLR and Bosco Ntaganda and the March 23 movement and Gédéon Kyungu Mutanga and the Mai Mai Kata Katanga and the Nationalist and Integrationist Front – FNI and Joseph Kony's LRA and The Chinese ,
In wars and conflicts such as
The First Congo war and Second Congo war and the as M23 rebellion and the Ituri conflict.
AND THEREFORE, NOBODY REALLY KNOWS AND CAN FOLLOW WHAT IS ACTUALLY GOING ON THERE BUT:
400000 women are raped annually in Congo
23.6% of men in the Eastern Region of the country have been exposed to sexual violence (as victims)
estimates of the number who have died from the long conflict range from 900,000 to 5,400,000 (and I assume this only in the modern wars)
And the list is long…….
The civil war in Congo was the deadliest conflict since World War II, and it created the largest humanitarian crisis in the world.
More than five million people died from 1998 to 2007 as domestic and foreign armed groups fought to control the territory, destabilizing much of Central and Southern Africa.
Babies and elderly grandmothers were raped.
Some two million people — and as many as 80 percent of the inhabitants of Congo’s eastern provinces — fled their homes to escape the violence.
And the world does not do much.
If it would be Americans or Russians or Israelis or many other western or nonwestern countries, something would be done.
Why is it?..........
Are we racists?
Is it because we don't care?
Is it because we don't care enough?
Is it because we don't know what to do?
Is it because most of us have not heard of it?
Possibly all of the above in various percentages.
Congo has been a victim of capitalism since the days of the slave trade and is a victim until now.
Slaves, copper , diamonds and cobalt ore have all been in demand by the western capitalistic countries.
How they got to the west was never a concern, as long as they got them.
As long as there is demand there is a fortune to be made for those who supply , and with that fortune comes power.
The welfare of the people of Congo was never a factor in the capitalistic equation. It is a negative result . The more there is demand for the product, the situation of the people of Congo is worse.
I really don't know what to do, maybe some ideas can be found here
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/23/opi...
An interesting well researched book that presents the History of Congo from the beginning of the slave trade until modern times (2010). Some parts of the book were very complex and hard to follow because there are so many people and organizations involved, it became hard to follow. Altogether a nice read if you manage to follow all the different names and organizations and wars and incidents.
CAN YOU SEE THE ABSURD IN THIS REVIEW??????
If the people of Congo would only have a history with less incidents and strange names and organizations and politics then more people would read about them and give this book a high mark in goodreads and then maybe someone would do something !!!!!
However………..
The people of Congo were raped and murdered and robbed and oppressed and sold to slavery and left to starve and forced to work in mines and had their hands cut of and had their children stolen and had their villages burnt and had there minerals stolen were forced to work on rubber plantations and died from sleeping sickness and died from smallpox and had to fight in two world wars and corrupted and caused to live without roads and caused to live without electricity and forced to become refugees and forced to admit refugees from other countries and caused to participate in bogus elections and forced to live without elections
By.......
The slave traders and the King Leopold II of Belgium (and the conference of Berlin that "gave" him the land) and the Belgians and the Force Publique army and Baron Wahis and tribunaux indigènes and Moise Tshombe and South Kasai and Joseph Ileo and Cyrille Adoula and Joseph Mobutu and the U.S (support for Mobuto) and U.S. Presidents Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush (who met with Mobuto) and Rwanda and the Hutu militia forces (Interahamwe) and the FAZ and the Tutsi's and Uganda and Laurent-Désiré Kabila and the Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo AFDL and Paul Kagame and the Rassemblement Congolais pour la Democratie (RCD) and the MLC leaded by Jean-Pierre Bemba and Laurent Nkunda and the RCD-GOMA and the CNDP and Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda – FDLR and Bosco Ntaganda and the March 23 movement and Gédéon Kyungu Mutanga and the Mai Mai Kata Katanga and the Nationalist and Integrationist Front – FNI and Joseph Kony's LRA and The Chinese ,
In wars and conflicts such as
The First Congo war and Second Congo war and the as M23 rebellion and the Ituri conflict.
AND THEREFORE, NOBODY REALLY KNOWS AND CAN FOLLOW WHAT IS ACTUALLY GOING ON THERE BUT:
400000 women are raped annually in Congo
23.6% of men in the Eastern Region of the country have been exposed to sexual violence (as victims)
estimates of the number who have died from the long conflict range from 900,000 to 5,400,000 (and I assume this only in the modern wars)
And the list is long…….
The civil war in Congo was the deadliest conflict since World War II, and it created the largest humanitarian crisis in the world.
More than five million people died from 1998 to 2007 as domestic and foreign armed groups fought to control the territory, destabilizing much of Central and Southern Africa.
Babies and elderly grandmothers were raped.
Some two million people — and as many as 80 percent of the inhabitants of Congo’s eastern provinces — fled their homes to escape the violence.
And the world does not do much.
If it would be Americans or Russians or Israelis or many other western or nonwestern countries, something would be done.
Why is it?..........
Are we racists?
Is it because we don't care?
Is it because we don't care enough?
Is it because we don't know what to do?
Is it because most of us have not heard of it?
Possibly all of the above in various percentages.
Congo has been a victim of capitalism since the days of the slave trade and is a victim until now.
Slaves, copper , diamonds and cobalt ore have all been in demand by the western capitalistic countries.
How they got to the west was never a concern, as long as they got them.
As long as there is demand there is a fortune to be made for those who supply , and with that fortune comes power.
The welfare of the people of Congo was never a factor in the capitalistic equation. It is a negative result . The more there is demand for the product, the situation of the people of Congo is worse.
I really don't know what to do, maybe some ideas can be found here
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/23/opi...
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Reading Progress
October 16, 2015
– Shelved
October 16, 2015
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Started Reading
December, 2016
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Greta G
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Jun 09, 2017 06:13AM
Emotional review, and I can understand your outrage. Some Belgians I know who lived there loved the country, but did not have much respect for the Congolese people, whom they considered savage, inferior and beyond help...
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Yes, this book did effect me, I read it at the same time I read the The Poisonwood Bible
and when you read it, and read a bit on the internet, you see that the people of Congo were screwed by practically anyone that ruled there whether they were local or foreign.
Well there are also people who help out. Many initiatives were taken in the struggle against child soldiers for example. Some people put a lot of energy in such projects, but we don't hear enough about them.
