Whitlaw Tanyanyiwa Mugwiji's Reviews > Congo: The Epic History of a People

The book is an expansive history of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, from the pre-colonial era to 2010 when the book was first published. The author brings this epic history to life by combining the DRC´s conventional historical narrative with ordinary people´s tales. The book reads like a novel while at the same time it is as rigorous as an academic text.

I was particularly intrigued by the post independence Congo. How the Belgians, the American in cahoots with their puppet Tshombe assassinated Lumumba 6 months after he had been democratically elected as the country´s first primeminister. It almost seemed as if David Van Reybrouck was blaming Lumumba for his assassination, when he says he lacked tact. On paper, his only crimes were; to the Belgians telling them the truth they did not want to hear and to the Americans, his association with the Soviet Union but his true crime is that he posed a threat to their economic interests in the Congo.

Joseph Kasavabu the first president of Congo must go down in history as responsible for plunging the country into crisis, not once but twice, when he fired two democratically elected primeministers, Lumumba and Moïse Tshombe. And enabling Mobutu to intervene militarily twice.

I loved to hate Mobutu for his part in the assassination of Lumumba and for being a Western puppet but reading through the book I had conflicting emotions because he was also a pan africanist, banning European names and advocating the Congolese to return to their culture and attempting to eradicate tribalism which had been fostered and nurtured by the colonisers. His first ten years were remarkable socially, economically and politically. Thus, I realise human beings are just complex beings and Mobutu is no exception, he is both evil and good at the same time.

The author threw a clear light on the horrific conflicts of the late 1990s and early 2000s in eastern Congo, opening my eyes as to how enormous and complex that conflict was. I had read from newspaper articles, that Rwanda and Uganda were involved in the conflict but I did not know that they were actually participating in the fighting and fermenting of that crisis. Thus, Museveni and Kagame like Mobutu are also good and evil at the same time.

No one book can really make an outsider understand everything that is going on in any country or what that country went through but this book really tried to cover the basics thoroughly. A great read for students of history and those who are interested in understanding the DRC much better.