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Congo

By (author) David van Reybrouck

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Epic yet eminently readable, penetrating and profoundly moving, â€˜Congoâ€™ traces the fate of one of the world's most devastated countries, second only to war-torn Somalia: the Democratic Republic of Congo. With a span of several hundred years and an enormous cast of characters, â€˜Congoâ€™ chronicles the most dramatic episodes of the nationâ€™s history, the people and events that have determined Congoâ€™s development â€“ from the slave trade to the ivory and rubber booms; from the arrival of Henry Morton Stanley and his meeting with Dr Livingstone to the brutal regime of Belgiumâ€™s King Leopold II; from the struggle for independence to Mobutu's exploitative rule; and from Muhammad Ali and George Foremanâ€™s world famous â€˜Rumble in the Jungleâ€™ to the civil war over natural resources that began in 1996 and still rages today. David Van Reybrouck interweaves his own family's history with the voices of a diverse range of individuals â€“ charismatic dictators, feuding warlords, child-soldiers, elderly, female smugglers, and many in the African diaspora of Europe and China â€“ to offer a deeply humane approach to political history, focusing squarely on the Congolese perspective in an attempt to return a nation's history to its people.