Congo

Hailed as a monumental history . . . more exciting than any novel (NRC Handelsblad),David van Reybroucks rich and gripping epic, in the tradition of Robert HughesThe Fatal Shore, tells the extraordinary story of one of the worlds most devastated countries: the Democratic Republic of Congo.Epic in scope yet eminently readable, penetrating and deeply moving, David van Reybroucks Congo: The Epic History of a People traces the fate of one of the worlds most critical, failed nation-states, second only to war-torn Somalia: the Democratic Republic of Congo.Van Reybrouck takes us through several hundred years of history, bringing some of the most dramatic episodes in Congolese history. Here are the people and events that have impinged the Congos developmentfrom the slave trade to the ivory and rubber booms; from the arrival of Henry Morton Stanley to the tragic regime of King Leopold II; from global indignation to Belgian colonialism; from the struggle for independence to Mobutus brutal rule; and from the world famous Rumble in the Jungle to the civil war over natural resources that began in 1996 and still rages today.Van Reybrouck interweaves his own familys history with the voices of a diverse range of individualscharismatic dictators, feuding warlords, child-soldiers, the elderly, female merchant smugglers, and many in the African diaspora of Europe and Chinato offer a deeply humane approach to political history, focusing squarely on the Congolese perspective and returning a nations history to its people.