Exploring the Epic History of the Congolese People

Evert: Overall a really great read!

Only side remark is that translation from Dutch to English has some flaws and book loses a bit of it's power (therefore 4 i.o. 5 stars).

Netherlands on Dec 18, 2021

Mr. P. Powell: This is a compelling journey through the history of a fascinating country very often seen through the eyes of its people. The author avoids employing the shock tactics that some author's writing about the Congo have used to awaken interest in a complex and often tragic story. He relies on the complex narrative of facts, observations and the voices of its people to bring home the enormity of the calamity that has befallen the Congolese people over the past two hundred years. The DRC has become synonymous with both the excesses of brutal and exploitative colonialism as well as the most extreme violence and greed of its post colonial elites, plunging ordinary people into a spiral of suffering and hardship. The sheer scale of the killing in what had been described as Africa's world war in which over 2.5 million people have died has largely escaped the collective consciousness of the western world, the rapacious kleptocracy of the Congo's own elites was compounded by the predation on the rich resources by the country's neighbour's who fell on it like wolves in a orgy of rape, slaughter and pillage "colonizing "its people and resources. Out of the story of horror and sadness van...

United Kingdom on May 23, 2021

JPB: La minuciosidad de los eventos políticos, sociales y económicos es impresionante si bien tal vez sobran entradas de entrevistas personales que alargan el texto y lo hacen a veces un poco tedioso. No me imagino que densidad tendría un libro sobre la historia contemporánea de un pais europeo , como por ejemplo Grecia , o España o Italia si se incluyesen tal numero de entradas.

Spain on Nov 30, 2020

garry johnson: Read this book previously in hard cover. Really super. Has to be the best book going around on the Congo. For anyone interested in central Africa and especially the Congo its a must read. Van Reybrouck knows the Congo and its people really well and tells its story from day one right up to now.

Australia on Jul 22, 2019

PRASHANT: Very well written.
Gives a clear insight into genesis of african problem.

India on Mar 19, 2017

Urenna: I gave this book four stars. The author provides an historical account of the people of the Congo; initially exploited by the Portuguese, Arabs, and Afro-Arabs for slave trade and ivory. During the slave trade, four million Congolese were shipped to the Americas.

Ultimately, the Belgium’s King Leopold II discovered the Congo, a land so vast its eastern border would sit at Moscow and its western border would be at Paris: 905,000 square miles.

Leopold had treaties drawn up and written in English and French, which the chieftains did not understand. Naïvely, they gave up their land, their rights to fishing, trade, raw materials and their freedom. They signed with an ‘X,’ probably believing they accepted ties of friendship. They did not know the meaning of sovereignty, perpetuity, and exclusivity. For their land, the chieftains received bales of cloth, crates of gin and trinkets.

In 1885, Leopold became the sole owner of what he named the “Congo Free State.” Of course, leading up to taking this vast land, he pretended he wanted only free trade and would use scientific measures there to research the land.

Rubber proved a goldmine when discovered....

United States on Jul 13, 2016

Robert E. Smith: DAVID VAN REYBROUCK. CONGO: THE EPIC HISTORY OF A PEOPLE.
NY: HarperCollins, 2014.

David van Reybrouck has created an excellent history of Congo that is intimate, thorough, and accurate.

I. INTIMATE HISTORY

The many Congolese, whose words from interviews (mostly from 2008) are introduced in the appropriate historical events he is relating, give a great intimacy to the book. The author quite correctly calls this “bottom-up” history.

There are fascinating bits of information one doesn’t usually find in general histories of Congo, such as a description of the travels to Europe and back of Butungu, recorded in Boloki, his own language—the only known text by a Congolese from the nineteenth century.

The stories of the Congolese who accompanied the foreigners who dominate the pages of colonial histories give new insights into those happenings. For instance, Disasi Makulo was with George Grenfell when he set off with 400 soldiers of the colonial army to “chart and pacify the region.” (76) Martin Kabuya told about his grandfather who served in World War I, in a Belgian-led army fighting Germans in what is today Tanganyika. Albert Kudjabo,...

United States on Aug 19, 2014