A Journey Into Africa's Broken Heart

I guess we created this blog, originally, to write about the books we read, and so far Terri has been the only one keeping up with that aspect. Last night I finished Blood River: A Journey Into Africa's Broken Heart by Tim Butcher. Not only was the title gory, but Tim's last name of "Butcher" adds to the drama and suspense. Overall, I would not recommend this book. The book is about Butcher traveling through the DRC on land. This is one of the most important features of the book, as no foreign person has been able to accomplish this feat since Henry Morton Stanley did it from 1874-1877. Coincidentally both men worked for the same newspaper when doing so (Britain's Daily Telegraph). And that was part of the appeal for Butcher. The book is interesting is this account, but overwhelming depressing in others. Through his travels, Butcher passes through many remote villages in the DRC that seemingly haven't changed from when Stanley passed through in the late 1800s. In every town, Butcher laments this lack of change, and often refers to the DRC as spiralling backward. Several of the older inhabitants that he interviews came to the Congo during Belgian rule, and often wish for it back. To me, that is like germans wishing for Hilter's regime again. The Beligans were brutal, and killed millions (Millions!) of Congolese in their attempt to colonize the land. They ran huge rubber plantations (activists who wanted freedom for the Congo refered to this rubber as "red rubber") on what was essentially slave labor. When they finally granted Congo independence, they, along with the United States, supported rebel assassination of the left leaning first African leader of the Congo. What followed was a bloody dictatorship under Mobutu who ruined the Congo's economy and stole billions from the country for his own profit. After Mobutu, the situation remained in a similar state of anarchy as to what it is today.
Really depressing. It was good to learn about the history of the place though...but at the same time, I felt that Butcher shouldn't have been so critical on the Congo's state, when it is only 12 years out of a dictatorship, and has been in an almost constant state of war since then.
At one point he is talking to a Malaysian UN commander. The commander says this:
"In Malaysia, people make millions from palm oil. It is one of the most valuable commodities in the world right now. It's used in the best lipsticks and cosmetics, it is used for all sorts of food preparations and it is even used to make fuel that is more environmentally friendly than petrol. There are businessmen in Malaysia who would give anything to get access to the palm plantations along this river. But the Congo people. They don't want to make money for themselves. They just wait to take money from others." The author offers him the standard explanation for Congo's problems.
"This is rubbish," he said, "Malaysia was colonized for centuries too, most recently by the British, a colonial rule that was cruel and racist. We got independence at roughly the same time as Congo in the early 1960s, and were even drawn into a Cold War conflict for year after year as communist insurgents fought for control of Malaysia. But somehow Malaysia got through it and the Congo did not."

The section ends with Butcher asking "why are Africans so bad at running Africa?"
I think that line there made me lose respect for the book more than the hopeless portrayal of each village he went through and his lack of trying to help the local people.
Not only is saying that Africans are bad at running Africa a generalization, but it is untrue. They aren't any worse than anyone else at running a country. The problem is one cannot compare a countries against each other. Each has a unique and distinct culture and history that effect who the country is today. When "judging" Africa, we must look to each countries individual past and then compare it to it's current situation.

What I cannot stress to people enough is that there is hope in Africa. It is often hard to find, but there is hope. And resilience. Butcher describes several times how much the Congolese endure in order to live. He views it as signs of a backward culture when one of his guides pleads with him to take his 4 year old son back with him to South Africa. Or when a man walks miles in the rainforest's to take palm oil to a market.
Though I found little hope in his book, I find it on various non-profit websites working directly in the DRC. Especially Women for Women International.
But I don't want to undermine what is happening in the DRC. The situation is horrible. I just wanted to make the point that many people are doing all of they can to survive so that the next generation can do what they cannot and pull their country out of poverty and chaos to be a place of peace.