Book Review: Blood River

Blood River by Tim Butcher is the authors story of his attempt to retrace Henry Morton Stanleys treck down the Congo. It is the authors intention to cover the distance overground wherever possible.

Butcher encounters a Congo that is possibly more hazardous to traverse today that it was 120 years ago in Stanleys day. He meets few outsiders and those that are in the Congo fly in directly to their base cities. The roads established by the former Belgian colonialists have been reclaimed by the bush. It is hard not to feel despondent about the plight of Congo, it seems like an insurmountable task to turn the countries prospects around. Butchers thoughts on this are telling. He argues that the lack of lawlessness he finds everwhere and ambition for a better future is the result of the massive majority still having no real sovereignty. Only when this changes can Congo expect better things to come.

Butcher also suggests that the problems of the Congo are true of many African nations. When independence swept through the African continent after the second world warit brought hope of a new begining to those repsressed under European Colonialism However those hopes were quickly dashed as in reality independence did not arrive. Power shifted to a new elite that contined to rely on the brutal systems of government. In Martin Merediths excellent work: The Fate of Africa: A History of Fifty Years of Independence it is clear that a small group of greedy and power hungry despots have destroyed much potential.

Blood river is a compelling story that gives the reader a glimpse of a country largely forgotten by the west.

Reources:
Congo - wikipedia

Update: 22/07/07 Corrections made courtesy of the Author.