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Loading... In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz: Living on the Brink of Disaster in the (original 2001; edition 2009)by Michela Wrong (Author)I was in downtown Seoul, getting desperate, as one does in the situation I was in, when salvation came in the shape of a second hand bookshop. Not speaking Korean meant that I quickly ran out of reading options so I usually had to take what I could get and hope for the best. As it turns out, "In the Footsteps of Mr Kurtz" was about as good as I could hope for. Part (sad) history of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (or Zaire as it was then) and part reference to the then (no less sad) current events in Mobutu's Zaire, Wrong gets it right (ho ho) in showing, with a wry sense of humour, how dictator Mobutu was able to rule Zaire for so long, and how he managed to fleece so much from the state and from donor countries. Some countries seem to have no luck and the Democratic Republic of the Congo is one of those countries, from its colonisation by the Belgians and the near-genocidal misrule of King Leopold to Zaire and Mobutu to more recent examples. Does Wrong think there is a ray of positive future for the Congolese? Not really, no. The story of the fall of both Joseph Mobutu and the Congo (formally called Zaire). The book describes how Mobutu used the profits from the copper and diamond mines and the help of the indifferent West to pay his political cronies for political support and to purchase numerous lavish items, including mansions, champagne, boats and many flights on the Concorde super jet for his family. Obviously this had an enormous effect on the Zairian economy. Mobutu's style of raping the state for his and his cronies benefit created an everyman for himself mentality, where soldiers pillaged the citizens, diamond were smuggled, mail stolen and sold on the black market, farms and businesses nationalized and given to "Big Vegetables" to rape and destroy for their own gain. Mobutu’s “policies” also had lasting effects on the population. For nearly a century, the people of the Congo had to survive under the brutal force of King Leopold and the Force Publique. Then, a short time later, the country was taken over by Mobutu and ruled in the style of Leopold’s henchmen. This has left the population feeling helpless against the state and never reaching beyond survival. Wrong’s style is clear, vivid and concise. She does a great job giving the reader enough information to understand the sad destruction of one of the largest nations in Africa, while also giving the story a very personal voice. Anyone who wants to understand the Congo should read two books, Michela Wrong's In The Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz and King Leopold's Ghost by Adam Hochschild. I also heartily recommend both books to anyone studying Conrad's Heart of Darkness, which is too seldom seen as an historic account as well as a literary novel. Wrong and Hochschild explain why the last 100 years of bloody tyranny in possibly the most mineral-rich country on earth has laid the groundwork for 100 more. Hochschild gives us the first half of the century, when King Leopold II of Belgium, a man whose inferiority complex knows no bottom and whose greed no limits, jumps into the feeding frenzy for colonies and comes up gripping the very heart of Africa, the vast area around the Congo River and it's tributaries that would later become the Belgian Congo, then Zaire, and today is the Democratic Republic of Congo. This is also the setting for my novel, Heart of Diamonds. Wrong covers this era in less depth, but referring readers to Hochschild for the full story. Where she picks up steam, though, is with Joseph Desire Mobutu, better known as Mobutu Sese Seko, who became the archetype African strongman dictator. She paints a remarkably nuanced portrait of the man, exposing not just his brutality but his cunning; his charm as well as his lust for power. Wrong witnessed Mobutu's last days and tells us how he ultimately lost control of the nation he ruled for over thirty years. Mobutu didn't rise to office on his good looks and winning personality--he was essentially put there by the CIA. He also didn't retain power simply because he was good at exercising it; France, Belgium, and the United States, not to mention the World Bank, kept him there with military support and an endless stream of dollars. The tale of how he played the First World like a violin is fascinating. Mobutu's nationalization of foreign-owned assets and his machinations with the White House sparked several plot elements in |
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