A Wide-Ranging, Painful History Ending Optimistically
5 stars
This book provides a sweeping analysis of the DRC's history, and reading this book in 2025 with a renewed Rwandan invasion is as edifying as it is depressing. Van Reybrouck speed runs the prehistorical period, focusing much more on initial contact with Europeans and Arabs, the subsequent colonization and exploitation by Belgium, and its independent period. Importantly, this book includes many interviews and oral accounts from the Congolese people themselves, with excellent on the ground work by Van Reybrouck to talk with both bigger names and less well known individuals. I also love how the aperture is expanded to examine the influence of Congo's neighbors on its trajectory. Given the moral imperative to help improve conditions in the DRC and its growing geopolitical importance, there couldn't be a better time to pick up this book. Highly recommend
This book provides a sweeping analysis of the DRC's history, and reading this book in 2025 with a renewed Rwandan invasion is as edifying as it is depressing. Van Reybrouck speed runs the prehistorical period, focusing much more on initial contact with Europeans and Arabs, the subsequent colonization and exploitation by Belgium, and its independent period. Importantly, this book includes many interviews and oral accounts from the Congolese people themselves, with excellent on the ground work by Van Reybrouck to talk with both bigger names and less well known individuals. I also love how the aperture is expanded to examine the influence of Congo's neighbors on its trajectory. Given the moral imperative to help improve conditions in the DRC and its growing geopolitical importance, there couldn't be a better time to pick up this book. Highly recommend