Scan barcode
A review by lynch626
Blood River: A Journey to Africa's Broken Heart by Tim Butcher
4.0
My first book of 2017!
In the early 2000's, Tim Butcher, an English journalist, attempts to retrace the route of Henry Morton Stanley's 1870 expedition through the Congo to find one Dr. Livingstone. He all but succeeds. I wanted to read this to hear about the Congolese natives, the primitive villages, the beautiful but treacherous landscape, to maybe inspire myself to pursue a similar journey one day... That side of the story was interesting, but what I didn't anticipate was all of the historical background information Butcher gives us about the Congo. I have read The Poisonwood Bible & I have Heart of Darkness on my to-read list (both of which Butcher frequently references), but I realized I had never really thought about what a tumultuous history the Congo has had. It is basically a story of European colonialization gone very, very wrong. In order to harvest natural resources and mine metals & gems, cities & infrastructure were built up in towns like Kinshasa & Kisangani in the mid-twentieth century; but as soon as the Belgians were finished with the Congo, they let everything deteriorate and the country has basically been in a state of ruin and civil war ever since.
I also realized there are quite a few other American and British pop cultures references to the Congo that I hadn't really paid much attention to previously:
-1974 Rumble in the Jungle (boxing match)
-The African Queen (Humphrey Bogart & Katherine Hepburn)
-The Jungle Book (newest 2016 movie)
Quote
"As long as I know I've reduced all the risk that is in my power to reduce, then I am prepared to accept this secondary type of risk as an occupational hazard." (a good way to approach the dangers of traveling)
In the early 2000's, Tim Butcher, an English journalist, attempts to retrace the route of Henry Morton Stanley's 1870 expedition through the Congo to find one Dr. Livingstone. He all but succeeds. I wanted to read this to hear about the Congolese natives, the primitive villages, the beautiful but treacherous landscape, to maybe inspire myself to pursue a similar journey one day... That side of the story was interesting, but what I didn't anticipate was all of the historical background information Butcher gives us about the Congo. I have read The Poisonwood Bible & I have Heart of Darkness on my to-read list (both of which Butcher frequently references), but I realized I had never really thought about what a tumultuous history the Congo has had. It is basically a story of European colonialization gone very, very wrong. In order to harvest natural resources and mine metals & gems, cities & infrastructure were built up in towns like Kinshasa & Kisangani in the mid-twentieth century; but as soon as the Belgians were finished with the Congo, they let everything deteriorate and the country has basically been in a state of ruin and civil war ever since.
I also realized there are quite a few other American and British pop cultures references to the Congo that I hadn't really paid much attention to previously:
-1974 Rumble in the Jungle (boxing match)
-The African Queen (Humphrey Bogart & Katherine Hepburn)
-The Jungle Book (newest 2016 movie)
Quote
"As long as I know I've reduced all the risk that is in my power to reduce, then I am prepared to accept this secondary type of risk as an occupational hazard." (a good way to approach the dangers of traveling)