Oct 1, 2008 Posted by Nancy Williams on Oct 1, 2008 in Africa | 0 comments

Blood River: A Journey To Africa’s Broken Heart – Tim Butcher

More than a hundred years ago, Henry Morton Stanley famously found the lost Dr Livingstone with “Dr Livingstone, I presume?”, and a soundbite which became more well known than the country in which it was spoken was born. Stanley was the first European to travel the length of the Congo River in Central Africa, before he played an instrumental part in the downfall of that enormous country. King Leopold II of Belgium soon claimed the entire country as his own individual dominion, and from then until today it has been victim of exploitation, violence, corruption, famine and war.

Tim Butcher spent many years planning his journey to follow in the footsteps of his predecessor. A journey of more than 2000 kilometres across the Congo in 2004 was equally as dangerous, if not more so than it was for Stanley in the 1870s. Butcher had to face militia groups, rampant corruption and blackmail and a fear of anyone foreign. Yet he undertook the journey successfully and this book is the result of his experiences.

As a journalist, he writes succinctly although perhaps a little too much so? I loved the way he interspersed his experiences with relevant history – it provided fantastic context. However, the book started strong and petered out as his journey went on. I would hazard a guess that Butcher had five times the amount of material as appeared in this book, but to make it a popular and easy read it was left out. I would like to have read more.

Nevertheless, his observations were sobering to say the least. It is easy to be furious at the colonial destruction caused by the Belgians who bulldozed in, destroying culture, infrastruacture, societies and people in their way. It is also easy to be furious at the blatant exploitation which continues of the country by westerners, greedy to get hold of cobalt and diamonds. But the fact is, as Butcher points out, that the corruption within the country is so great that not even the people in power care enough to try and improve the country’s economy and living conditions. It is a country slipping rapidly backwards, away from technology and progress. Without a rule of law, no amount of financial aid is going to assist the Congolese population. It will continue to be stolen and swindled, never reaching the people who need it most.

Sadly, looking at the news headlines in the last couple of weeks, it appears that things have not got much better since Butcher’s trip. Reading this makes you feel helpless – if aid doesn’t help, what can the rest of the world do? Colonialism certainly has a lot to answer for, but actually the blame could just as easily be placed on the dark side of human nature.

Rating: 8/10
ISBN: 978-0-099-49428-7
Publisher: Vintage
Year: 2007
Pages: 349
Date Finished: 29th September 2008

No Responsesto “Blood River: A Journey To Africa’s Broken Heart – Tim Butcher”

1. Heart of Darkness and Youth - Joseph Conrad | The Book Tiger says:

   November 6, 2008 at 4:51 pm

   [...] much about it. I know my hand is up, which is why I went back to read it again after I finished Blood River by Tim Butcher a few weeks back. The edition I read was also one which contained the short story [...]