Mr Malik is rather taken with Rose Mbikwa, the leader and guide of the Tuesday Ornithological . Walk. Unfortunately, Malik isn’t the brash type – in fact, he is shy and incredibly polite and although he has been going on the walks regularly, every week, for several years, he hasn’t yet summoned up the courage to ask Mrs Mbikwa for a coffee. When the Annual Hunt Ball comes around, he sees it as his opportunity and writes a polite invitation to Mrs Mbikwa to ask her to accompany him to the ball. However, he doesn’t send it – and before he gets a chance to, who should walk onto the scene but Harry Khan.

Unfortunately, Malik knows Harry from their time at school together some 50 years before and despite them all being old men now, things haven’t changed. From the time of his arrival, Harry has his eye on Rose and before long, a competition between Malik and Khan is called for the right to ask Rose to the ball. The one who spots the most types of birds in a week will be the winner.

Harry uses money, influence and time to scour the country. Malik takes a slower route and seems to hit trouble after trouble – from being robbed and having his car stolen, to almost being kidnapped by Somali terrorists. Throughout the week though, Malik is soon reminded about what is important in his life and as the competition draws to a close, he has to weigh those things with his fondness for Rose.

I won’t give a spoiler, but it is a delightful ending – both happy and unexpected. This story is a fairy tale of goodness, laced with humour and beautiful imagery, while still touching on the things which continue to plague Africa – AIDS, poverty, kidnapping and corruption. I loved it because it provided such a delightful balance, and was written with so much imagination and lovely, flawed, likeable characters.

And look out for the chicken

Rating: 10/10
ISBN: 978-0-670-91757-0
Publisher: Viking
Year: 2007
Date finished: 9 December 2009
Pages: 202

Rather than going into the detail, I wanted to put forward a thought which was raised by this book. Interestingly enough, just before I finished it I was listening to a podcast which was talking about the first mass murder of the 20th Century – the 3 to 4 million Africans who were killed either directly or indirectly by the colonial rule of Belgium in the Congo and the subsequent drive for rubber. Reflecting on that and all of the other racist cruelties which occurred on account of colonialism, on the surface of it one can almost understand why, when the blacks seized power, they felt the need to treat the remaining whites with equivalent cruelty.

However, is it just me, but when has a problem ever been solved by straight revenge? When has treating the old oppressor in the same way as they treated us been an appropriate and effective tactic? There could be argument that fighting back against the actual oppressor might be justified, but what if the people you are fighting and second generation, third generation, removed from the act of oppression by years? Unfortunately, the world is such that humans have long memories when they choose and amnesia when it suits them. And in the melee, ordinary people who are just trying to get on with their lives have to suffer.

Godwin’s story of his parents is heartbreaking in so many ways, and yet they maintain their spirit and try to maintain some semblance of life. The tragedy is, the author discovers that his father had already had his fair share of loss – he was a Polish Jew who lost his mother and sister to the hell hole of Treblinka. Another time, another oppressor, another cruel period of history. Does it ever end?

I am very grateful to the author for telling us his story and allowing us to see Zimbabwe from someone on the inside. You can’t help but feel the same sense of betrayal and bitterness which his parents must have felt, and fury at the corruption which meant that the poor, who had supposedly been oppressed by the whites, remained poorer than ever as their black leaders stole even more from them.  Once again, I finished this book thinking ‘what hope is there in the face of human greed?’. Perhaps I should take hope from the individual stories that the author offers – the people who help one another, irrespective of colour, the people who support one another because there is need, not because there is gain, and the sense that perhaps, just perhaps, something can be done.

Rating: 10/10
ISBN: 978-0-330-43369-3
Publisher: Picador
Year: 2007
Date Finished: 23 December 2009
Pages: 342

Hands up all those people who didn’t study Heart of Darkness at school? Not many of you? OK, those of you who did, hands up those who can’t remember 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 Youth as well as an introduction by Tim Butcher himself.

The story is grim, as the title suggests. The plot is relatively simple. Staged as a story within a story, Marlow (the narrator) tells his listeners about a time in his life when he took a job in what was then Belgian controlled Congo. Although the country and the river name is never mentioned directly, it is quite clear that Marlow arrives in an alien, jungle covered country, where whites cling tenuously to their control through violence and repression. Marlow’s task is to take a rusty steamer up the Congo River to rescue a mysterious man named Kurtz. Kurtz becomes the character which dominates this book, even though he is actually only in the story for a matter of pages. However, Kurtz embodies the most powerful messages.

The story explores the contrast between darkness and light, and it has a heavy atmosphere of unhappiness and oppression throughout. Kurtz’s presence forces the readers and characters to question where civilization ends and where depravity begins, or if indeed there is any difference. Judging by the behaviour of the colonials, one would think that they were one and the same thing when looking at it with 21st century eyes. I got the sense that Marlow felt that way too.

The portrayal of women in the story was of its time – their role was either ornamental or one-dimensionally emotional, without the brains or understanding of what amounted to male business. And yet the male business of domination, colonialism and plundering resulted in death and an almost absurd striving for power and money which, when looked at rationally, was completely pointless. Of course, reading this after being so moved by Tim Butcher’s realistic account of Belgian colonialism and the reprecussions which are still echoing through the region today, I was bound to approach the book with cynicism.

Like many ‘classics’, the prose can be dense at times and the message can be hidden beneath words and sentences. However, this density was evocative of the jungle, and so perhaps quite appropriate.

It was pleasant reading Youth after finishing the main novella. It is a story with similarities but exploring very different themes – themes of age and idealism, adventure and misfortune. It was a far easier read, and provided a nice antidote to the oppression of the previous story.

It’s short enough to read again, but with several other excellent accounts of the state of the Congo around, I would recommend reading in context with some of these other sources.

Rating: 6/10
ISBN: 0099511541
Publisher: Vintage Classics
Year: 2007
Date Finished: 4 November 2008
Pages: 176

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