One of many reading lists (Africa Edition)

Reading is something that I have thoroughly enjoyed throughout my life since I was a small child. That is, until high school and college started demanding that I read certain things. I don't know if it's my personality to resist something just because someone orders me to do something or not, but that tends to happen when someone orders me to read. Since I just finished my sophomore year hear at good ole' college, I've decided to start reading for fun again, since it's been a while. But, I go in phases about certain subjects, particularly with anything pertaining to history. I started off my summer reading with three books that are based on the colonization of Africa.

The first one I read was King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa by Adam Hochschild. This book explains how the desires of King Leopold of Belgium drove him to use explorers and claims of philanthropy to go and colonize the Congo. Yet in the process, the Belgian effort decimated and dismembered the Congolese tribes, both figuratively and literally. This is a great book for learning about some of the origins for the Scramble for Africa, and while the material is a bit rough to read at times, it does read like a novel, which is a feat for a history book.

The second one I read was Scribbling the Cat: Travels with an African Soldier by Alexandra Fuller. Somewhat different from King Leopold, the book is about how the author befriends a former Rhodesian soldier, who is only referred to as K, and how they traveled to from Zambia to Mozambique to learn more about the war he took part in during the 1970s. As both of them are white Africans, it gives an interesting insight not normally acknowledged by the western world. What makes this memoir interesting is how throughout the book, you see the flaws that everyone has, and in ways, it shows their humanity, or in some cases, their inhumanity. Another good tool used by the author was how she used a lot of Shona and Afrikaans slang throughout it, and it definitely immerses the reader even more so into the story. While at times I felt that some of the story was embellished to make for a better read, all and all it was a very good book that I couldn't put down.

The third book I read was Blood River: The Terrifying Journey Through The World's Most Dangerous Country by Tim Butcher. The author goes to the Congo to retrace the steps of Henry Morton Stanley and his expedition to reach the end of the Congo River. As Butcher is actually a journalist, he does a lot of interviews throughout the book with locals, which definitely can be seen as striking to those of us who live in the western world. Yet many are heart wrenching, such as the favor asked by one man, Oggi, on one of the legs of Butcher's journey. What starts out as an attempt to follow an explorer's steps turns into a story showing how Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness still exists, and those who live there are plunged into the darkness themselves. While definitely a heavy read, it is very much worth it, if just for the way it makes one count their blessings.


I want to make it clear that none of these readings are for the faint of heart. Nevertheless, this should be required reading for those who want to understand Africa and its issues in a different light. While not as flashy and as popular as similar subject matter, such as the Holocaust, it is just as important. And it should not, and cannot, be ignored.