Radio Congo: Signals of Hope from Africa's Deadliest WarWhile poring over dust-caked pamphlets in the library, Ben Rawlence stumbles upon the photo of a lost city of colonial Congo--a glistening, modern metropolis built by huge tin mines and European capitalists. Today, that city, Manono, sits beyond the infamous “Triangle of Death,” in an area rarely reached by outsiders since war turned the country’s rivers to blood. In this compelling debut, Rawlence sets out to gather the news from this ghost town in one of the most dangerous places in the world. Ignoring the advice of locals, reporters, and mercenaries, he travels by foot, motorbike, and canoe, taking his time and meeting the people who are rebuilding their homes with hope, faith, and nervous instinct. We meet Benjamin, the kindly father of the most terrifying Mai Mai warlord; Leya, who happily gives up a good job in Zambia to return to her razed town; Colonel Ibrahim, a guerrilla turned army officer; the Lebanese cousins Mohammed and Mohammed, who oversee the remains of Manono’s great mine; the priest Jean-Baptiste, who explains the conjoined prices of beer and normality; and the talk-show host Mama Christine, who dispenses counsel and courage in equal measure. From the “blood cheese” of Goma to the decaying city of Manono, Rawlence shares the real story of Congo during and after the war, and finds not just a lost city but the seeds of a peaceful future. |
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Contents
Prologue | |
The lost city | |
What you wanna go there for? | |
Under the volcano | |
Meeting the colonel | |
Guerrillas in the mist | |
Blood cheese | |
The waves on the lake are not negligible my dear | |
Inhuman | |
The guns of Moba | |
My name is Zongwe | |
The return part II | |
The lake of snails | |
Eating the neighbours | |
Of pigs rabbits and popes | |
La route principale | |
Outsiders | |
A fishless lake | |
The return part I | |
Trouble in the Mulenge hills | |
The end is nigh | |
In search of goats and gold | |
A cruise on Tanganyika | |
The intelligence directors bath | |
The forest people | |
Beer and normality | |
The bend in the river | |
The price of | |
Electric dreams | |
The news from Manono | |
Acknowledgements | |
Illustration credits | |
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Common terms and phrases
Banyamulenge Baraka Batwa beer Belgian bicycle Bienvenue Bisiye boat boys Bukavu bush Bwalile chief cigarettes colonel coltan concrete Congo River Congolese army dollars door eastern Congo Erité eyes FARDC FDLR feet fighting fish forest French Gideon goats Goma hands head hills huge Hutu JeanBaptiste Kabila Kabimba Kalemie Katanga Katanga province Kinshasa Kisengo Kivu Lake Tanganyika laugh Leya living looks Lubumbashi Magatte maize Manono Mashine miners mining mission Mitwaba Moba motorbike mountains Mukanga Mulenge Muntu Ngoy night North Kivu Pepa petrol plane plastic pulls Pweto radio rain rebel refugee camps returning road roof Rutshuru Rwanda says shore shouts side Simba smile soldiers stare Swahili talk Tanzania there’s town trees Tutsi Uvira village Walikale walk what’s Wimbi woman wooden Yungu Zambia Zongwe