Congo Democratic Republic (ex-Zaire)
(see also Rwanda, Burundi & Belgium)
Basics
CIA World Factbook. Includes map.
UN Development Program, Human Development Indicators
On the Web: Articles
Congo Crisis is the Deadliest since the Second World War. Alison Motluk, New Scientist (1/6/06).
The War Nobody Knows 3. Ronnie Lipschutz, Santa Cruz Good Times (11/03).
The War Nobody Knows 2. Ronnie Lipschutz, Santa Cruz Good Times (10/03).
The War Nobody Knows 1. Ronnie Lipschutz, Santa Cruz Good Times (10/03).
Congo War: Is The End in Sight? Thomas Turner, Foreign Policy in Focus (8/8/02).
The Death of Laurent Kabila. Thomas Turner, Foreign Policy in Focus (3/1/01).
Putting Humpty Dumpty Together Again: Reconstructing Peace in the Congo. John Prendergast & David Smock, US Institute of Peace (8/31/99).
War in the Congo. Thomas Turner, Foreign Policy in Focus (2/99).
Zaire/Congo. Carole J.L. Collins, Foreign Policy in Focus (7/1/97).
Zaire's Crises of War & Governance. David Smock, US Institute of Peace (1/97).
On the Web: Specialized Sites
International Crisis Group. Monitors ongoing conflicts.
International Rescue Committee.
In the Library: Articles
Adelman, Howard. "Chaos in the camps," Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists 58,6 (11-12/2002):89-93. Thugs ruling UN sanctioned refugee camps in Congo Democratic Republic.
Anon. "Saving the world: the limits of humanitarianism [interview with David Rieff & Brian Urquhart]," Nation (5/119/97):11-18.
Cooper, Frederick. "Conditions analogous to slavery: imperialism & free labor ideology in Africa," in Cooper, Holt & Scott (eds.) Beyond Slavery: Explorations of Race, Labor, & Citizenship in Postemancipation Societies (Chapel Hill: U. North Carolina, 2000), pp. 106-49.
Engelhardt, Tom. "The cartography of death," Nation (10/23/00):25-34.
Fabian, Johannes. "Charisma & cultural change: the case of the Jamaa movement in Katanga (Congo Republic)," Comparative Studies in Society & History 11,2 (1969).
Fletcher, Yaël Simpson. "'History will one day have its say': New perspectives on colonial & postcolonial Congo," Radical History Review 84 (fall 02):195-207. Review essay.
Fishman, Ted C. "Making a killing: the myth of capital's good intentions," Harper's (8/02):33-41.
Hitchens, Christopher. "Mistah Foccart -- he dead," Nation (4/28/97):9. Culpability of France, Belgium & the US in Congo's tragedy.
Hochschild, Adam. "Mr. Kurz, I presume" New Yorker ( 14 apr 1997):40-47.
Hughes, Matthew. "The strange death of Dag Hammarskjold," History Today (8/01): 2-3.
Leith, Rian & Hussein Solomon. "Understanding state failure in Zaire/Democratic Republic of Congo,"Journal of Peace, Conflict & Military Studies (Harare) 1,2 (11/00).
Mamdani, Mahmood. "From conquest to consent as the basis of state formation," New Left Review 216 (1996):3-36.
Neethling, Theo."Limitations of UN peacekeeping operations where conflict did not result in victory for any side: Democratic Republic of Congo & Sierra Leone," Journal of Peace, Conflict & Military Studies (Harare) 1,2 (11/00).
Rackley, Edward B. “What the US can do for Congo--and itself,” Nation (11/24/03):11.
Raghavan, Sudarsan. "Foreign forces are helpless to prevent atrocities in Congo," San Jose Mercury News (6/14/03):12A.
________. “Tribal warfare wracks mineral-rich Congo,” San Jose Mercury (6/31/03): 3A.
Reiff, David. "Realpolitik in Congo," Nation (7/797):16-21.
Rosenblum, Peter. "Kabila's Congo," Current History 97,619 (5/98):193-99.
Urquhart, Brian. "The tragedy of Lumumba," NY Review of Books (10/4/01):4-7 & "The tragedy of Lumumba: an exchange," NY Review of Books (12/20/01):103-4.
Vansina, Jan et al. "Religious movements in Central Africa," Comparative Studies in Society & History (oct 1976).
Wax, Emily. "Influx of modern weapons fueling Congo massacres," San Jose Mercury News (6/15/03):19A.
In the Library: Non-Fiction Books
Adisa, Folajinmi Olabode. The Comfort of Strangers: The Impact of Rwandan Refugees on Neighboring Countries (Nairobi: UNCHS, 1996).
Amnesty International. Democratic Republic of Congo: Deadly Alliances in Congolese Forests (NY, 1997).
Ascherson, Neal. The King Incorporated: Leopold the Second & the Congo [1963] (2nd ed.; London: Granta, 1999).
Berkeley, Bill. The Graves Are Not Yet Full: Race, Tribe & Power in the Heart of Africa (NY: Basic Books, 2002).
Brausch, Georges. Belgian Administration in the Congo (NY: Oxford,
1961).
Colchester, Marcus. Slave & Enclave. The Political Ecology of Equatorial
Africa (Penang: World Rainforest Movement, 1994).
De Witte, Ludo. The Assassination of Lumumba (London: Verso, 2001).
Duke, Lynne. Mandela, Mobutu & Me: A Newswoman's African Journey (NY: Doubleday, 2003). Washington Post reporter's memoir of late 1990s.
Fabian, Johannes. Remembering the Present: Painting & Popular History in Zaire (Berkeley: U. California, 1996). Studies eloquent historical paintings of Tshibumba Kanda Matulu from 1970s, representing "universal loss, the damage that colonization as betrayal & deception did to the very ideals of rational understanding & critical emancipation..."
__________. Out of Our Minds. Reason & Madness in the Exploration of Central Africa (Berkeley: U. California, 2000).
Gálvez, William. Che in Africa: Che Guevara's Congo Diary (Melbourne: Ocean, 1999).
Harms, Robert W. River of Wealth, River of Sorrow: The Central Zaire Basin in the Era of the Slave & Ivory Trade, 1500-1891 (New Haven: Yale, 1981).
Helmreich, Jonathan E. U.S. Relations with Belgium & the Congo, 1940-1960 (Newark: U. Delaware, 1998).
Hochschild, Adam. King Leopold’s Ghost. A Story of Greed, Terror & Heroism in Colonial Africa (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1998).
Hunt, Nancy R. A Colonial Lexicon: Of Birth Ritual, Medicalization & Mobility in the Congo (Durham NC: Duke, 1999).
Kaplan, Irving (ed.) Zaïre: A Country Study (4th ed.; Washington: Library of Congress Federal Research Division, 1994).
Lindqvist, Sven. "Exterminate All the Brutes": One Man's Odyssey into the Heart of Darkness & the Origins of European Genocide (NY: New Press, 1996).
Lumumba, Patrice. Congo, My Country (NY: Praeger, 1962).
__________. Lumumba Speaks: The Speeches & Writings of Patrice Lumumba, 1958-1961(ed. Jean van Lierde; Boston: Little Brown, 1972).
MacGaffey, Janet. The Real Economy of Zaire: The Contribution of Smuggling & Other Unofficial Activities to National Wealth (Philadelphia: U. Pennsylvania,1991).
MacGaffey, Wyatt. Custom & Government in the Lower Congo (Berkeley:
U. California, 1970).
__________. Modern Kongo Prophets: Religion in a Plural Society (Bloomington: Indiana U, 1983).
__________. Religion & Society in Central Africa: The BaKongo of Lower Zaire (Chicago: U. Chicago, 1986).
__________. Kongo Political Culture: The Conceptual Challenge of the Particular (Bloomington: Indiana U, 2000).
Mailer, Norman. The Fight [1974] (NY: Vintage, 1997). 1974 George Foreman-Muhammed Ali bout in Kinshasa.
Markowitz, Marvin D. Cross & Sword The Political Role of Christian Missions in the Belgian Congo, 1908-1960 (Stanford: Hoover Institution, 1973).
Martelli, George. Leopold to Lumumba. A History of the Belgian Congo, 1877-1960 (London: Chapman & Hall, 1962).
Mbembe, Achille. On the Postcolony (Berkeley: U. California, 2001).
Nelson, Jack E. Christian Missionizing & Social Transformation: A History of Conflict & Change in Eastern Zaire (NY, 1992).
Nelson, Samuel H. Colonialism in the Congo Basin, 1880-1940 (Athens OH: Ohio U, 1994).
Refugees International. The Lost Refugees: Herded & Hunted in Eastern Zaire (Washington, 1997).
Samarin, William J. The Black Man’s Burden: African Colonial Labor
on the Congo & Ubangi Rivers, 1880-1900 (Boulder: Westview, 1989).
Slade, Ruth. The Belgian Congo [1960] (2nd ed.; NY: Oxford, 1966).
__________. King Leopold’s Congo. Aspects of the Development of Race Relations in the Congo Independent State (1878-1908) (London: Oxford, 1962).
Turshen, Meredeth & Clotilde Twagiramariya (eds.) What Women Do in Wartime: Gender & Conflict in Africa (NY: Zed, 1998).
Vansina, Jan. The Children of Woot: A History of the Kuba Peoples (Madison: U. Wisconsin, 1978).
__________. Paths in the Rainforests. Towards a History of Political Tradition in Equatorial Africa (Madison: U. Wisconsin, 1990).
__________. Habitat, Economy, & Society in the Central African Rain
Forest (Providence: Berg, 1992).
Wrong, Michela. In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz: Living on the Brink of Disaster
in Mobutu’s Congo (NY: HarperCollins, 2001). Explores role of World
Bank, IMF & business interests in propping up Mobutu regime & the
mechanisms of tyranny & kleptocracy, gives some voice to ordinary Congolese
people.
In the Library: Fiction
Bennett, Ronan. The Catastrophist (NY: Simon & Schuster, 2000). An obtuse Irish journalist is buffeted about by the struggle for Congolese independence.
Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness [1902] (NY: Modern Library, 2000). Classic fictional account of Belgian colonialism & the rubber trade.
Kennedy, Pagan. Black Livingstone: A True Tale of Adventure in the 19th-C.
Congo (NY: Viking, 2002). Turn-of-the century African-American missionaries
Henry Sheppard & Lucy Gantt Sheppard in Kuba kingdom.
Kingsolver, Barbara. The Poisonwood Bible (NY: HarperCollins, 1999). Misadventures of an American missionary family in the years before & after independence.
Naipaul, V.S. A Bend in the River [1979] (NY: Vintage, 2001).
In the Library: For Young Readers
In the Library: Poetry
In the Library: Drama
In the Library: Photography
CD & Audio
Film & Video
"The African Queen" [1951], dir. John Huston, 105m. In video stores.
"Lumumba: Death of a Prophet" [1992], dir. Raoul Peck. From Newsreel. Documentary.
"Lumumba," [2000], dir. Raoul Peck. From Zeitgeist Films. Fictional film about lefe & death of the charismatic leader of Congolese independence.
"La vie est belle" [1986?], dir. Mweze Ngangura.
"Pièces d'identités" [1998], dir. Mewze Ngangura. From Newsreel. Congolese community in Brussels.
"When We Were Kings" [1996], dir. Leon Gast. In video stores. Film about the Ali-Foreman fight.