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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Fast travel, January 27, 2008
For a man who constantly reminds us how 'obsessed' he has been by the story of Stanley and the Congo, Butcher makes an awful lot of mistakes. They begin on the first page when he compares his efforts at packing little more than a 'penknife' with Stanley's need to bring a small army to carry medicine against ebola and other fatal diseases. Butcher seems to be unaware that ebola didn't emerge until the 1970's. You get the feeling that he just hasn't read enough, certainly about Stanley, his supposed mirror image. He seems to accept wholeheartedly the concept of colonialist Stanley, shill to King Leopold rather than the more complex character, documented by biographers like Jeal, that Stanley's hopes for the Congo were benign. At least then, we can admire Butcher's efforts to force his way west through the jungle. Well, sort of. It's hard to think of a single leg of his journey that isn't aided by either an NGO (on the back of a bike) or else by the UN (in a boat or a helicopter). Compared to other Congo journeys such as Redmond O'Hanlon, this is Congo light. Butcher doesn't come across as a bad man, just unprepared. He may ask hard questions along the way, but there are few signs that the Congo and Stanley are true obsessions of his. His knowledge seems thin. No wonder when you read his slim bibliography, devoid of both Jeal and Meredith, two of the better historians who've dealt with central Africa.
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8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Africa going backward, October 30, 2007
The author follows the footsteps of the explorer Henry M. Stanley across the Congo Republic and down the River to the Atlantic. What took Stanley three years, takes Butcher 45 days. That may seem like progress of sorts, but still is a very long time even for overland travel of a few thousand miles. Like Stanley before him, Butcher has to rely on a large number of friendly Africans, and is helped along the way be many capable and conscientious people whom he can offer little as reward.
Butcher describes a country which has deteriorated over the forty years since independence. Roads and railways have been reclaimed by the rain forest and rotted in the tropical weather. Schools, hotels, and government buildings are mere ruins of their former splendor. Good food and clean water are always a problem to find. Butcher describes how his mother could tourist through the Congo fifty years ago, traveling on trains, buses, and river steamers, which made their schedules on time and were comfortable and excellent. For decades nobody has traveled overland along the tracks taken by Butcher.
Butcher is a good writer, his descriptions are vivid and visible. Towards the end of the book he asks: why? Why has the Congo especially deteriorated so completely since independence? The outsiders in general, the Europeans during the colonial era were only interested in stripping the land of its assets, only in taking the ivory, rubber, copper, timber and other natural materials. Like others before him, Butcher offers some arguments in explanation. Africans have not been able to manage their sovereignty, have not been able to work together in democracy and law. I don't think he has the answer either.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Blood River - a journey today but going beyond the past, January 27, 2010
This review is from: Blood River (Paperback)
Tim Butcher was Africa correspondent for the UK's Daily Telegraph when he decided to follow Stanley's route of 1874-77 down the Congo from central Africa to the Atlantic. Butcher's story is both riveting and depressing. Riveting as he writes well of his travels and is able to punctuate his story with relevant historical outlines of a regions past and with well chosen and revealing interviews (he is a journalist after all) with local individuals.
However it is also a depressing tale of a country which, in Butcher's words is not underdeveloped, but is un-developing. It is clear that it's post Stanley colonial period under the Belgians was far from pleasant but even the limited gains of this period have vanished in the post-colonial chaos largely instigated not just by ex colonial powers and African neighbours keen to control the Congo's vast resources, but also by a failure of indigenous leadership which has appeared happier to exploit rather than govern the peoples of the Congo. To me it seemed, to use the parallels of the continent just across the ocean, that the Congo has resources & potential like Brazil, but the self-destructive politics of late 19th century Paraguay.
On a personal level Butcher's trip appears a unique event. The Congo no longer has cross country links - by road or river. Cities, towns and settlements survive on their own in isolation, retreating into the bush when trouble comes, as it often has. The United Nations has a tenuous presence, often providing the only sense of order, but even then this appears to be restricted to isolated key towns.
Butcher was really only able to travel because of outside agencies such as the UN from whom he hitched lifts on UN ships and aircraft. Although there is a telling remark by one UN official who describes him not as journalist, historian or tourist but as an "adventurer". The real heroes are the (very few) local aid agencies, such as Care International and International Rescue Committee, working in great danger and difficulty and who offer both lodging and transportation to Butcher across the Bush. At times I felt the "adventurer" in the author was unnecessarily endangering the lives (and work) of these people as he strove to accomplish his journey. It is noticeable that little real help was offered by those few Congolese companies and agencies in a position to assist.
It is clear that Stanley would still recognise the vast region if he were to return today - that is what ultimately is most depressing to the author, as well as the reader.
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