Brazza in Congo: A Legacy and A Life presents a first-ever consideration of the great African explorer by Africans themselves, focusing on the story of his visionary humanism. Pietro Paolo Savorgnan di Brazza rejected the racism of his age and embraced the African people with respect and equality, signing a treaty with Makoko Iloo I, of the ancient Batéké tribe, whose influence extended over 725,000 square miles.
Richly illustrated with two hundred black-and-white and color photographs, drawings, watercolors, and paintings, the book accompanies a major exhibition that opened in Rome, Italy, and will be in New York in February and March 2009.
Editor Idanna Pucci is the author of The Trials of Maria Barbella, The Epic of Life: A Balinese Journey of the Soul, and Against All Odds: The Strange Destiny of a Balinese Prince. Educated at Columbia University, and a direct descendent of Brazza, Pucci has brought together Jean Leonard Touadi, Marie-Claude Dupre, Como Kinata, Terence Ward, Félicien Challaye, Jean Pigozzi, Christian Campiche, and many more to tell the story of this great African man of action. She has led missions to East Timor and Burma for Open Society Institute and Soros Foundation, and her documentary film Evgenia of Patagonia won the Premio del Pubblico at Torino’s CinDonne Festival in 2005.
