Customer Reviews

Kianza's Congo: A Portrait of Life in Unspoiled Africa

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I own over a thousands books on a wide range of subjects regarding Africa. This is THE BEST book in plain english about what life is like in a central african tribe from the perspective on an African. I have also traveled to the congo and other countries for research. This book gets it right, helping to create a cohesive picture of life there without a bunch on anthropological, higher instition speak. A must, must read.

Note the this book would have a 5 star overall rating except someone who wrote a positive review forgot to vote.

Kianza's Congo is the inside story of black life in the Congo. Written by a man who lived 10 years with the tribes. He spoke their language, witnessed their customs, and learned of secret rituals.

The life of Chief Kianza is told in Kianza's own words and translated by his confidant Mr. Daems. The book includes suspense, sex, politics, power, and even an experience of slavery. To be accepted in the male elite clan you must pass tough rituals, or die trying. These and more are described in this excellent book. This is REAL AFRICAN LIFE.

This book saves you the discomfort of a trip deep into the African Jungle: I have never read such a detailed description of the real 'Circle of Life' in Africa. Mr. Daems tells us the story of Kianza's life, starting with the first encounter of Kianza's father with white people, up to the independence of Congo. Tales of slavery, intiation rites, secret societies, local politics and economics, all these subjects are demystified in this book by Kianza himself. Kianza is not just a first row spectator but a participant himself. The arrival of white man however disrupted the existing fragile social structures which had evolved out of several thousands of years of trying to live in harmony with nature. "Kianza however did not oppose progress blindly, but it was blind progress that he opposed."