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    In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz: Living on the Brink of Disaster in the
    Unavailable
    In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz: Living on the Brink of Disaster in the
    Unavailable
    In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz: Living on the Brink of Disaster in the
    Ebook404 pages7 hours

    In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz: Living on the Brink of Disaster in the

    By Michela Wrong

    4/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    Known as "the Leopard," the president of Zaire for thirty-two years, Mobutu Sese Seko, showed all the cunning of his namesake -- seducing Western powers, buying up the opposition, and dominating his people with a devastating combination of brutality and charm. While the population was pauperized, he plundered the country's copper and diamond resources, downing pink champagne in his jungle palace like some modern-day reincarnation of Joseph Conrad's crazed station manager.

    Michela Wrong, a correspondent who witnessed Mobutu's last days, traces the rise and fall of the idealistic young journalist who became the stereotype of an African despot. Engrossing, highly readable, and as funny as it is tragic, In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz assesses the acts of the villains and the heroes in this fascinating story of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateOct 13, 2009
    ISBN9780061863615
    Unavailable
    In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz: Living on the Brink of Disaster in the
    Author

    Michela Wrong

    Michela Wrong is a distinguished international journalist, and has worked as a foreign correspondent covering events across the African continent for Reuters, the BBC and the Financial Times. Based on her experiences in Africa, In the Footsteps of Mr Kurtz, won the PEN James Sterne Prize for non-fiction. I Didn’t Do It for You builds upon her shocking experiences, and focuses on Eritrea. In 2015, she published Borderlines, her first novel.

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    Reviews for In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz

    4/5

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    • 4/5
      Fast paced and revealing look at how Western interference and internal corruption destroyed Zaire.
    • 5/5
      Gripping and insightful in the usual simple style.Worth every second.
    • 5/5
      I was in downtown Seoul, getting desperate, as one does in the situation I was in, when salvation came in the shape of a second hand bookshop. Not speaking Korean meant that I quickly ran out of reading options so I usually had to take what I could get and hope for the best.As it turns out, "In the Footsteps of Mr Kurtz" was about as good as I could hope for. Part (sad) history of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (or Zaire as it was then) and part reference to the then (no less sad) current events in Mobutu's Zaire, Wrong gets it right (ho ho) in showing, with a wry sense of humour, how dictator Mobutu was able to rule Zaire for so long, and how he managed to fleece so much from the state and from donor countries.Some countries seem to have no luck and the Democratic Republic of the Congo is one of those countries, from its colonisation by the Belgians and the near-genocidal misrule of King Leopold to Zaire and Mobutu to more recent examples. Does Wrong think there is a ray of positive future for the Congolese? Not really, no.
    • 4/5
      The story of the fall of both Joseph Mobutu and the Congo (formally called Zaire). The book describes how Mobutu used the profits from the copper and diamond mines and the help of the indifferent West to pay his political cronies for political support and to purchase numerous lavish items, including mansions, champagne, boats and many flights on the Concorde super jet for his family. Obviously this had an enormous effect on the Zairian economy. Mobutu's style of raping the state for his and his cronies benefit created an everyman for himself mentality, where soldiers pillaged the citizens, diamond were smuggled, mail stolen and sold on the black market, farms and businesses nationalized and given to "Big Vegetables" to rape and destroy for their own gain.Mobutu’s “policies” also had lasting effects on the population. For nearly a century, the people of the Congo had to survive under the brutal force of King Leopold and the Force Publique. Then, a short time later, the country was taken over by Mobutu and ruled in the style of Leopold’s henchmen. This has left the population feeling helpless against the state and never reaching beyond survival. Wrong’s style is clear, vivid and concise. She does a great job giving the reader enough information to understand the sad destruction of one of the largest nations in Africa, while also giving the story a very personal voice.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      Whew. A book you read, thinking, I wish this had never happened….please don’t let this be true. So jarring it leaves you despairing about Africa. Surely there must be happy stories there; not all can be tales of greed and corruption.