May 30th, 2007
2007 Jun - Blood River Introduction
Ever since Stanley first charted its mighty river in the 1870s,the Congo has epitomised the dark and turbulent history of a failed continent - from colonial cruelty under the Belgians to the kleptocratic chaos of Mobutu Sese Seko and the current post-apocalyptic riot of robber-baron politicians. However, its troubles only served to increase the interest of Daily Telegraph correspondent Tim Butcher, who was sent to cover Africa in 2000. He remembered his mother’s stories of her own genteel river journey there in the 1950s and his connection deepened when he discovered that Stanley’s expedition was funded by the Telegraph. Before long he became obsessed with the idea of recreating Stanley’s original expedition – but travelling alone.
Despite warnings from old Africa hands that his plan was ‘suicidal’, Butcher spent years poring over colonial-era maps and wooing rebel leaders before making his will and venturing to the Congo’s eastern border with just a rucksack and a few thousand dollars hidden in his boots. He travelled for hundreds of kilometers on a motorbike, dogged by punctured tyres, broken bridges and dehydration. As he drove through the most dangerous areas, he stopped only to sleep - biking through the bush for hours and speeding up every time he passed a soldier. And then he reached the legendary Congo River, making his way down it in an assortment of vessels including a dugout canoe. Helped along the way by a cast of characters - from UN aid workers to a campaigning pygmy, he passed through the once thriving cities of this huge country, saw the marks left behind by years of abuse and misrule, and followed in the footsteps of the great Victorian adventurers, and of the visitors - such as Katherine Hepburn and Evelyn Waugh - who had been there in very different times. Almost 2,500 harrowing miles later, he reached the Atlantic Ocean a thinner and a wiser man.
His extraordinary account describes a country with more past than present, where giant steamboats lie rotting in the advancing forest and children hear stories from their grandfathers of days when cars once drove by. Butcher’s journey was a remarkable feat. But the story of the Congo, told expertly and vividly in this book, is more remarkable still.
June 7th, 2007 at 1:24 am
dear tim butcher…thank you for writing blood river…i was born in leopoldville in 1952 and i have good memories of my early years au congo belge…i have read almost all the books mentionned in your bibliography and a few more that you do not list but i still learned a great deal in blood river as you concentrate on the most recent tragic situation in central africa…a place i never wish to see again and that is a great shame…very best wishes…stefan.
June 27th, 2007 at 7:43 pm
Dear Tim,
have just finished Bloodriver, having not been able to put it down. I spent six weeks as a medical student in a large mission hospital in Kimpese, off the Kinshasa-Matadi road, in 1986.
The book brought back my own frustration and bewilderment at a culture in which Africans were being kept in poverty by other Africans. Superb writing- you even evoked the awful stench of fufu, that I’d been so glad to forget. I hated the corruption, the bribes, the powerlessnes of it all, but met some real stars amongst the Zairean people in the hospital as well. I’ll never forget them. I hope they survived the war(s) since- the Congo needs them so badly.
All the best
Jenny
August 7th, 2007 at 1:25 pm
Dear Tim,
Thank you for taking your brave journey across the Congo and writing such a remarkable book about it. Your prose is direct and stirring which made the book hard to put down.
However, what disturbed me is that you tend to view all modern things as good and the lack of such things as bad. The decaying railroads and cities of the Congo is a main theme of your storey, and you write a lot about it. In my view the decay mainly reflects the failed efforts of the Belgians. I doubt if the local people today view the lack of railroads and houses made of cement as their biggest problem. I’d say that the rebels - the killings, rapes and general lawlessness is the main problem. If the people were left alone by the rebels they’d be endlessly better off - even if they are living in grass-roofed mud huts. You write a quite lot about the rebels too, but seem more concerned with the material decay.
Do other readers have any viewpoints on this?
August 9th, 2007 at 6:33 am
Dear Bernt
Thank you for your feedback about Blood River.
You are right. The lack of law and order in the Congo is, and always has been, the main cause of its problems. I hope I conveyed that in the description of Mobutu Sese Seko’s rule (when he stole not just the money but the future of the country by undermining the legal system) and the selfish greed of today’s leaders who do nothing to restore the rule of law.
But the symptom of this collapse can be measured in many way different ways: invasion by foreign powers, civil war, body count from the ongoing civil strife, falling life expectancy, or decay of the once functioning infrastructure.
I was struck by how many people I met in the Congo mentioned this last factor. `We once had roads here’ or `we once had a railway out of here’ or `we once had ferries across the lake to other countries’ were the sort of comments I heard repeatedly, as if the Congolese of today were both aware of what they lost and desperate to restore it as proof that their country was, again, part of the wider world.
So the cause is a collapse in law and order and the result, among other things, is decaying infrastructure.
I am sorry if that was not conveyed clearly enough in the book and thank you, again, for your comments.
With best wishes
Tim Butcher
August 11th, 2007 at 11:13 am
Dear Tim,
I was very excited to find myself in a book! I love the way you describe things that I take for granted in a way that will enable people who have never been there to gain a clearer picture than I have ever been able to convey.
I’m glad you found it “refreshing” to meet me. I’m not sure what to make of the comparison with “The Poisonwood Bible.” Remember you only came to meet me because my Congolese boss (Bishop Masimango)introduced us. Whereas the missionaries in the PB were there with their own programme without even the support of a mission, let alone of the local church, I am only there as long as the Congolese church want me and I do what they tell me (well, more or less!)
A few minor points in case you are editing: I worked in a village comprehensive, not a girls’ high school;
the old man in Masimango’s compound is his father not his father in law;
missionaries in Bunia don’t agree that I am the only English missionary in Eastern Congo, in ex Kivu yes I believe. Not serious errors!
I agree to some extent with Berndt’s comments above. Most of the Congolese you met were working with Western agencies so were bound to be preoccupied with the lack of infra structure. You had some lovely snapshots of “real” people for whom life has always been the same - hard but inevitable. Lack of a common language prevented you from hearing the views of (for instance) the woman collecting fire wood at the airport or the people carrying palm oil along the forest tracks.
It’s a great book and I am taking it back to Congo next week for everyone to read.
It was great meeting you and I’m so glad you really did complete the journey.
Best wishes, Louise
August 23rd, 2007 at 12:08 pm
Dear Tim,
I have just finished reading Blood River, a book I have found myself recommending in a most cavalier manner to everyone I come across. I think this is because it engaged me on so many different levels. Your passion for the subject and the courage you show as you set about your ordeal make for gripping adventure and there is an accessibility and deftness to the prose, which is quite captivating throughout. However it is of course the historical and political story that is at the heart of this novel. I am no expert on The Congo and have scant knowledge of Central Africa. It is a world that remained closed to me throughout my education and in my adult life the picture has never been a clear one. Through your novel I have come to see why. It is a part of our world that has been marginalized and ignored, primarily, it seems, because it is a source of such immense embarrassment to so many of the powers that be in the modern world. The Congo, in particular, appears to have become a living example of the results of greed, mismanagement and neglect. I have never before been so acutely aware of how precious a commodity The Rule of Law is. It is heartening to hear how many courageous people there are attempting to alleviate the situation, but it appears that not until a more general awareness is achieved will the required work be done, on the required scale, to right the wrongs of the past. I hope that your book, in all its clarity and its humanity, will go a long way towards raising that awareness.
Yours sincerely, Roger Ringrose
August 24th, 2007 at 2:29 am
Dear Tim : I enjoyed your book very much ; I have been interested in the goings on in equatorial Africa ever since I served as a young National Service officer in the Gold Coast as it became Ghana in 1957. I have always understood that a reason that Congo went downhill so quickly after independence from Belgium, in addition to all the political factors so well outlined in your book, was that the Belgians had never trained any of the Africans to become artisans. The result was that, when the Belgians suddenly left, there were no mechanics, technicians, railway engine drivers, etc. who could run the infrastructure. This was a contrast to the British and French African colonies at their independence.
Yours sincerely, Richard Evans.
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August 31st, 2007 at 12:20 pm
Dear Tim,
I heard about your book when I was in Cape town in July when you talked to radio 702. I am currently reading your book and I will write more when I finish it.
My congratulation to you for your courage, you have accomplished what many will not dare.
I am very surprised to hear that Mlle Nagant is still in Kalemie, she spent many years working at a centre trating tuberculosis.
on Brent Ringvold comments about Tim focusing on infrastructure, you need to see what Tim is talking about to understand that some modernity is essential, when one has to push a bicycle for hundreds of kilometers on a track…no water, no hospital…
If you are editing Tim, “bula matari” is lingala(language spoken in the west of congo) not swahili.
Regards,
Romain
September 2nd, 2007 at 9:51 am
Dear Tim,
Congratulations on ‘Blood Rover’ – all tributes and glowing reviews are well deserved.
A few years back I did some work on the Congo whilst producing a students’ edition of ‘Heart of Darkness’. Along the way I picked up a copy of ‘The Belgian Congo’, a 1944 publication from the Naval Intelligence Division labelled ‘restricted’ and ‘For Official Use Only’. I don’t know how many were printed. There are 500+ pages setting out detailed descriptions of the key features of the country: climate, vegetation, fauna, public health, history, administration, etc. It also includes chapters on agriculture and forestry, mineral economics, trade, industry and finance; a chapter on communications (waterways, railways, roads, airways, &c) is accompanied by a large map which includes your route and a host of others across the land. A second and larger map of Central and East Africa is the most detailed I have seen of the area. A gazetteer and a chapter of ports summarises facilities and operations in the 1940s.
The general tenor is of a thriving, progressive and advancing nation, full of resources, energy and enterprise. It supports very vividly your reflections on the country’s rapid change over the past forty years or so. I’d be happy to lend you the copy if you would like a look – there is an eerie and disturbing contrast between the 1944 descriptions of places and your early 21st century experience of the same.
A second quick point: have you heard of Herbert Ward? He was in the Congo 1884 to 1889 and, unlike the majority of other Europeans in the area, immersed himself in the people, their culture and languages et al. His exotically titled ‘Five Years with the Congo Cannibals’, 1890, presents a very different account from the standard exploration, colonial and missionary versions and counters the ‘that’s how white folk thought of Africa in those days’ argument/defence. His preface includes an account of the 1887 Emin Pasha Expedition Rear Guard’s nightmare on the camp by the Aruimi River and counters Stanley’s version in ‘Darkest Africa’. Again, if you’re interested, let me know.
With best wishes,
Jim
September 20th, 2007 at 7:56 pm
Hello Tim
Thanks for great but not 100% accurate work you have done.
I am from Congo, I want you to send this book to many congolese who can have their own opinions as well.
Thanks
Tshiondo (CIO)
September 21st, 2007 at 2:40 pm
Dear Tim,
A truely fascinating account of a part of the world that so many of us know so little about. As a long haul pilot I have flown many times over the Congo, Kisangani and Lubumbasi being two major report points.
Reading your account has made the Congo come alive for me. Thank you for that. In the process it has saddened my enormously.
David Pedder
September 26th, 2007 at 4:50 pm
Hey Tim,
I thought Blood River excellent. One thing that came across as I read it was the similarity between the way in which the country is run and your own ability to make the journey. Namely, the country is run through a system of patronage, connections and influence that is not open to the vast majority of ordinary people living in the country. Similarly, it appears that your journey across the Congo was only made possible by leveraging off the connections that you made before starting your journey, again in way that is not open to the average Congolese.
Yet the contrast in motives behind those that use the system to run and operate (and exploit) within the country, and you to cross the country could not be greater.
Excellent work.
Best wishes
Adam
October 16th, 2007 at 7:02 am
Hello again Tim.
I have been making some enquiries. It is unlikely that those navigation aids at Kisangani or Lubumbashi have worked for a long time because we all use either inertial navigation or even better, global positioning system. I seem to remember that you had a small GPS on your travels. Years ago such ground based aids were the only way we had (apart from astro navigation) of knowing where we were.
I have attached an article about that plane that went down in the Kinshasa area a few days ago. You may well have seen it anyway but it just adds to the general doom and gloom that the whole area continues to suffer.
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…At least 19 people died when a Russian-made cargo aircraft crashed and exploded on Thursday in a busy area of Kinshasa, the Democratic Republic of Congo’s capital, officials said.
Seventeen passengers and crew on the Antonov 26 aircraft belonging to Congolese airline Africa 1 were killed when it came down on several houses in the Kingasani neighborhood, shortly after taking off from Ndjili Airport.
“There has been heavy damage. Two houses have been completely destroyed,” deputy Health Minister Ferdinand Ntua said at the crash site. “There are a lot of dead but for the moment we have no figures.”
Air travel is notoriously dangerous in Congo. In 1996, at least 350 people died when a Russian-built Antonov 32 cargo aircraft ploughed through a crowded market in central Kinshasa, in the former Belgian colony’s worst air disaster.
The Africa 1 aircraft was carrying 14 Congolese passengers and three Ukrainian crew, according to the plane’s manifest.
“All the members of the crew and passengers are dead,” a rescue official said.
An airport security official who arrived quickly at the crash site said fire fighters had initially struggled to reach the wreckage in the crowded shanty town.
“There are at least four houses burning, the airplane is burning… There’s a lot of smoke and flames, everybody in the houses must be dead,” he said.
A spokesman for the 17,000-strong United Nations mission in Congo (MONUC), the largest in the world, said it had dispatched a rescue team and firefighters to the scene.
Ageing planes in Congo suffer from a lack of maintenance and spare parts but they are often the only way to transport people and goods across the vast central African country that is slowly recovering from a 1998-2003 civil war.
Eight people were killed in early September when another Antonov cargo plane overshot the runway and caught fire while landing in the eastern Congolese town of Goma.
Congo, a country the size of West Europe with only a few hundred kilometres of paved roads, has one of Africa’s worst air safety records and was dubbed an “embarrassment” by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) last year.
Africa 1 is on the European Union’s airline blacklist. All airlines certified by Democratic Republic of Congo authorities — except for Hewa Bora Airways — are banned from the EU…
********************
I’m not sure where this article came from or its accuracy. The friend (a BA 744 pilot) then added this afterwards:
Regarding the quality of ATC. Northbound a/c have the advantage of being able to speak to Lubumbashi on VHF and pass all their waypoint estimates. The HF communications are normally with Kinshasa or Lubumbashi and the Quality/Performance can be quite varied. On my last trip it was actually very good but often it’s impossible to establish comms and you rely on blind calls on 126.9.
*******************
Best wishes, David Pedder
November 11th, 2007 at 2:25 am
Dear Tim,
I have just completed reading Blood River and found it fascinating. Congratulations on your courage to undertake the journey and on writing the book so cleverly intertwining the accounts of Stanley and other earlier travellers on the same or similar route.
I have never visited the Congo and therefore would not wish to challenge the reasons to which you attribute its decline and degradation; it’s whole history is very much different to those African countries of which I have experience.
I spent some 26 years in various ex-British African territories from 1953 to 1979 and, although I saw only the end of Britain’s colonial role in most cases and was not employed by any colonial government, I would like to take issue with you on your views of the bad effects of British colonialism. From what I saw it was far more genuinely paternalistic than you suggest and the subsequent failure of the countries to properly govern themselves has been the failure of the elites which the predominantly uneducted electorate freely elected.Time and time again after the independence of their countries individual poor Africans would say to me how much fairer life had been under colonial rule and how much they regretted it passing.Perhaps the main failure was to grant independence to the various countries before there was a sufficiently large core of educated and experienced persons to properly fulfil all of the economic and political roles necessary but the pressures on Britain to decolonise, particularly from the US and the United Nations, were such that they could not be resisted by a Britain so weakened by the second world war.
Best regards
John Taylor
November 21st, 2007 at 3:18 pm
Dear Tim,
I recently finished Blood River and I cant get over the irony that a beautiful place such as Congo should have such a violent society.
Whatever may be the reason for their degeneration into this hopeless quagmire of violence but I still hope that there would be a day when all this would end and we would be able to visit the places mentioned in your book without being in the state of fear…
January 24th, 2008 at 9:40 pm
I have just finished reading Blood River. I know nothing of Congo, but I can imagine the utter desolation of the places through which you journeyed. I am at a loss to think how this situation will ever be improved, but I imagine that most people’s lives would be a lot better if they were only allowed to live them without the threat of death and violence by these bloody militias. I haven’t felt so despondent after reading a book since I read ‘Jude the Obscure’
January 30th, 2008 at 10:33 am
I was discussing your excellent book with my wife when I was half way through it and saying how important “the rule of law” was. It really is the difference between a functioning society and violent anarchy. Every society, however primitive, has rules and they allow that society to function. It would appear that this is missing from large parts of The Congo and I despair as to the solution. You have achieved a remarkable feat in your journey and the insights you have offered.
February 8th, 2008 at 5:51 pm
…Nelson and Bonny remained behind for some hours with 30 men, to burn the fort, bury a large glass bottle or demijohn (about three feet in height) at the eastern extremity of the enclosure, and then bring on some loads. The ‘demijohn’ was buried about a couple of feet under ground, and contains a letter written by Nelson and a few things of european manufacture; which may teach the African antiquarian of a thousand years hence that a crude form of civilization, known as the ‘English’, had penetrated into the heart of Africa, in the year of grace 1888…
I bet that demijohn is still buried where Fort Bodo once stood - what do you think?
February 15th, 2008 at 3:05 pm
Tim
Very enjoyable book with some great insights and experiences. Congratulations. I travel frequently to the Republic of Congo and so I see Kinshasa from the other side of Stanley Pool, as I don’t even have the nerve to cross on the ferry (”if the crocs don’t get you the rapids will”). I was wondering if you (or anyone on the blog) has an equally erudite description of the French colonial impact in Republic of Congo and the post-Colonial aftermath (regrettably in English as I am not able to read much past a beer mat in French).
February 17th, 2008 at 7:17 pm
Dear Tim,
Thanks for a compelling read, what a privilege for you to have experienced the trip. Having kept my African travels to the relative safety of Kenya, Tanzania, Zimbabwe and South Africa I recognise you are a lucky man to have made it & survived. I’m left wondering if any aid or security mission to the Congo and similar states can achieve anything other than perpetuate access for those who exploit. Perhaps walking away and letting the rainforest provide its protection is the only way their society can recreate its security.
February 25th, 2008 at 10:39 am
Dear Tim,
Thank you for a fascinating read. The only thing that kept my spirits up about your safety was the fact that the book was written and therefore, you made it. You also showed that traveling is probably not as difficult as the supposed local experts suggest but still hazardous and difficult.
Your book along with Paul Theroux’s Dark Star Safari should be compulsory reading for all African politicians!
Best wishes
Humphrey
February 25th, 2008 at 11:00 pm
Thank you for a fascinating read. The truth of your book makes it all the more sad.
February 27th, 2008 at 3:09 pm
Tim,
What a spectacularly brave, possibly dangerously stupid (!) and fascinating project you undertook. The first journey of hopefully many more if any sort of order is to be restored in the Congo, although I am sure we won’t be reading about you personally making it again for a while.
I am British but married to a South African. On a recent trip to see my wife’s family, someone made an interesting comment. He said that although I had been to SA many times, Botswana once or twice and a resort in Kenya, that I had never really seen ‘Africa’.
I have thought about this a lot since I heard it, and reading Blood River cemented my agreement of the statement.
It is true that SA faces its own set of challenges but none as extreme as countries such as Congo and many others in Africa.
As you are fully aware, true understanding of what ‘Africa’ means is lacking in the west - just calling it ‘Africa’ highlights this problem. Referring to an entire continent to describe localised issues is a dangerous generalisation that I see far too often in our press.
Books like Blood River are needed in order to open our eyes to the true situation and help us to develop a better understanding of the solutions required.
Sadly you are right that money is not the answer to ‘Africa’s’ problems, because it is one of the only tools the west understands. This mis-match will continue to feed the pain of countries struggling within the African continent. Recent campaigns have focused on relieving the debt burden that weighs on the shoulders of these nations, but that will only allow more money to flow into the private off-shore bank accounts of the few.
Efforts such as the International Criminal Court should be made more public and supported globally, then perhaps a society where an election means something and individuals are judged for their crimes can develop, which opens the door to progress and repair.
‘Africa’ is in a mess.
For me, I will no doubt continue to visit South Africa but the real Africa will remain as distant as it always has. And I would question if the real ‘Africa’ is a place I would want to see now anyway.
A sad thought.
March 16th, 2008 at 11:53 am
Tim, I have just this minute been informed of your visit
to the Congo. I will purchase your book and read it avidly.
More to the point, I have researched my ancestor’s 1816 expedition to the Congo with Captain Tuckey and Christian Smith - the botonist. My Grandfather was the only survivor of this expedition and he went on to establish KEW TRINIDAD.
His name - David LOCKHART. There is a lot of Congo history
on Captain Tuckey’s site and if you need to contact me regarding any of this, please feel free to do so.
March 25th, 2008 at 1:37 pm
Hi Tim
I have just finished reading your excellent book.
In your analysis of the factors leading to such economic decline it seems to me that you did not really draw attention to the indecent hurry in which the local Belgium community left the country after independence.
As a young man living in Southern Rhodesia at the time I sometimes went fishing on the upper reaches of the Zambezi River in Northern Rhodesia. Driving back to Salisbury from one of these trips I was amazed to find the normally deserted road south crowded with overloaded cars which turned out to be from the Congo. We had no idea what was going on but as we got nearer to Salisbury we saw signs for hastily set up refugee camps. Overnight the entire Belgian community in the Congo seemed to have “up sticks” and left. I remember that coping with these “refugees” was a huge problem in Salisbury for several weeks and there was not a great deal of sympathy for these people who seemed to have just panicked at independence and left in their thousands. I honestly can’t remember if they were in any immediate danger but there was a general feeling that they should not have been in such a hurry to leave. Of course most of them had never really regarded the Congo as home unlike the British in various other African countries. However this unplanned exit may partly explain why the Congo went downhill so quickly.
March 26th, 2008 at 11:36 am
Dear Tim
What a feat and what a wonderful account of your brave journey in the Congo. I am not a great reader but I could not put Blood River down. Your descriptions of places and especially the people you met are superb. I have only one complaint. On page 132 you mention Niemba and said it was only noted as having once had a railway bridge. In 1960 nine Irish soldiers were ambushed there and brutally massacred. They were part of the UN force.Maybe they are not commorated there.
Your description of some of the people who helped you in spite of terrible dangers is wonderful.
A really great read
Maire Pearson
April 6th, 2008 at 9:32 am
Great book - well done! Any chance of a few more pictures of your adventure on your website?
Rich
April 7th, 2008 at 2:41 pm
Hi Tim
Thanks for a great book, I’m still in the process of reading it but felt I had to comment.
I was in Lumumbashi, in my day Elizabethville, from the start of December 1961 untill June 1962 with A coy. 36th. Irish battalion ONUC and have some vivid memories of that time.
I read with great interest your discription of Lumumbashi today, the areas that I’m familiar with are the airport and the post office and more poinent, the railway station.
You have filled in a lot of detail of those times at internationa level that I was unaware of.
Thanks again on a great book, I look forward to reading the rest of it.
Regards,
Bob Cremers
April 8th, 2008 at 2:06 pm
Dear Tim, I am an avid reader of adventures.. such as yours. I lived and worked in Afrika for a number of years when I was a young man, but I never experienced what you did in the Congo. I found a copy of your book left behind by a passenger on one of my flights in Europe (Austria)… and after starting the first page I was unable to put it down again…. as I was transported back to the Afrika I once knew and loved….you are a brave soul, and I respect your tenacity to pursue adventure… thanks for bringing the eyes of the world onto the problems facing this great continent and country….
Best regards and thanks again for sharing your adventures…
Alan
April 10th, 2008 at 4:02 am
Tim,
I thought I was crazy living in the Congo for the past 12 years - but you my friend put new meaning in the word!
As a pilot (See “Congo from the cockpit” Vanity Fair June 2007) I’ve had my fair share of adventure flying to most of the places mentioned in your book - sometimes to supply some of the dubious characters mentioned - however to go overland through most of that lawless territory and survive is nothing short of a miracule! I hope readers including those inept and incompetent ones belonging to the UNDP and European Union can finally begin to understand the monumental problems facing the Congolese people in the absence of normal transport infructure which will continue to strangle development and hope for a once great nation.
Well done
April 11th, 2008 at 2:21 pm
Hi Tim, I read about the elogios a guy called
Errol Richards made about your book, which until now I unfortunately have not read. However this guy Errol richards interest me. If he was born on Dec. 6th, around 1940 or 41 could you link us together? If it is the guy I am looking to, I lost contact to him 1974 when he went to ContinentalEurope, without leaving any adress.
Would be faboulous, if you could assist my search.
April 13th, 2008 at 6:42 pm
Hi Tim, I am so glad your book was on the Richard & Judy book list, which has opened up a whole new reading list to me. I really enjoyed this very unusual book, which saddened me how their lives have gone backward, and how law and order has been lost. What a brave journey to undertake. More pictures on your web site would be good.
April 28th, 2008 at 3:00 pm
Tim
I won’t say I enjoyed Blood River, for obvious reasons. But I did admire your courage and determination. And the unquestionable quality of your tightly-written prose. I suspect Stanley would have tipped his explorer’s hat to a fellow traveller from his former newspaper. Well done.
May 3rd, 2008 at 10:45 am
tim, thanks for the best travel/exploration book i’ve read for a long time. the background to the congo was very depressing but you did find kindness from so many people. i wonder what you think about the planned meeting to discuss daming the congo and spending £40billion to supply electricity? what effect will it have on the country the people the forest and what benefit to the people of congo? it seems that the congo runs for the benefit of the rulers who will be well paid for their efforts. would it be too pessimistic to think that even if it is built eventually how long will it last and how well will it be protected and maintained?
richard
May 13th, 2008 at 10:02 am
Dear Tim,
Your book certainly gives food for thought.
My experiences of Zaire (DRC) where very similar except that when we went through it was peaceful.
In 1971 I left England with three other guys and headed off to Africa. In November we crossed from Bangui, CFA, and motored down to Lisala to catch a barge to go to Kisangani. Twice we had to cross rivers with the Land Rover on pirogues! When the barge arrived a Lisala we took one loom and decided to drive!
We went via Bumba to Isiro and then to Penge and waited on Gao station for a week so that we could put the LR on nthe train that was supposed to be coming through as we knew the next piece of road was terrible. The one night we walked down to the local pub (a hut) and had a few local beers and we were about to walk back when the locals said no way. They would go with us, with their spears, as there were a number of lions about. That night we heard the roar of the lions and them padding around the tents!
With no train arriving we decided to drive down the rail track as the LR wheels were wider than the rails. We drove about 3 kms (the end of the line was only 15 kms, at Mungbere) when a local jumped out of the forest and put his spear in the track in front of us. He was in charge of theis section of the track and if he allowed us to continue he would have a great problem with his boss. So we drove down the road. It took us 12 hours to drive 9 kms.
The next day we drove past a derelict armoured vehicle. We stopped where our Michelin map said there were pygmies and this local comes out of the forest and says he will take us to a village. We spent 45 minutes fighting our way through the jungle (we found that the jungle was very thick only a few metres from the road) eventually arriving at the village. We took a number of photos and then headed back to the LR. Our esteemed guide in the lead. It took us five minutes!
We had now been in the jungle for two weeks and had not seen a sunrise or sunset and, in fact, had only seen the sun at midday. We came over this bridge and all of a sudden there were no trees. It was like a weight being lifted off your shoulders. We were about five kms from Bunia and went straight to the hotel and had a wonderful cold beer.
I spent eighteen months in South Africa and then two years back in UK before migrating to South Africa in 1976. From 1980 to 1995 I travelled extensively in sub-Saharan Africa and visited Zaire on a number of occasions (Lumbumbashi and Kinshasa).
There has to be an altenative way of governing Africa.
Congratulations on your book.
June 9th, 2008 at 5:46 pm
This is a fascinating read, and am reminded of an ambush in Niemba of an UN peacekeeping force comprising 11 Irish soldiers killed by Baluba tribesmen in November 1960? I was eight years old at the time and this was probably the first time i heard of the Congo, since then I have always had an interest in the subject since the funerals of these soldiers in Dublin left such an impact on me.
June 11th, 2008 at 12:05 am
Dear Tim,
I have just finished your book which I could not put down. I have always been interested in Africa and it’s history and your book was a real eye opener.
The risks you took alone were beyond belief and as mentioned in another reader’s comment, thankfully you know the ending is a good one as you lived to write the book! It is beautifully written as it wasn’t about just you, it was about a beautiful country, yours and previous explorer’s experiences.
This is one of the best books I have ever read.
Best Wishes
Ana
June 15th, 2008 at 11:02 am
I have just finished reading Blood River after reading Stanley by Tim Jeal. If you have not read this I suggest you do, as it gives a completely different view of Stanley. He appears to been used by the King Leopold and I am sure would be horrified by the state of the country now. Its all so so sad.
best wishes,
Alan Coleman
July 1st, 2008 at 11:01 pm
To Bob Cremers.
We still cherish at home many of the slides my Dad, Capt Kevin Page took while serving with A coy 36 Batt in Elizabethaville/lumumbashi. It was like seeing a modern day mission to Mars; so vivid but so far away.
Rory Page
July 7th, 2008 at 8:40 pm
Just finished reading Blood River — great journey and great book, Tim! Hope you do something on the Middle East too, now that you are Telegraph’s ME correspondent in Jerusalem.
August 6th, 2008 at 12:16 pm
Thank you for writing this book, which has for me been challenging in every way. I particularly valued the incisive comments about the way in which the colonialist heritage (even the best examples)in Africa has left many countries with an exploitative elite, not least through ignoring the checks and balances of the traditional authority systems in the way they set up the regional governmental system.
As the book makes clear, however, Congo is the most horrendous example of a history of ruthless exploitation of a country full of wealth. This has a left a heritage of lassitude and despair - “…The Congo people. They don’t want to make money for themselves. They just wait to take money from others” (p310).
My visits to Congo so far have been restricted to the Eastern Region, conducting short-term training for pastors, by invitation of the Anglican Church there. If there is one negative comment about the book, it is that it does not mention the deep and tangible spiritual paralysis that exists in Congo, through the long-term practice of witchcraft and other forms of corporate and structural evil. This situation will not be solved by the UN, nor by the aid agencies, not by outside missionary intiatives alone; but by supporting - in prayer, and in presence - the Christian leaders there (some of whose contributions Tim Butcher acknowledges) in what is clearly a monumental task.
Don Brewin
August 30th, 2008 at 12:13 pm
Tim
Thank you for writing this book i enjoyed it immensely. I know little about Africa let alone the Congo however it did cause me to wonder whether if the same ingredients that have created the Congo of today were applied to european societies whether the outcomes would be similar???
I really do wonder what drives us sometimes.
Anyway on a positive note a fantastic journey and achievement Tim congratulations to you and the good people who assisted you.
Kevin
September 4th, 2008 at 7:55 pm
I have just finished reading this book and I am thankful I only paid 20p at a car boot sale…
Yes the journey is an amazing one, but why? and how?
You left your wife at home for weeks to undertake a journey which you knew would endanger your life and the life of those who helped you, there was no doubt about this and you stated it yourself enough times.
You complain about the system of “connections” and bribery, but this journey was only possible by you perpetuating the degradation of this country.
But the main point which annoys me is that from about halfway through you are continuously complaining, desperate to get to the ocean, to the end, when the whole point of “the journey” is to re-create Stanleys “JOURNEY”.
You chose to carry out this “adventure”.
You chose to endanger other peoples lives.
You chose to bribe the locals officials.
purely through self aggrandissement.
the book is now in the bin.
September 6th, 2008 at 10:08 pm
“…but why? and how?” Knowledge and courage would be the obvious answers, JH (BTW, JH, would those be the initials of Jellyfish Humdrum?)
October 4th, 2008 at 9:51 am
Great read…Brilliantly captured history and a question or two ?
Who will rescue these forests, scarred and shattered by these years of war?. Who will take the rope in their teeth, then against all odds, sail out against the storms of recent ‘Civilized’ centuries, and gather the Congo along with all such hallowed and sacred places in a passionate embrace and halt the destruction by rescuing these remnants, which if it is not accomplished now will certainly end with the obliteration, at least in these parts, of this dying landscape and her citizens?
Perhaps it is too late? Is it inevitable that given time, this fleeting history will not have a happy outcome,for the environment and her people who depend on her for survival just as the Congo and all the tropics are experiencing an unhappy transitional epoch. Then again, perhaps one should take a very, very long view of things, to put everything into its true perspective…?
KF
January 12th, 2009 at 10:07 pm
Hi Tim,
I was born in the Belgian Congo in 1948. My parents were the first white missionaries to the Bashilele, a tribe of headhunters in the northern Kasai Province. We left breifly in 1960 just before Independence and then had the somewhat difficult distinction of being the first white family from our denomination (Mennonite) to return to the interrior of the Congo. It was rough being a teenager during the tribal wars and anti-white reprisals of that period. We lived for a year in an abandoned Belgian villa in the diamond-mining town of Tshikapa, and the U.N. came in and rescued us with a helicopter from all the shooting.
Anyway, I thought it was a great book! Except that I LOVE fufu (which we call “bidia” in Tshiluba). It doesn’t smell like cheese or wallpaper. To me, it is ambrosia!
January 27th, 2009 at 5:10 pm
Have Tammy & Tim read “The Poisonwood Bible” by Barbara Kingsolver - about a not-very-good, and hopefully fictional missionary family in Congo?
There are some really good ones as well!
July 1st, 2009 at 11:18 am
Just finished reading the fascinating account of your epic journey across the Congo. I was most impressed by your resolute determination to accomplish such a daunting challenge, contending with bureaucracy, the constant danger of being killed, uncomfortable travelling conditions, health hazards, thick clouds of mosquitos, vermin-infested sleeping quarters, poor food & lack of drinking-water! The place sounds like one’s worst nightmare. However, I don’t think all the Congo’s current ills can be attributed to its having been a Belgian colony & the abuses of that Administration. The Congolese have had almost 50 years to get their act together & have failed spectacularly to do so. The infrastructure, roads, railways, urbanization, insect-control, etc., the positive Belgian legacy, which was well worth endeavouring to maintain, was allowed to crumble into ruin & in some cases disappear altogether. I can’t think of any current or recent parallel in European countries to rival the obscene greed and lavish life-styles of the Congolese leaders (Mobutu chartering the Concorde to deliver Champagne) while their own people are languishing in abject poverty. The Congolese leadership has turned the country metaphorically and physically into a sewer. It’s sad when one thinks that with the Congo’s abundant natural resources, it has the potential to be a prosperous country for the whole population. My sympathies go out to the decent Congolese people and the Aid-workers who are struggling to help them & who were kind & helful to you on your Congo odyssey.
Best wishes,
Maev Gallagher
October 24th, 2009 at 3:45 pm
Tim,
just finished blood river. very provocative, i don’t know how i feel about africa. i think ali is right, but that africans may have special obstacles other cultures do not. then i look at detroit and memphis and conclude that the corruption and mismanagement of these historic cities by black “leadership” are too strikingly similiar to what you describe in your book about congo cities. what does this mean for america? africa? i’m perplexed. thanks for the good read.
bob tscholl
January 2nd, 2010 at 4:31 pm
Tim, just finished reading the book, and in awe of your courage required in pursuing this dream… Looking forward to the time when we can recreate the original expedition in a rowing boat - peacefully!
By the way I have found reference to the remains of the Lady Alice in an ethnographic museum in Kinshasa:
http://www.pladsen.org/site/exhibitions/detail.asp?id=15
Best wishes
Steve
March 25th, 2010 at 11:15 am
Who can give me more informations about Mademoiselle NAGANT who was in Kalemie and Monuc .Thanks
April 8th, 2010 at 4:10 pm
Dear Tim,
Just read your book and wonder if it is available in French. If not, Are you thinking of having it translated as it is already available in German.
Would love to get a book with photos taken throughout your journey. Is there one?
We live in France, My husband grew up in Zimbabwe and is fluent in French. We could translate your book is you wish.
Amicalement.
Cath