Fast paced and revealing look at how Western interference and internal corruption destroyed Zaire. ( )

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. ( )

Incredible-revealing of "the horror, the horror" of Congo's history, political oppression, and also includes great insight and humor into the country due to Michaela's fantastic writing ( )

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. ( )

easy to read history of the Congo from precolonial with a focus on the Mobutu's time. good start on the topic ( )