Blood River: Retracing Stanley's Journey to Africa's Broken Heart

by Tim Butcher

book data

184 ratings, 3.84 average rating, 54 reviews (more data...)

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4		40%
3		30%
2		3%
1		1%

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published

October 1st 2008 by Grove Press

binding

Hardcover, 363 pages

setting

Congo, the Democratic Republic of the

isbn

0802118771 (isbn13: 9780802118776)

description

Published to rave reviews in the United Kingdom and named a Richard & Judy Book Club selection—the only work of nonfiction on the 2008 list—Blood Rive...more

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07/31/08

Sarah rated it:

(review of isbn 0099494280)

bookshelves: non-fiction, travel

Read in July, 2008

recommended to Sarah by: Noel
recommends it for: DRC workers

I read this book on the airplane during my epic 42 hour flight from Papua New Guinea to South Carolina. It kept my attention despite my incredible fatigue and anxiety. But I had mixed feelings about it.

At first, it annoyed the hell out of me. He kept going on and on about his fear and how scary the Congo is. The Congo is scary. However, the people in the Congo are amongst some of the most amazingly friendly, hospital, and cheerful helpful people in Africa. While he gradually did giv...more I read this book on the airplane during my epic 42 hour flight from Papua New Guinea to South Carolina. It kept my attention despite my incredible fatigue and anxiety. But I had mixed feelings about it.

At first, it annoyed the hell out of me. He kept going on and on about his fear and how scary the Congo is. The Congo is scary. However, the people in the Congo are amongst some of the most amazingly friendly, hospital, and cheerful helpful people in Africa. While he gradually did give some shoutouts to all the Congolese who dragged his white ass through the DRC (not unlike Stanley, his hero), it wore on me. And it annoyed me because it kept pushing the DRC back into the "heart of darkness" trope that so many love to use.

But then again, I'm not really surprised at his fear at the same time- the DRC is one of the most frustratingly difficult environments to work in. The portraits of the wiped out aid workers, the cynical UN employees, and the priests and nuns who keep the place functioning, reminded me of the people i met while I was there. I didn't go to all the places he went - I was in Kissangani, Bunia in Ituri (scene of one of the worst massacres that drove UN soldiers mad), Bukavu, and Goma. And while I wasn't on the back of a motorbike, I did travel through hostile land in an unarmed convoy and take a treacherous boat ride that lost one boat to a storm to deliver things to some internally displaced people there. It wasn't all roaring around in UN helicopters.

The part that moved me the most was his conversation with the Malaysian UN boat captain. It summarized to me the frustration that all of us humanitarian and development workers have with the Congo - its got everything you would need to be a great country. Its got natural resources, natural beauty, charming and beautiful people, and smart wily people. Yet somehow, it seems to get worse and worse. It burns out the do gooders and limps along. Why is that? So I guess in the end, I enjoyed the book and felt it did, in some small way contribute to my understanding of the country - in its rich history, if nothing else. (less)

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01/26/08

Alex rated it:

(review of isbn 0099494280)

Read in December, 2007

Journalist Tim Butcher makes the improbable journey overland from the Great Lakes to the Congo River and down to the coast in 2004, as the various wars in the Congo continued sporadically despite the formal end to hostilities. If you want to understand IRC's recent figure of 5.4 million excess deaths in the Congo since 1997, read this book. Butcher stumbles onto dying villages stranded in the forest as roads built in the 1950s are reclaimed by the jungle, settlements freshly burned down by milit...more

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01/27/08

Ramona Liberoff rated it:

(review of isbn 0099494280)

Read in January, 2008

The Congo is, as the author points out, the darkest heart of Africa-sequentially brutalised, once functional in some ways and now given over to the madness of jungles and wars. A really interesting book-the author followed in the footsteps of Livingstone and Stanley, and takes the Congo river in the face of all (significant) obstacles down to its end, at no little risk to himself. Very worth reading if you are interested in Africa-my only frustration was that it was about a dozen things at onc...more

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07/22/08

Christopher rated it:

(review of isbn 0099494280)

Read in June, 2008

Part of my Congo season. Story of a journey undertaken in 2004 by an English journalism from the Telegraph following in the footsteps of another Telegraph journalist HM Stanley, who traced the Congo from source to ocean in the 1870s. Give a good introductory history of the Congo, and gives some interesting insight to how this country has progressed in reverse from the 1950's, when scheduled train and boat services made the journey straightforward to the modern day, when the journey is challenged...more

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07/04/09

Jock rated it:

(review of isbn 0099494280)

British journalism tries to duplicate Stanley's late nineteenth century journey down the Congo River in 2004. Along the way he discusses the Congo's history of exploitation and degradation by Arabs, the Belgians, and, since independence, by African rulers.

Besides Butcher's ordeal, the book addresses the African reversion to savagery. Of course, "reversion" is the wrong world. For less than 200 years, black savagery was simply held in abeyance by white savagery. European...more

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02/24/09

Christopher rated it:

(review of isbn 0099494280)

Read in February, 2009

Tim Butcher was sent to Africa as a foreign correspondent for The Telegraph in 2000. While exploring the continent, he dreamt of traveling along the whole length of the Congo River from its source to the sea, recreating the latter portion of Stanley's famous traversal of Africa. In 2004 he succeeded, and BLOOD RIVER is his chronicle of the trip.

As the book opens, Butcher has arrived in Kalemie, on the shores of Lake Tanganyika, which forms a border between Congo and Tanzania. His fir...more Tim Butcher was sent to Africa as a foreign correspondent for The Telegraph in 2000. While exploring the continent, he dreamt of traveling along the whole length of the Congo River from its source to the sea, recreating the latter portion of Stanley's famous traversal of Africa. In 2004 he succeeded, and BLOOD RIVER is his chronicle of the trip.

As the book opens, Butcher has arrived in Kalemie, on the shores of Lake Tanganyika, which forms a border between Congo and Tanzania. His first challenge is going a thousand kilometers overland to the beginnings of the river, a feat that everyone he meets calls madness, for the overland route has been closed for years. To avoid a territory marauded by rebels, foreign charities and the UN had relied entirely on airplanes. Once he reaches the river, Butcher then must endeavour to find transportation downstream, difficult when the river has mainly been abandoned as a way of going long distances. Butcher's trip was in some way a failure, as wracked by fever and weakness he did the last 600 kilometers by helicopter, but his vivid account of how wild and filthy the Congo has become makes the reader sympathetic. Certainly Stanley's achievement seems all the more impressive.

Interspersed with the account of his trip, Butcher relates many tales about the history of the Congo, which came as a great surprise to this reader who knew the Congo only as a failed state, suffering under the madman Mobuntu and the two dictators who succeeded him. Butcher shows how the Belgians had overseen heavy development in the Congo, with roads and railways connecting the major cities of the country, and stately towns with solid buildings and clinics. Nearly all of this had crumbled to dust or had been reclaimed by the jungle in the 44 years between independence and Butcher's trip. The state of life in the Congo today is grim, with settlements being squalid and the bush a frequent refuge when violence breaks out.

BLOOD RIVER is an easy read and its 362 pages can be knocked off in just a few hours. I'm very happy to have read it, as it has spurred me on to further reading about the terrible decline of the Congo from healthy and developed (though cruel) colony to almost complete savagery. It's not a perfect travelogue, as some of his themes in the book can be repetitive, and it's a pity he didn't report on any of the cultural life of the people he meant (but in a 44-day stint there wasn't too much time to investigate). Nonetheless, I would generally recommend it.(less)

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01/25/09

Mark rated it:

(review of isbn 0099494280)

Read in April, 2009

I remember watching a PBS show in the 80s about taking a steamer ship down the Congo river and thinking how cool that sounded. After that I had an "African Queen" type of romantic fascination with the Congo. When I was in the Peace Corps in Niger in the late 80s I wanted to conclude my two year stay with trip across Africa, from Niger to Kenya, crossing the Congo (then Zaire). Well, things happened, I left the Peace Corps early and never made my trip (probably wouldn't have been feas...more

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11/27/08

Jack Kirby and the X-man rated it:

(review of isbn 0099494280)

bookshelves: 2000s, 2009, author-uk, library_book, nonfiction, setting-africa, setting-africa-d-r-congo, travel

Read in March, 2009

I remember camping in Rundu, Namibia looking across the Okavango River at Angola dreaming of a time when everything north from here to the Sahara wasn't stamped with "Reconsider your need to travel" and "Do not travel" by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

This story follows Tim Butcher's journey through the Democratic Republic of Congo. The story of the journey is regularly interupted with comparisons to two other journeys: Henry Stanley'...more I remember camping in Rundu, Namibia looking across the Okavango River at Angola dreaming of a time when everything north from here to the Sahara wasn't stamped with "Reconsider your need to travel" and "Do not travel" by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

This story follows Tim Butcher's journey through the Democratic Republic of Congo. The story of the journey is regularly interupted with comparisons to two other journeys: Henry Stanley's 1867 expedition (the first European to successfully map the route of the Congo River), and this mum's rail and ferry trip through the Congo in the 1950s. Interspersed with this are many stories about the history of the Congo.

Tim is really well read on the topic, and provides a very readable history of the Congo (as well as documenting many of the pop-culture references to the region). While he has good 'book-knowledge' I felt that Tim did not add significantly to this knowledge through actually undertaking the trip. The vast majority of people he mentions in the book were westerners providing aid, employees of aid agencies, or religious leaders. His contact with real Congolese was hampered by suspicion about danger and exploitation on both sides and a significant language barrier (he so needed a Swahili translator!). The very few occasions Tim manages to access a genuine local the language barrier, and simplistic interviewing technique, lead to pretty generic answers (material things aren't as good as they used to be, jeez those rebel groups can be scary, etc) - all the while hinting that if Tim slowed his trip down and actually had a real conversation with these people he could learn some really interesting stories and perspectives.

After I while Tim's banging on about the danger and 'uniqueness' of the trip does become irritating. While I don't doubt the level of risk (the travel advisories are there for a reason) - after several hundred pages it becomes boring. There were only about three times I though 'he's in real danger of being a victim of violence' - you'd have more than that spending 44 days walking any major city in the world!

This book opens you eyes to a country that has been forgotten by the world - and this forgives its niggling irritations.(less)

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07/15/08

Suz rated it:

(review of isbn 0099494280)

Read in July, 2008

This guy, Tim Butcher--a journalist with some credibility being associated with the London Telegraph newspaper--decides to re-enact Henry Morton Stanley's voyage in the Congo. In 2004, Butcher starts in Lubumbashi and travels to a town in Lake Tanganika and finds insurmoutable obstacles to this journey yet he accomplishes it. It is a very interesting but sad book from the standpoint that: the people have suffered so much and the country appears to be just as backward now as it was in 1881 whe...more

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03/09/08

margaret rated it:

(review of isbn 0099494280)

Read in November, 2008

If you still remember reading Heart of Darkness in highschool or watching Apocalypse Now, and were faintly interested in where the actual place was, you may enjoy this book. If you are interested in the Congo or Hm Stanley & Livingstone journeys/exploration into Africa, definitely read this book. This crazy english journalist basically follows their path along the Congo river a couple years ago and writes about it. It is fascinating travel writing particularly given the fact the area is effecti...more

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09/22/08

fbuser716536114 rated it:

(review of isbn 0099494280)

Read in October, 2008

This held my interest for as long as Tim Butcher was interested in his journey. However, once he got to Kisangani and his own interest in his journey began to wane, so did mine in his book.

It makes fairly compulsive reading at the outset, even if Butcher's writing can, at times, given the subject matter, be surprisingly mechanical and plodding. He did this, then he did that, he went here, he talked to this person, he talked to that person, he saw this, he saw that.

This ...more

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03/17/09

Tarynroch rated it:

(review of isbn 0099494280)

Read in March, 2009

An enthralling book in which the author describes his journey along the Congo River. The most interesting parts of book are not necessarily the retelling of the author's trip (although I found myself truly rooting for him to complete his journey successfully), but his telling of Congo's pre-colonial, colonial, and post-colonial history. Fascinating stuff that sheds light on the challenges Africa is facing.

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03/30/09

Lbkyle rated it:

(review of isbn 0099494280)

bookshelves: currently-reading

Read in August, 2008

recommended to Lbkyle by: Rob the Aussie in Croatia..
recommends it for: Any little mongoloid in Search of an African Pursuit

The book is based on one of the most notorious BBC writers of the late 19th/20th Century journalists, H.M. Stanley's excursion through the Congo was basically rerouted from this dude then induced with his own little spices regardless to the facts of UZI's, Aids, Mosquitos, Agro Tribes running buck wild in the Congo..
Straight Forward and a good Excursional Read...

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01/01/09

Avi rated it:

(review of isbn 0099494280)

A 7.5 on a scale of 1-10. The main downside to the book was that Butcher spends far too much time discussing Stanley's adventures, as opposed to focusing more on his own. While I respect the idea that the history of the Congo is interwoven into Buthcer's story, it certainly takes up too much time within the general context of the book.

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11/04/08

Nancy rated it:

(review of isbn 0099494280)

This book follows the journey of Tim Butcher, a journalist from The Telegraph, who decides to follow in the footsteps of the explorer, Stanley, along the length of the Congo river. In 2004, however, in a country torn apart by violence, corruption, war and poverty, the journey that Butcher takes is almost as dangerous as the one his predecessor took more than a century before. This is a terribly sad expose of a country in turmoil - one of the few countries in the world which was far more technolo...more

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03/14/09

Linda rated it:

(review of isbn 0099494280)

Read in November, 2008

This is one of the best books I've ever read. Non-fiction about how the author traveled on the same path as Stanley did when he "discovered" the Congo River. If you want to understand the continent of Africa, this is a great book to help you on that journey.

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01/02/09

Susan rated it:

(review of isbn 0099494280)

Read in December, 2008

Author follows in Stanley's footsteps across Africa, specifically the Congo River. Informative facts from the history of Belgium rule over the DRC, but either his trip was somewhat safe and dull or he forgot to add interesting and colorful dialogue and events.

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01/04/09

Clare Cory rated it:

(review of isbn 0099494280)

Tim Butcher is a really good writer and does a great job of portraying a society on the brink of collapse, as well as distilling some of the complex reasons that bought the Congo to a challenging juncture in modern history.

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03/29/09

Ashani Nuka rated it:

(review of isbn 0099494280)

Read in October, 2008

It had some really cool stories but I found myself skimming paragraphs because it was somewhat repetitive at times and the novelty of the craziness started wearing off. It was a take it or leave it for me.

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