Death and Despair in the Congo

 

A review of All Things Must Fight to Live – Stories of War and Deliverance in Congo by Bryan Mealer, Bloomsbury, NY 2007.

    Journalist Mealer spent several years off and on in the Congo in the early 2000s. He went as a freelancer to cover the tribal wars in Ituri Province in the east. Extreme violence erupted there as ethnic tensions inflamed by the 1994 genocide in Rwanda spilled over into Congo.  Long simmering ethnic hatred, herders versus farmers, access to gold and coltan, interference by both Uganda and Rwanda, flared into ugly massacres and attacks.   Everything was compounded by the lack of central government authority, functioning institutions and especially the pervading corruption that characterized the Congo. Warlords and tribal leaders armed thousands of youths and turned them into savage killers and cannibals.  It was a horrific scene that a UN Peacekeeping presence barely affected.  

    So, the first third of this book is an ever-expanding recitation of gruesome atrocities that occurred in Ituri at that time. Mealer waded right in. He interviewed victims, leaders and reported on the crisis. His on-site reporting is compelling witness to the conflict and tragedy inflicted upon the people. However, the violence was in a far corner of the world, and nobody seemed to care. 

    After Ituri Mealer pitched up in Kinshasa from which he detailed the sad situation of the capital city in the months leading up to the 2005 presidential elections. Kinshasa was corrupt, venal, poverty stricken, and violent. Expatriate journalists banded together drank, laughed, bemoaned the situation, and defied the danger.

    The latter parts of the book are two travelogues. First upriver from Kinshasa on one of the last functioning riverboats. Mealer tells of the chaos of life on board – breakdowns and repairs, thousands of passengers, the daily carnival of life, the tropical heat and bugs, and mostly the exasperation, yet acceptance by the citizenry of the near total collapse of transportation infrastructure.  Mealer concludes this segment by biking the last 200 miles through the equatorial jungle. How crazy can you get?

    The final travelogue involved catching a barely functioning train from Lubumbashi in the south and taking it across the vast nation to Kalemie on Lake Tanganyika. The rail line is a remnant of a colonial era transportation network that bound the country together, but which has been neglected and in disrepair since independence. The author cataloged the journey, the people and problems – breakdowns, delays, derailments, etc. that he encountered along the way.

    Mealer paints a vivid portrait of the Congo, its peoples and its problems.  He found that most folks just accepted fate. They were worn out by life, tragedy, war, corruption, a collapsed economy, incompetent government, and left with little incentive, or ability, to change their circumstances. They just tried to survive.