Dancing In The Glory Of Monsters: The Collapse Of The Congo And The Great War Of Africa (2011) - Plot & Excerpts
5 million people died in the Congo wars, yet until recently I'd never heard of these 'great wars' of Africa. As promised when I was recommended this book, Stearns sets out the complexities and refuses to reach for a simple answer. The research, interviews and sources are meticulous. Like many books of this genre, its a mixture of individual stories and grand narrative, and just about manages to avoid repetition or jumping about too much in his quest to be both introduction and acknowledge the complexity. As each conflict is layered one on top of the other its hard no to feel overwhelmed by the understanding of why it escalates and the inevitably of what the next layer will be like.Stearn's conclusion is short and to the point, drawing out of the complexity the lessons for the major actors. Its the chapter I'll come back to most, although it is only conclusions and not an explanation of how to achieve it. Fair enough, he has done more than many an analyst and given the policy maker a core text to begin with. A well written, detailed and articulate assessment of an incredibly complex situation:" I do not have a Unified Theory of the Congo War, because it does not exist." Crammed with interviews, intrigue and insanity this book extensively catalogues the incredibly obtuse corruption, atrocities and self serving attitudes of the powerful, rampant in the region. "Mobuto famously declared in a speech to the army ' You have guns, you don't need a salary'"His dedication and familiarity with the situation shines through the cynicism, ignorance and disregard:"Expatriate workers ...are often heard to say..(of the Congolese).they don't have any ideology (They) like fun and dancing.They can never stand up for themselves...They are like children...This sort of patronizing attitude is common among expatriates- be they Indian, European, Arab or American- in the Congo. Rarely do they ponder why these alleged traits have developed. The lack of responsible politics, is not due to some genetic defect in Congolese DNA, a missing "virtue gene" or even something about Congolese culture. Instead it is deeply rooted in the country's political history.""Sometimes it seems that by crossing the border into the Congo one abandons any sort of Archimedean perspective on truth and becomes caught up in a web of rumours and allegations, as if the country itself were the stuff of some post-modern fiction"An excellent primer on an ongoing debacle which needs serious and competent attention. "The Congo's suffering is intensely human; it has experienced trauma on a massive and prolonged scale, and the victims are our neighbors, our trading partners, our political confreres and our rivals. They are not alien; they are not evil; they are not beyond our comprehension."
What do You think about Dancing In The Glory Of Monsters: The Collapse Of The Congo And The Great War Of Africa (2011)?
Helpful in understanding what has happened in the Great Lakes region since the Rwandan genocide.
—kay
Apparently really great non-fiction is very hard to write.
—charlesjenkins
you didn't even know this war ever happened...
—kenbevdall
took me way too long to read this book.
—AdrienneReads
