In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz: Living on the Brink of Disaster in Mobutus Congo

ISBN: 0060188804

Author: Wrong, Michela

Condition: Used

He was known as "the Leopard," and for the thirty-two years of his reign Mobutu Sese Seko, president of Zaire, showed all the cunning of his namesake, seducing Western powers, buying up the opposition, and dominating his people with a devastating combination of brutality and charm. While the population was pauperized, he plundered the countrys copper and diamond resources, downing pink champagne in his jungle palace like some modern-day reincarnation of Joseph Conrads crazed station manager.Michela Wrong, a correspondent who witnessed firsthand Mobutus last days, traces the rise and fall of the idealistic young journalist who became the stereotype of an African despot. Engrossing, highly readable, and as funny as it is tragic, her book assesses how Belgiums King Leopold, the CIA, and the World Bank all helped to bring about the disaster that is now the Democratic Republic of Congo. If, in this poignant account, the villains are the "Big Vegetables" (les Grosses l