Tim Butcher: How I followed Stanley's path into the dark heart of Africa
The Daily Telegraph changed the course of African history when it funded Henry Morton Stanley's voyage of discovery down the Congo River in the 1870s, which launched the continent's troubled modern history of colonialism and post-colonial turbulence.
In recent decades the Congo has regressed into the most dangerous, remote region in the world. I followed Stanley's original 2,000 mile route using pygmy motorbike guides and a flotilla of unconvincing river-craft on a journey that provided a harrowing snapshot of modern Africa.
I passed through villages deep in the rainforest where human bones littered the ground and the only glimpses I caught of local people were shadows fleeing in fear at the sound of outsiders, so often the harbingers of violence.
But I also found a region that we ignore at our peril, one that represents a very real threat to the wider world.
Decades of war and rebellion have made the territory, known today as the Democratic Republic of Congo, even more dangerous than in Stanley's time - civil unrest kills 1,200 people each day, a death toll much higher than post-Saddam Iraq....
Read entire article at Telegraph (UK)
In recent decades the Congo has regressed into the most dangerous, remote region in the world. I followed Stanley's original 2,000 mile route using pygmy motorbike guides and a flotilla of unconvincing river-craft on a journey that provided a harrowing snapshot of modern Africa.
I passed through villages deep in the rainforest where human bones littered the ground and the only glimpses I caught of local people were shadows fleeing in fear at the sound of outsiders, so often the harbingers of violence.
But I also found a region that we ignore at our peril, one that represents a very real threat to the wider world.
Decades of war and rebellion have made the territory, known today as the Democratic Republic of Congo, even more dangerous than in Stanley's time - civil unrest kills 1,200 people each day, a death toll much higher than post-Saddam Iraq....