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Dancing With Cannibals
This is a novel Dicho and I worked on together, co-authored, about the takeover of the African Congo by King Leopold in the early 1900s in the most brutal manner. We follow the adventures of two Belgian prisoners in their route to become colonists and make their wealth, but while one is greedy, the other decides to try and convert the cannibals from the inside. Dicho is from South Africa, and did most of the research, but he needed help with the plot and making it English ready. I think we've created a unique story based on this history, and history that needs to be known.
309 pages, Kindle Edition
Published December 15, 2015
1 person want to read
About the author
Monette Bebow-Reinhard
31 books25 followersAuthorized novelist, two Bonanza novels, Felling of the Sons and Mystic Fire. A third is offered free to download at my site, and a fourth is free by contacting me for details.
Master's in history in 2006. Marketing a major nonfiction.
Dancing with Cannibals, co-authored, published at Amazon in 2015.
Civil War & Bloody Peace: following orders, a major nonfiction, published in 2019, 2nd edition now available.
From Lincoln to Trump, published in 2020, 2nd edition now available
Michigan: Copper Artifact Resource Manual just released June 2021
See my website for free material to read, special offers, and more!
Master's in history in 2006. Marketing a major nonfiction.
Dancing with Cannibals, co-authored, published at Amazon in 2015.
Civil War & Bloody Peace: following orders, a major nonfiction, published in 2019, 2nd edition now available.
From Lincoln to Trump, published in 2020, 2nd edition now available
Michigan: Copper Artifact Resource Manual just released June 2021
See my website for free material to read, special offers, and more!
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
April 2, 2017
European colonisation was a tragedy for Africa, from which the continent has never recovered. The worst tragedy of this era was the Belgian Congo where perhaps millions of Africans were killed. The Belgian Congo was the setting for the well-known novella, Heart of Darkness, which is mentioned in Dancing with Cannibals.
Dancing with Cannibals is a fictional story of two pardoned criminals sent to the Belgian Congo in the early 20th Century, Unfortunately, this story doesn't have a sense of place and time, other than, perhaps, 21st Century USA. This lack of place and time includes usage of contemporary, American-styled language, a lack of understanding of French or Belgian mannerisms, incongruous names, and historical inaccuracies like a reference to antibiotics, which would not be invented for many decades. The two male protagonists are surprisingly one-dimensional and are not what would be expected of, say, an alcoholic murderer. There is a brief description of the town of Bona, but much of the setting of this story is left blank. The prison, the ship, which would have been fascinating for two, young, ex-prisoners, the cannibal village except in vague and again inaccurate terms, African villages typically being home for a few hundred rather than for thousands, the plantation, inland colonial settlements, and more. So much could have been painted in this story, but was merely mentioned in passing. On the other hand, there is too much telling, often in lengthy blocks of dialogue, and not enough showing.
The story does include the brutality of rubber plantations and this could have been dramatic, even gut-wrenching, but was skimmed relatively superficially. I have read African fiction only once before and that book was brief and somewhat cursory, and also had much telling and not so much showing, so perhaps this is the African story-telling tradition. I have given Dancing with Cannibals two stars because, with patience, the plot does take the reader on a journey, but if could have been a fascinating journey rather than a ponderous one.
Dancing with Cannibals is a fictional story of two pardoned criminals sent to the Belgian Congo in the early 20th Century, Unfortunately, this story doesn't have a sense of place and time, other than, perhaps, 21st Century USA. This lack of place and time includes usage of contemporary, American-styled language, a lack of understanding of French or Belgian mannerisms, incongruous names, and historical inaccuracies like a reference to antibiotics, which would not be invented for many decades. The two male protagonists are surprisingly one-dimensional and are not what would be expected of, say, an alcoholic murderer. There is a brief description of the town of Bona, but much of the setting of this story is left blank. The prison, the ship, which would have been fascinating for two, young, ex-prisoners, the cannibal village except in vague and again inaccurate terms, African villages typically being home for a few hundred rather than for thousands, the plantation, inland colonial settlements, and more. So much could have been painted in this story, but was merely mentioned in passing. On the other hand, there is too much telling, often in lengthy blocks of dialogue, and not enough showing.
The story does include the brutality of rubber plantations and this could have been dramatic, even gut-wrenching, but was skimmed relatively superficially. I have read African fiction only once before and that book was brief and somewhat cursory, and also had much telling and not so much showing, so perhaps this is the African story-telling tradition. I have given Dancing with Cannibals two stars because, with patience, the plot does take the reader on a journey, but if could have been a fascinating journey rather than a ponderous one.
Displaying 1 of 1 review