Mandela, Mobutu, and Me: A Newswoman's African Journey

by Lynne Duke

In this stunning memoir, veteran Washington Post correspondent Lynne Duke takes readers on a wrenching but riveting journey through Africa during the pivotal 1990s and brilliantly illuminates a continent where hope and humanity thrive amid unimaginable depredation and horrors.

For four years as her newspaper's Johannesburg bureau chief, Lynne Duke cut a rare figure as a black American woman foreign correspondent as she raced from story to story in numerous countries of central and southern Africa. From the battle zones of Congo-Zaire to the quest for truth and reconciliation in South Africa; from the teeming displaced person’s camps of Angola and the killing field of the Rwanda genocide to the calming Indian Ocean shores of Mozambique. She interviewed heads of state, captains of industry, activists, tribal leaders, medicine men and women, mercenaries, rebels, refugees, and ordinary, hardworking people. And it is they, the ordinary people of Africa, who fueled the hope and affection that drove Duke’s reporting. The nobility of the ordinary African struggles, so often absent from accounts of the continent, is at the heart of Duke’s searing story.

MANDELA, MOBUTU, AND ME is a richly detailed, clear-eyed account of the hard realities Duke discovered, including the devastation wrought by ruthless, rapacious dictators like Mobutu Sese Seko and his successor, Laurent Kabila, in the Congo, and appalling indifference of Europeans and Americans to the legacy of their own exploitation of the continent and its people. But Duke also records with admiration the visionary leadership and personal style of Nelson Mandela in south Africa as he led his country’s inspiring transition from apartheid in the twilight of his incredible life.

Whether it was touring underground gold and copper mines, learning to carry water on her head, filing stories by flashlight or dodging gunmen, Duke’s tour of Africa reveals not only the spirit and travails of an amazing but troubled continent -- it also explores the heart and fearlessness of a dedicated journalist.


From the Hardcover edition.

Genres: Africa, Nonfiction, History

304 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

Reviews

[phaedy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book because you rarely get the perspective of African-Americans covering Africa. Even more depressing you rarely get to read the memoirs of Africans themselves covering these conflicts, but that's another story. Her style was straightforward, no-nonsense, without a lot of emotional writing, yet her passion and connection still shines through. Great introduction to one of the worst humanitarian crises of our time. Won't get you bogged down in the details but prepares you to go on to heftier works if you like. Or if this is the only book you will read on the topic, it is still a pretty cool account of what our war correspondents go through to get us the news we consume.

[Daniel Paez · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lynne Duke chronicled her travels throughout sub-Saharan Africa during a pivotal time of revolution for the continent. She dives face first into some very hairy socio-political problems that were largely overlooked by popular media and at the same time incorporating conversations with African-commoners in an attempt to show just how similar "African problems" are to "Western problems."

This book is unquestionably well reported and filled with all the nitty-gritty for readers looking to dive deep into this field. I did find it a bit dense to read through, especially because each chapter is a different experience from the last. A bit of information overload.

[Sue · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lynne Duke is a Washington Post staff writer who was the Foreign Correspondent assigned to Jo'burg in the mid-1990's. Not only did she cover events in South Africa but elsewhere in the southern portion of the continent. The book was published in 2003 so it is a looking back on her experiences, and a wide range of experiences they were: Mandela's release from prison, rise to power and the years of his presidency, Mobutu's rise to power (DRC) and corrupt leadership leading to his overthrow, the genocide in Rwanda, the AIDS pandemic and South Africa's denial, Winnie Mandela's trial, and the peace accord in Angola ending that nation's civil war. Scattered throughout are also general human interest stories. All told from the perspective of a reporter who was immersed in the society at those points in time.
I happened across this as I was searching the county library catalog for books on various African countries and thought it sounded interesting. It was. For one thing, it served as a collection of history lessons for me. I think she did a good job of balancing background on the issue with reporting what was going on and her own thoughts and feelings being in the midst of the events. In the epilogue, she states that writing the book gave her opportunity to process all she'd seen and experienced. I can certainly see how that would be necessary.

[Mpho3 · Rating 5 out of 5]

For any readers who were disappointed by Duke's personal journey commentary, try reading A Continent for the Taking by Howard French. The two books have some overlap, but French, a writer for the New York Times, takes more of an analytical approach. His style is a bit more dense and less breezy than Duke's but engaging nonetheless. As for Duke's book, I, too, was initially put off by her personal commentary but as I moved through the entire book, I began to appreciate it as a memoir of her experience of a time in a radically different place than what most of her readers will probably ever experience for themselves.

[Terri · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lynne Duke worked as a correspondent in Zaire/Congo and South Africa during very turbulent and newsmaking times. She explores the hopes and failures of regimes, governments and individuals in African politics and wars. She faces extreme poverty and racial hatred, AIDS and its social devistation. The root of the Congo Wars and why they continue. In it all she shares her love and understanding of how the things happening there are a piece of her own understanding of herself as an African American journalist.

Mandela, Mobutu, Kabila, Mbeki, Mugabe, names of the players that shaped and often ruined the lands they governed.

And interesting collection of reports

[Sandy J · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book right after reading Aiden Hartley's Zanzibar Chest. Fantastic contrast of a black American women and a white Kenayan man's experiences as correspondants in Africa during the turbulent 1990's. I found Lynne Duke the more sympathetic, insightful and engrossing.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this one in Namibia waiting for Jer to come back from mediacal appointments....not the best read but ok if stuck in Windhoek.

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting. Made me realize how little I still know about Africa and need to learn.

[Jeanie · Rating 2 out of 5]

UCLA graduate working for the Washington Post writes about her four years in Africa. Not reflective but uninformative.

[Chicas Sippin Tea Erock · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

great book lots of information