Great African Reads discussion

For the second nonfiction read of 2020, we'll choose either of the top two books from our poll, to allow readers more options to find the books with libraries closed.

Select one of the below or let us know what other heavy-hitter in African history you're reading:
A Mission to Civilize: The Republican Idea of Empire in France and West Africa, 1895-1930
Congo: The Epic History of a People

It will be interesting to compare and contrast the justifying narratives invented by the French and Belgians to control people and resources. What else should we look for as we read these books together?

As I have a copy of Congo: The Epic History of a People I will try to join in with this reading. The other book looks really interesting too, but I don't have access to a copy at the moment. Another history book which I am keen to read is A Fistful of Shells: West Africa from the Rise of the Slave Trade to the Age of Revolution.

I started reading Congo: The Epic History of a People. I have a copy of the book and it has been a long time since I read a book of this size on paper: it is just massive and heavy! The writing is smooth though and the book is captivating and easy to read.

I just ordered my copy online, will receive the book within 10 days.

I finished Congo: The Epic History of a People and I did like it. David Van Reybrouck really looked for interesting testimonies and sources and brought the tragic history of DRC with a lot of interesting anecdotes and side stories. The book is very readable, but not an easy read (too much violence!).

It is a good addition to parts of the history I already read about, such as the first period under king Leopold II (King Leopold's Ghost), the fifties, independence and the tragic ending of Patrice Lumumba, or the Great African Wars starting with the Rwandan Genocide (Dancing in the Glory of Monsters: The Collapse of the Congo and the Great War of Africa).

The author has a honest and nuanced approach, putting the Congolese people and their lives first, and I did like that. It is a pity that it is yet another book by a European on a former African colony: despite his efforts it is still a eurocentric vision of Africa (as is very clear in the closing chapter on Sino-Congolese relations. He should have co-written it with a Congolese historian...

I have started this book but clearly I didn't manage to finish it by the end of June. I have read about a quarter of it so far and am enjoying it. I was a bit weary of picking this up as I have already read so much about the DRC in my professional capacity that I thought this book might not bring anything new to me and might be too 'introductory' since it is meant for a general audience.

However, I underestimated the book. Firstly, Van Reybrouck is a great non-fiction writer which makes the book really easy and compelling to read, despite the fact that it is a hefty tome. Secondly, he clearly aimed to write a people's history of the Congo and I think he succeeds in this to a large degree. In the sections I have read so far on the colonial period, he is very much focused on setting out the Congolese experience of colonisation rather than merely rehashing the political history from the West's perspective. I am curious to see if he manages to carries this through the entire book.

But of course it remains a book on the Congo written by a European, as Wim points out. If you are interested in reading books by Congolese historians, I can recommend The Congo from Leopold to Kabila: A People's History or the works of Elikia M'Bokolo and Jean Omasombo.

Valerie, thanks for that helpful review and sharing those resources. The history of DRC is so complicated that I think it has more tome-length History books than any other African country, and none seem to fully do it justice. I hadn't heard of Nzongola-Ntalaja-- will add his book to my list. I would love to dig deeper and find more historians writing about their own countries and regions for this project.