In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz
by Michela Wrong
HarperCollins

Everyone loves colorful headlines. So it's understandable that "Broomstick Brouhaha" recently graced the front page of Foxnews.com. But readers might be surprised to learn that Fox's headline pointed to a news story about 300 suspected witches being hacked to death in the Congo.

This is, of course, all in a day's work for America's mainstream media. Read the headlines and watch the news: The US press makes a daily habit of sidelining, misinterpreting and ignoring urgent news from Africa.

Would Fox — or any major media outlet, for that matter — have used an amusing alliteration to describe the Columbine massacre? Or the aftermath of the Oklahoma City bombing?

The marginalization of Zaire (previously and presently Congo) is one of the central themes of "In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz," a book focused on dictator Mobutu Sese Seko. Mobutu, who was the undisputed helmsman of Zaire's rickety ship of state for more than 30 years, used a cunning combination of institutionalized graft and charisma to live in opulent luxury at the expense of his country.

Author Michela Wrong traces the evolution of Zaire from Cold-War football to the sort of shambling kleptocracy that has become sadly common in post-colonial Africa. In doing so, she exposes an international lending community taken in by Mobutu's bluff charm and outright lies, pouring aid into a government entirely unfit to distribute or harness it for the good of its miserable people.

Wrong looks at Zaire on a number of different levels. She charts Mobutu's rise, many years of power and eventual "Behind the Music"esque fall. Her portrait of Mobutu's decline is genuinely moving; a virtual prisoner of crafty advisors and greedy family members, Mobutu became a victim of the corruption he both fed upon and nourished throughout his public life.

On a national level, Wrong picks apart the sad truths of everyday life in today's Congo — a "civil war" that is actually a contest between rival African powers, the appalling state of the nation's healthcare, sanitation and education, and its national plummet from guarded post-colonial hope to desolate post-Mobutu hopelessness.

And globally, Wrong looks at the batterings Congo has taken from the world's community of nations. First, a savage period of exploitation under Belgian colonial rule (excellently detailed in Adam Hochschild's "King Leopold's Ghost") and then a combination of malicious meddling and outright incompetence by well-meaning international financial organizations.

The book's only glaring weakness is that a large portion of its quotes come from anonymous sources. "An official," "a diplomat," "a former ambassador" and others say an awful lot, but there are times when the blanket of anonymity detracts from the clarity and credibility of Wrong's otherwise well-knit work.

One particularly memorable account tells of the rape of an IMF or World Bank official's wife and daughters, presumably on Mobutu's orders. It's understandable that Wrong would conceal the victim's identity out of concern for the family. But the story is told by a "former superior," and that's all we get. Serious allegations demand substantial sources.

But Wrong usually gets it right. Her writing is clear and her reporting speaks for itself; some of her first-hand anecdotes about conditions in modern-day Congo make for chilling reading. A report on Congo's decrepit nuclear reactor is both hilarious and truly frightening. More touchingly, Wrong writes about the Ngobila Becah Handicapped Mutual Benefit Society, a gang of disabled Congolese scrambling to live in a society unable to afford compassion.

"In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz" tells a richly layered story of a struggling people, and tells it well. Readers seeking an intelligent diversion will find it here; Wrong's lively and nuanced writing make for an intensely engaging book. Now, if only there was someone like her working for Fox.

— James Norton (jrnorton@flakmag.com)