Rating: 
Summary: Mobutu at the Heart of Zaire's Darkness
Review: Throughout history, Africa has claimed the moniker of the Dark Continent, originally due to its mysteriousness, wildness, and danger. However, there is a new darkness that has overtaken modern Africa, a darkness that plagues the content. This darkness is composed of governmental corruption, violent coups, genocide, ethnic cleansing, guerilla warfare and other forms of exploitation and violence.
One of the most blatant examples of this impinging darkness was the rule Zaire's President Mobutu. His insatiable thirst for cruelty brought Zaire, a nation with massive potential for wealth and prosperity, to its knees and subsequently destroyed the will of his own proud people.
Michaela Wrong follows the rise of Mobutu, the once obscure military aide, and chronicles his nearly instinctual political maneuvers which finally consolidated his grip on the throat of Zaire. Wrong also illustrates the effects of Mobutu's "kleptocracy" which essentially bled the nation and its people dry of any wealth, and economic potential.
Apart from bankrupting a nation, perhaps the saddest result of Mobutu's reign was destruction of a nation's will. The people of Zaire not only grew disillusioned with Mobutu's leadership, but became disillusioned with the hope of betterment. In the minds of many of those living in Zaire under Mobutu, the thought of struggling everyday to eek out a living seemed pointless. At the end of that day, the Mobutu government would come and reap all that was so painfully sown.
The title of book is In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz, named after the power hungry character in Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness and Wrong does draw vague parallels between the two. Still, the parallels do lend an interesting twist to the work. Both Mobutu and Kurtz were corrupted by power and the vast wealth hidden in the darkest Africa, and once they tasted those sweet riches, their appetites became insatiable and cost Africa dearly.
Rating:
Summary: Great Stories, Weak Details
Review: Wrong provides an excellent series of anecdotes about Zaire/Congo during Mobutu Sese Seko's rule. Her book reads like a cocktail party conversation, fascinating stories that are great to listen to but don't have a whole lot of depth behind them or statistics to back them up. Even Wrong's discussion of her attempts to find statistics end up as anecodotes about her experiences with the Congolese government, the World Bank, the IMF, and many government agencies. Overall, though, this book is a fascinating first-person account of Mobutu's rule. Highly entertaining!
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