Talking of Congo…

A new book by a trusted source to many journalists who struggle to understand Congo and the Great Lakes region of Africa has just been published.

"Dancing in the Glory of Monsters" by Jason Stearns has been winning rave reviews from the likes of the Washington Post and New York Times. It’s easy to see why.

Stearns is a leading authority on the region, having lived there for years working for the United Nations and the International Crisis Group.

He has built up a superb knowledge of Congo and how it articulates with its neighbors, particularly Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi. He frequently imparts his understanding to journalists far less well-informed than he.

And now he has produced a book where he makes the whole convoluted and confusing war in Congo a little more comprehensible, which is quite a feat.

If you want to understand modern Congo then Stearns’ book should be required reading alongside “King Leopold’s Ghost” by Adam Hochschild, “In the Footsteps of Mr Kurtz” by Michaela Wrong and “From Genocide to Continental War” by Gerard Prunier. That’s for starters.