Book Review: Where Is The Congo?
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆
This book, Where Is The Congo, is all about a place in Africa that is mostly known for its lovely nature landscapes and its chimps, gorillas, and bonobos. However, don’t judge a book by its cover, literally, because there is a deep and dark history behind this very dangerous place. Did you know that not so long ago, the residents of Congo were enslaved, without anyone knowing? There were two kinds of jobs back then: back-breaking slavery work and police force work - to force people to do the back-breaking slave work. It was horrifying. I can’t imagine living like that, but many people were forced to. Imagine being brutally woken up in the wee hours of the morning, then having to work all day collecting latex, palm oil, or whatever was needed. If you were tired and stopped for just a minute, you were whipped and/or beaten. Then, you would stop late at night, to eat, then you would rest, only to be woken up again, a few hours later, in the wee hours of the morning. Sheesh. I only rate this book 3 out of 5 stars. That might seem surprising, since I provided such a vivid description of the Congo, but I have my reasons. The book gave a marvelous description of the brutal bits in Congo’s history, but in my opinion, it didn’t give enough information about the nature and the wildlife located there. It was only the last 2 short chapters that mentioned nature, but I feel that the author should have added a bit more about the ecosystem, the wildlife, the bodies of water, etc. It does show some of it on the map in the back of the book, but there is no actual writing that describes them.