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Blood River | 
 enlarge | Author: Tim Butcher
Publisher: Vintage Books
Category: Book
Buy Used: $10.24
Used (8) from $10.24
Avg. Customer Rating:  8 reviews
Sales Rank: 153447
Format: Import
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 272
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 7.7 x 4.9 x 1
ISBN: 0099494280
EAN: 9780099494287
ASIN: 0099494280
Publication Date: May 27, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
A compulsively readable account of a journey to the Congo — a country virtually inaccessible to the outside world — vividly told by a daring and adventurous journalist.
Ever since Stanley first charted its mighty river in the 1870s, the Congo has epitomized the dark and turbulent history of a failed continent. However, its troubles only served to increase the interest of Daily Telegraph correspondent Tim Butcher, who was sent to cover Africa in 2000. Before long he became obsessed with the idea of recreating Stanley’s original expedition — but travelling alone.
Despite warnings Butcher spent years poring over colonial-era maps and wooing rebel leaders before making his will and venturing to the Congo’s eastern border. He passed through once thriving cities of this country and saw the marks left behind by years of abuse and misrule. Almost, 2,500 harrowing miles later, he reached the Atlantic Ocean, a thinner and a wiser man.
Butcher’s journey was a remarkable feat. But the story of the Congo, vividly told in Blood River, is more remarkable still.
From the Hardcover edition.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 3 more reviews...
Into the Heart of Darkness July 25, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Tim Butcher, a journalist for The Daily Telegraph decides to recreate H.M. Stanley's famous expedition in the 1870's. (Stanley had been also sponsored by the same newspaper!) He was also curious to see the country that his mother had visited in the 1950's as a tourist. He was told that by just about everyone he contacted that the journey was impossible, but against the odds he manages to enlist the help of aid workers (including a pygmy human rights activist and the Malaysian commander of a vessel working for the UN) and others. Each stage of the journey is uncertain, and he's constantly in danger of his life and in great discomfort. But he does manage in the end to find the transport he needs (motorcycles, dugouts, a UN barge) and the journey continues. It's impossible not to salute his courage.
Blood River : A Journey into Africa's Broken Heart is a fascinating account, not just because it takes us into a part of the world we wouldn't normally venture into and lets us share the journey (from our comfy armchairs!), but also for the historical perspectives which are woven into the narrative.
In the space of half a century, Congo has gone completely backwards - it is not "a developing country", or an "underdeveloped country", so much as an "un-developing country", going backwards so fast that almost nothing remains of the infrastructure left under Belgian rule due to the greed and incompetence of its leaders. It's a terrifying portrait of how quickly things can unravel. You also come to realise that putting things right isn't a matter of throwing financial aid at the problems, but in establishing the rule of law.
It's impossible not to really pity the ordinary people of this failed country, but that there is such potential for economic growth (minerals, fertile land) turns this missed opportunity into a grand tragedy.
The book was chosen as one of the reads for the Richard and Judy bookclub and of course made the shortlist for this year's Samuel Johnson Prize.
Is this man mad? July 8, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Initially, Tim Butcher's account of his "insanely dangerous" trip through the Congo raises the question why? Why put yourself through the very real risks of being captured or killed by the numerous rebel groups that infest the country? Why endure the mind-numbing boredom of hundreds and hundreds of kilometres on the back of motorcycles negotiating stiflingly hot jungle tracks? Why bother to retrace Stanley's already well documented expedition down the Congo river? Is this man mad?... certainly most of those he meets on this very strange journey think so.
But, mad or not, what he discovers makes for fascinating reading as he and we are taken into the heart of what has become an unbelievably shocking world... one that has degenerated in 50 years from ruthlessly harsh colonial discipline & order to complete and apparently irreversible anarchy. The roads are gone, the railways are gone, the buildings have been consumed by the jungle; there is no law and little or no administrative structure; towns have no electricity, clean water or medicine; bribery, theft and casual violence are rampant; people live in constant fear of raids from rebel groups, and hundreds of thousands are killed each year simply because they are in the wrong tribe or the wrong place. Sure, there are other third world countries in such a terrible condition but few with the huge natural resources and riches of the Congo, few where this state of affairs has existed for so long, and few that receive so little attention from the rest of the world.
Critics of the book suggest that the picture he paints is over-stated and that his grasp of the Congo's history is flawed - unless you or they are mad enough to emulate his trip who knows? But he's been around in enough of the world's trouble-spots to draw a measure over what he sees and, while his writing is less than tight in places and his understandable desire to "keep in the background" means that his discussions with the people he meets on the way are often cursory, the snapshots of life he returns with are vivid enough to make you question much more than his sanity in what is, in the end, a revealing and harrowingly thought-provoking account of one man's gruelling trek through a totally lost country.
 Cannibals dont eat skinny white Journalists (without salt). June 19, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Greetings
This is a great read because of the back-drop. Tim Butcher has impeccable good taste and it is a very funny and moving account of his travels through the DRC Congo. The country acts as a prism for Tims character and judgement to really shine through -the worse the back-drop the more it resonates with his soul as he wrestles wih the moral/ethical, geo-political and logistical issues.
Key question -what does a basicaly decent guy do in a country gone to hell. Answer: Outrun the cannibals (and threaten to pee in their soup if put on the menu to be boiled and eaten). The answers are not as easy and the travel is a lot harder. The sins of the Fathers are visited upon the childen unto the 3rd and 4th generation, or something to that effect.
Here is what I enjoy about Tims great style in this book:
Discretion and diplomacy -he is the opitome of good taste (figuratively speaking)
Non judgemental
Sensitive spirit
Dream centered
Real life execution
Well researched
Factually correct
Accountable
Tell it like it is
Human
Funny
Sad and heart breaking
Spading the truth, calls a spade a spade "in the nicest possible way".
The moral of the story is that you do the best that you can with the options you have. In the DRC, that means that you dont outrun the cannibals, you just outrun the fat guy behind you, which, on a personal level, amounts to nearly the same thing.
Some thoughts that come to mind:
"Are there any nuns that have been raped recently that speak English?"
"In Congo, Put your trust in God, but keep your gunpowder dry".
A great read, highly recommended, at a medium heat, lightly salted.
Justice Malanot
South Africa
'Ordeal travel' makes for uncomfortable reading. April 16, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
'Blood River' is a nonfiction account of journalist Tim Butcher's attempt to recreate Victorian explorer Stanley's trip along the Congo river. Btucher describes his experiences as 'ordeal travel' as opposed to adventure travel due to the arduous nature of his trip.
Butcher's style is crisp and economical, as you would expect from a seasoned journalist. The book combines travel writing and history as he tells the story of his own journey alongside the history of the Congo.
It is certainly an eye-opening account - the conflict in the Congo kills more than a thousand people a day and has done so for years. It is home to the largest UN peace keeping mission in the world. The country used to possess an extensive transport network and infrastructure, but this has totally deteriorated after years of war. Yet it rarely gets mentioned in the news and the outside world seems largely indifferent to and ignorant of the Congo's plight.
Whilst I admired Butcher for his courage in attempting such a dangerous trip, throughout the story I kept wondering why he did it. He never really seems to offer a satisfactory explanation for why he undertook a trip that was extremely dangerous to the point of being foolhardy. If it was to tell the story of the Congo to the world, it would be have been more understandable, but he never claims this was his motivation. Indeed, he could probably have told the Congo's story without undertaking such a journey. He clearly took no pleasure in the journey whatsoever, which he describes as unrelentingly grim, uncomfortable and frightening.
It's also less of a travel book than a history book. I was expecting more colour and detail about the actual country, the places he passed through and the sights, sounds and smells. But he actually saw relatively little, spending most of his trip travelling through dense jungle or moping around in chronically underdeveloped towns. I did find it rather depressing and monotonous after a while, even though I'm sure it was an accurate description.
'Blood River' does a good job of raising awareness of a forgotten conflict and presenting what seems to me a reasonably objective view of issues affecting developing countries in general; the rights and wrongs of colonialism and its after effects, the role of the UN and aid organisations, and the way that developed nations often hinder progress rather than help it. However, due to the arduousness of the journey and deprivation of the country it describes, I wouldn't exactly say it was an enjoyable read.
However, Butcher decided on a different course. He would journey into the heart of the Congo to find the truth that could come only from first-hand experience. Ignoring warnings of anarchy and violence along his chosen route, Butcher plunged into the jungle and, via motorbike and canoe, made his way across this vast country from east to west.
The resulting book is a revelation. All the talk we hear in the western media about 'African development' is revealed as a sham. The Congo is a country regressing to a condition more primitive than was the case before colonisation. At least then, tribal politices ensured that its people could live in a state of relative order, if not much prosperity. Now, many Congolese are in fear of the armed factions that prey on them, while their resources continue to be plundered by outsiders.
Geo-political considerations aside, it is in its portrayal of the human dimension that Blood River really scores. The book is populated with a cast of characters that reflects the Congolese people's differing responses to the tragedy which has overwhelmed their country. Although this may be the result of authorial selectivity, one has the sense that the level of grubby venality Butcher sometimes encounters among the population is not representative. More often, he meets decent people of stamina and stoicism, struggling with a day-to-day existence so basic as to strain credulity.
 ill-informed and exaggrated travel story January 28, 2008
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
This is a bad book. Journalist Tim Butcher decides to retrace Stanley's journey across the Congo. Butcher is no expert in the region and his ignorance of both history and the Congo is constantly on display. Contrary to the impressions given, its safer to travel in Congo now than has been since the 1950s. And the route taken by Butcher is one of the safest routes. He talks about the remoteness of the Congo but throughout the book NGOs and the UN are shown to be operating almost everywhere. This book is ok as an exaggerated third-rate adventure story but you will not learn anything useful about the Congo. As alternatives I would suggest Lieve Joris' "Back to the Congo" which was written about a trip during a very dangerous time and "No Mercy" by Remond O'Hanlon.
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