Blood River, subtitled A Journey to Africa's Broken Heart is an account of the journalist Tim Butcher's attempt in 2004 to follow the route first travelled by Henry Stanley in 1876 - 1877. Published in 2007 by Chatto and Windus and in 2008 by Vintage, this gripping book, complete with photographs, etchings and hand-drawn maps, charts Butcher's progress along the Congo River, Africa's largest river, from Lake Tanganyika in the east to the Atlantic Ocean in the west.
Stanley in the Congo
Stanley, the man who said “Dr Livingstone, I presume?”, made the journey at a time when it was thought to be impossible. David Livingstone had discovered the source of the Congo a few years earlier but had not made the connection with the great River Congo in western Africa.
Stanley believed they were one and same river, and could be the key to unlocking the riches of central Africa. He underwent unimaginable hardships but proved that travel along the Congo was viable. Based on his explorations, the Congo was colonised and eventually became a modern, efficient state.
When Butcher first started to think of recreating the journey, the time when Congo had been a functioning state was long past. Wars, uprisings and endemic corruption had made travel along the Congo impossible once again but, like Stanley, Butcher was determined to prove everyone wrong.
Praise for Blood River
Blood River was short-listed for the “Richard and Judy Best Read” category of the Galaxy British Book Awards in 2008. The second edition is replete with commendations, but the most fitting of the quotations is the one from the Sunday Times: “A grim and gripping read.”
The grimness of the book is its central characteristic. Not only is the current state of the Congo grim, a fact that is communicated in clear prose and with the fresh eyes of the outsider, but the history of the country from its first contact with the outside world has been bloody. The book often makes uncomfortable reading, but the sense of danger and the momentum of the journey make it hard to put down, even at the more unpleasant parts.
Into his town by town travelogue, Butcher weaves both the parallel journey of Stanley, a fellow journalist, and the history of the Congo from its discovery by the Portuguese in 1482 to the most recent troubles which took place as his journey was beginning. This sometimes has the effect of making the narrative repetitive, as the same historical facts are referenced again wherever relevant, but the overall effect is a history lesson the reader absorbs deeply, but almost doesn't notice happening.
Congo's Problems
This is not an uplifting book, but it is a revealing one. It challenges the complaisance of the west not by ranting, but by presenting a picture of how badly broken the “heart of Africa” really is, and how this detrimentally affects the continent of Africa as a whole. The book raises questions rather than answering them, and the resolution of Butcher's journey is certainly not mirrored by any pretence of resolution for the Congo, but that is as it should be for a travel book which reveals more than the reader is comfortable with knowing about the enormous problems of a forgotten state.
