This work is the winner of the 1999 Duff Cooper Prize. "A hundred years ago, enlightened people in the western world were outraged by a holocaust in Africa which left millions dead. Denunciations thundered from speaker's platforms around the US and Europe. One open letter to "The Times" was signed by 11 peers, 19 bishops and 75 MPs. Viscount Grey, Britain's foreign secretary, declared that no overseas issue had so intensely aroused the British public for 30 years. Conan Doyle wrote a pamphlet on the Congo atrocities which sold 25,000 copies in the first week alone. Yet today not one person in a thousand could say what the fuss was all about, unless, of course, they have read this amazing book." - Tariq Ali, "Financial Times". "Fascinating ...brilliant and gripping." - "Mail on Sunday". "An exemplary piece of history writing: urgent, vivid and compelling." - "Literary Review". "Brilliant .. this book must be read and re-read." - Neal Ascherson.

“The best account [of the conflict in the Congo] so far….The task facing anyone who tries to tell this whole story is formidable, but Stearns by and large rises to it.” —Adam Hochschild, New York Times Book Review “[A] tour de force, though not for the squeamish.” —Washington Post “This is a serious book about the social and political forces behind one of the most violent clashes of modern times—as well as a damn good read.” —Economist “[P]erhaps the best account of the most recent conflict in the Congo.” —Foreign Policy “A serious, admirably balanced account of the crisis and the political and social forces behind it… perhaps the most accessible, meticulously researched, and comprehensive overview of the Congo crisis yet.” —Financial Times

A 20th-century adventure that plunges the reader into the heart of Africa with three intrepid adventurers, in a desperate bid to find the fabulous diamonds of the lost city of Zinj. The author also wrote "Jurassic Park" and "Rising Sun".

Lisa Shannon had what some would call a good life—her own business, a successful fiancé, a secure home. Then one day in 2005, shortly after her father’s death, an episode of Oprah changed everything. The show about women in the Congo depicted atrocities too horrible to comprehend: millions dead, women gang-raped and tortured, children starving and dying in shocking numbers. That day Lisa woke up to her dissatisfaction with the “good” life and to her role as an activist and a sister.She created a foundation called Run for Congo Women, with the goal to raise money to sponsor 30 Congolese women. What started as a solo 30-mile run has now grown into a national organization in connection with Women for Women International. Run for Congo Women holds fundraising runs in four countries and ten states, and continues to raise money and awareness. In A Thousand Sisters, Lisa shares firsthand accounts of her experiences visiting the Congo, the women she’s helped, and the relationships she’s formed. With compelling stories of why she remains committed to this cause, Lisa inspires her audience to reach out and help as well, forming a sisterhood that transcends geographic boundaries.

The Forest People -- Colin M. Turnbull's best-selling, classic work -- describes the author's experiences while living with the BaMbuti Pygmies, not as a clinical observer, but as their friend learning their customs and sharing their daily life. Turnbull conveys the lives and feelings of the BaMbuti whose existence centers on their intense love for their forest world, which, in return for their affection and trust, provides their every need. We witness their hunting parties and nomadic camps; their love affairs and ancient ceremonies -- the molimo, in which they praise the forest as provider, protector, and deity; the elima, in which the young girls come of age; and the nkumbi circumcision rites, in which the villagers of the surrounding non-Pygmy tribes attempt to impose their culture on the Pygmies, whose forest home they dare not enter. The Forest People eloquently shows us a people who have found in the forest something that makes their life more than just living -- a life that, with all its hardships and problems and tragedies, is a wonderful thing of happiness and joy.

This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book.

The Road to Kalamata is the real-life adventure story of the 4 Commando team of mercenary soldiers, as told by their leader, Col. Mike Hoare. At the close of 1960, the newly formed independent state of Katanga in central Africa recruited Hoare and his team to suppress a rebellion by the Baluba, a fierce tribe of warriors rumored to be cannibals and known to torture and dismember any enemy soldiers unlucky enough to be captured. The events recounted in this book occurred in the Congo during the Katanga campaign of 1961.With insight that only an officer with extensive battlefield experience can bring to this subject, Colonel Hoare chronicles the metamorphosis of 4 Commando from a loose assembly of individuals into a highly organized fighting unit, while also taking the reader inside the minds and hearts of men who sell their military skills for money. What emerges is a compelling and complex portrait of genuine adventurers, "a breed of men which," writes Hoare, "has almost vanished from the face of the earth."Paladin Press is pleased to make available once again this engaging, colorful and thoughtful account, originally published in 1989, complete with a new foreword by the 20th century's most famous mercenary and one of its most eloquent storytellers.

He was known as "the Leopard," and for the thirty-two years of his reign Mobutu Sese Seko, president of Zaire, showed all the cunning of his namesake, seducing Western powers, buying up the opposition, and dominating his people with a devastating combination of brutality and charm. While the population was pauperized, he plundered the country's copper and diamond resources, downing pink champagne in his jungle palace like some modern-day reincarnation of Joseph Conrad's crazed station manager.Michela Wrong, a correspondent who witnessed firsthand Mobutu's last days, traces the rise and fall of the idealistic young journalist who became the stereotype of an African despot. Engrossing, highly readable, and as funny as it is tragic, her book assesses how Belgium's King Leopold, the CIA, and the World Bank all helped to bring about the disaster that is now the Democratic Republic of Congo. If, in this poignant account, the villains are the "Big Vegetables"  (les Grosses légumes) -- the fat cats who benefited from Mobutu's largesse -- the heroes are the ordinary citizens trapped in a parody of a state. Living in the shadow of a disintegrating nuclear reactor, where banknotes are not worth the paper they are printed on, they have turned survival into an art form. For all its valuable insights into Africa's colonial heritage and the damage done by Western intervention, In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz is ultimately a celebration of the irrepressible human spirit.

The yellow fever of the last year which wiped out in two months one-third of the white colony¿more exactly 78 out of 250¿had not reappeared but the conditions for its re-appearance were highly favourable.