Congo Stories, John Prendergast
Congo Stories, John Prendergast
List: $24.98 | Sale: $17.49
Club: $12.49

Congo Stories
Battling Five Centuries of Exploitation and Greed

Author: John Prendergast, Fidel Bafilemba, Soraya Aziz Souleymane

Narrator: John Prendergast, Channie Waites, Jerome Butler, Peter Ganim

Unabridged: 8 hr 15 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 12/04/2018

Includes: Bonus Material Bonus Material Included


Synopsis

From the author of the New York Times bestselling and award-winning Not on Our Watch, John Prendergast co-writes a compelling book with Fidel Bafilemba--with stunning photographs by Ryan Gosling--revealing the way in which the people and resources of the Democratic Republic of Congo have been used throughout the last five centuries to build, develop, advance, and safeguard the United States and Europe. The book highlights the devastating price Congo has paid for that support. However, the way the world deals with Congo is finally changing, and the book tells the remarkable stories of those in Congo and the United States leading that transformation.

The people of Congo are fighting back against a tidal wave of international exploitation and governmental oppression to make things better for their nation, their neighborhoods, and their families. They are risking their lives to resist and alter the deadly status quo. And now, finally, there are human rights movements led by young people in the United States and Europe building solidarity with Congolese change-makers in support of dignity, justice, and equality for the Congolese people. As a result, the way the world deal with Congo is finally changing.

Fidel Bafilemba, Ryan Gosling, and John Prendergast traveled to Congo to document some of the stories not only of the Congolese upstanders who are building a better future for their country but also of young Congolese people overcoming enormous odds just to go to school and help take care of their families.

Through Gosling's photographs of Congolese daily life, Bafilemba's profiles of heroic Congolese activists, and Prendergast's narratives of the extraordinary history and evolving social movements that directly link Congo with the United States and Europe, Congo Stories provides windows into the history, the people, the challenges, the possibilities, and the movements that could change the course of Congo's destiny.

Chosen by Amazon as the Best Book of the Month for December 2018 in Biographies & Memoirs, History, and Nonfiction.

Featuring the life story of Dr. Denis Mukwege, winner of the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize

Reviews

Goodreads review by Ameena on July 17, 2020

As person now married to a Congolese man and a part of a Congolese family, this book was truly eye opening. There is so much I told history about how the DR Congo is so interconnected to most of our worlds today. If you have a phone, computer, car, jewelry or anything like that in your possession, R......more

Goodreads review by Phillip on February 18, 2019

3.25 / 5.0 Quick read. Short historical section. Oral Histories are compelling but not my favorite way to learn.......more

Goodreads review by Sergio on January 09, 2021

A sad and hopeful book, simply amazing. Sometimes is difficult to read the stories in this book, because they are so difficult to digest. Difficult to believe what people are going on now, because they have the resources that we need. I live in the neighbor country of Angola, and a lot of stuff in th......more

Goodreads review by Daniel on September 08, 2021

Before I listened to Congo Stories audio book I had never given the Democratic republic of Congo much thought. I could not have even pointed to it on a map. I am giving Congo stories 4 stars because I think it lives up to its subtitle. Even though the stories in Congo stories were sad it was interest......more

Goodreads review by Dea on August 07, 2024

This is a difficult book to get through due to the accurately horrific depictions of treatment Congolese people go through even to this day. I picked this up to educate myself about the Silent Genocide of Congo, and was not disappointed. It details who and what countries have exploited this country,......more


Quotes

"In this well-organized, vigorously informative, polyphonic, unnerving, and conscience-rousing presentation, [Prendergast] and researcher and activist Bafilemba trace 'the connection between natural resources exploitation and the violent conflicts' destroying the lives of millions in the Democratic Republic of Congo ... A thoughtfully assembled resource and a clarion call for readers to seek out ethically sourced goods and support efforts to bring justice and peace to this cruelly pillaged land."—Booklist

"Eye-opening reportage from an African nation that has been robbed and despoiled for centuries-but that is now finding paths of resistance ... No thoughtful reader of this book will look at his or her computer or cellphone the same way again."—Kirkus