 | |
| Author | Jason Stearns |
|---|---|
| Publisher | PublicAffairs |
Publication date | 2011 |
| ISBN | 978-1-58648-929-8 |
| OCLC | 781709203 |
Dancing in the Glory of Monsters: The Collapse of the Congo and the Great War of Africa is a non-fiction book by American author Jason Stearns, published by PublicAffairs in 2011. It is about the First and Second Congo Wars, focusing especially on the role the Rwandan government played in the Democratic Republic of the Congo's internal affairs during the 1990s and early 2000s.
Reviews for the book were generally positive. [1] [2] In a The New York Times review, Adam Hochschild compared it favourably to other books about the conflict, describing it as "more lucid and accessible than its nearest competitor". He also noted that Stearns, while still critical of the Rwandan government's involvement in the Congo, was "easier" on the country than Stearns had been in his other works. [3] In African Affairs , Zach Warner is slightly more critical, describing the book's focus as "narrow". However, Warner also stated that the book was "accessible", and praised it for its ability to appeal to "non-specialists". [4] A review by Robert Guest, published in the Washington Post , described the book as a "tour de force". In particular, Guest noted the interview published in the book between Stearns and a Congolese officer who had been a member of a death squad. [5] The officer's death squad had been in charge of killing women and children. [3]
Dancing in the Glory of Monsters won the silver medal in the 2012 Arthur Ross Book Awards. [6]
The Ruwenzori, also spelled Rwenzori and Rwenjura, or Rwenzururu are a range of mountains in eastern equatorial Africa, located on the border between Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The highest peak of the Ruwenzori reaches 5,109 metres (16,762 ft), and the range's upper regions are permanently snow-capped and glaciated. Rivers fed by mountain streams form one of the sources of the Nile. Because of this, European explorers linked the Ruwenzori with the legendary Mountains of the Moon, claimed by the Greek scholar Ptolemy as the source of the Nile. Virunga National Park in eastern DR Congo and Rwenzori Mountains National Park in southwestern Uganda are located within the range.
Joseph Kabila Kabange is a Congolese politician who served as President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo between January 2001 and January 2019. He took office ten days after the assassination of his father, President Laurent-Désiré Kabila in the context of the Second Congo War. He was allowed to remain in power after the 2003 Pretoria Accord ended the war as the president of the country's new transitional government. He was elected as president in 2006 and re-elected in 2011 for a second term. Since stepping down after the 2018 election, Kabila, as a former president, serves as a senator for life.
King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror and Heroism in Colonial Africa (1998) is a best-selling popular history book by Adam Hochschild that explores the exploitation of the Congo Free State by King Leopold II of Belgium between 1885 and 1908, as well as the large-scale atrocities committed during that period. The book, also a general biography of the private life of Leopold, succeeded in increasing public awareness of these crimes in recent decades.
The Luvua River is a river in the Katanga Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). It flows from the northern end of Lake Mweru on the Zambia-Congo border in a northwesterly direction for 350 kilometres (220 mi) to its confluence with the Lualaba River opposite the town of Ankoro. The Lualaba becomes the Congo River below the Boyoma Falls.
The Second Congo War, also known as Africa's World War or the Great War of Africa, was a major conflict that began on 2 August 1998 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), just over a year after the First Congo War. The war initially erupted when Congolese president Laurent-Désiré Kabila turned against his former allies from Rwanda and Uganda, who had helped him seize power. Eventually, the conflict expanded, drawing in nine African nations and approximately 25 armed groups, making it one of the largest wars in African history.
The Arthur Ross Book Award is a politics-related literary award.
Politics of the belly, a translation of the French term politique du ventre, is a Cameroonian expression popularised by Jean-François Bayart in his 1989 book L'État en Afrique: La Politique du Ventre to describe African political power in the post-colonial era. It refers, in particular, to the relationship between patrimonialism, clientelism, corruption, and power. According to Lynn M. Thomas of the University of Washington:
The politics of the belly points to the propensity of politicians to hoard and greedily consume resources in things and people. In addition to highlighting the significance of idioms of eating and the belly to African conceptions of power, Bayart's analysis insists on the importance of vertical relationships – those between social unequals such as [...] patrons or clients – to understand African political history.
The Congolese Rally for Democracy, also known as the Rally for Congolese Democracy, is a political party and a former rebel group that operated in the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). It was supported by the government of Rwanda, and was a major armed faction in the Second Congo War (1998-2003). It became a social liberal political party in 2003.
Jason K. Stearns is an American writer who worked for ten years in the Congo, including three years during the Second Congo War. He first traveled to the Congo in 2001 to work for a local human rights organization, Héritiers de la Justice, in Bukavu. He went on to work for the United Nations peacekeeping mission (MONUC). In 2008 Stearns was named by the UN Secretary General to lead a special UN investigation into the violence in the country.
Pweto is a town in the Haut-Katanga Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). It is the administrative center of Pweto Territory. The town was the scene of a decisive battle in December 2000 during the Second Congo War which resulted in both sides making more active efforts to achieve peace. Pweto and the surrounding region were devastated during the war. As of 2011 little had been done to restore infrastructure or rebuild the economy. The town is served by Pweto Airport.
Pepa is a community in the southeast of Tanganyika province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is located 167 kilometres northeast by road from Pweto, to the west of Lake Tanganyika.
André Kisase Ngandu was a Congolese rebel leader. An insurgent in the Simba rebellion of the 1960s, he immigrated to East and later West Germany where he lived for many years. He resumed his rebel activity with Ugandan support in the 1990s and emerged as leader of the National Council of Resistance for Democracy (CNRD) which waged an insurgency in eastern Zaire.
Kasika is a village located in the Luindi Chiefdom within the Mwenga Territory of the South Kivu Province, situated in the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Geographically positioned at 965 meters above sea level, Kasika strategically lies near Kihovu and Kahulile, approximately 108 kilometers from Bukavu, near the Rwandan border. The region is more than clusters of mud huts built around a Catholic parish on a hill overlooking a valley. It was the headquarters of the customary chief of the Nyindu ethnic community, whose house and office sat on a hill opposite the parish, a series of large, red-brick structures with cracked ceramic shingles as roofing, laced with vines.
The Kilungutwe River is a watercourse located in the Mwenga Territory of the South Kivu Province, situated in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). With an elevation of 882 meters, it functions as a tributary to the Ulindi River. Following the confluence with the Ulindi River approximately 30 km northwest, the Ulindi River proceeds on its course, eventually joining the Congo River. The Kilungutwe River was historically known as the gateway to the jungle from the highlands to the northeast.
The Luindi Chiefdom, also known as the Lwindi Chiefdom, is a chiefdom located in the Mwenga Territory, within the South Kivu Province in the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). It is situated in the mountainous area of the Itombwe Massif.
Kidote, also known as Kidoti, is a small village situated in the middle plateaux of Lemera, within the Bafuliiru Chiefdom of the Uvira Territory in the South Kivu Province in the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). It also serves as a camp for Congolese Internally Displaced People (IDPs) from various regions of Bwegera.
The Battle of Kisangani took place in March 1997 during the First Congo War. The rebels of the Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo (AFDL), supported by the Rwandan Patriotic Front, took the city defended by the Zairian Armed Forces (FAZ) which was loyal to President Mobutu Sese Seko.
The capture of Lubumbashi took place in April 1997, during the First Congo War in southern Zaire. The rebels of the Alliance des forces démocratiques pour la libération du Congo (AFDL) took the city of Lubumbashi from the Zairean armed forces (FAZ) loyal to President Mobutu Sese Seko.
The War That Doesn't Say Its Name: The Unending Conflict in the Congo is a book by Jason Stearns, published by the Princeton University Press in 2022. It covers the violence and conflicts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, focusing in particular on events after the Pretoria Accord.
Africa's World War: Congo, the Rwandan Genocide, and the Making of a Continental Catastrophe, originally published as From Genocide to Continental War: The 'Congolese' Conflict and the Crisis of Contemporary Africa is a non-fiction book by French historian Gérard Prunier. It was originally published in 2009 by C. Hurst & Co., and then republished in the United States of America later that same year under a new title by Oxford University Press. In the book, Prunier discusses events starting from the Rwandan genocide and the collapse of Zaire through the Second Congo War and the years afterward.