If you doubt whether a country is worth travelling to, just check how many books are published on it. In Subsahara Africa there is no other country which attracted more authors than the Congo: I read David van Reybrouck’s Congo in one go, it‘s simply the best ever literary match between fascinating albeit deeply cruel history and fiction. To continue just a bit: Congo Tales, Cobalt Red, Congo River,  Blood River, King Leopold’s ghost, and the classic, Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. The Heart of Darkness can be intimidating. When I first travelled to Kinshasa in 2006 everything was intense: The tropical humidity, the immenseness of the river, the streets full of live music and delicious barbecued goat meat stalls, Sapeurs, and, above all, every single Congolese, They overwhelmed me, with everything and with all senses.

In 2015 I went again, this time to Kisangani, a city in the middle of the Congolese jungle, famous through VS Naipaul’s “A Bend in the River” . 1700 km from Kinshasa on the only navigable part of the great Congo River ja auch das ist besonders. For centuries there was no other way to reach Kisangani than by the river. I luckily reached it by plane. Gladly to be picked up by a friend of a friend at the airport I could not help feeling like a new-born zebra among a pride of hungry lions. 

Decaying mansions hailing from the heyday of Kisangani which were now inhabited by far two many people, river docks which had fallen into neglect long ago, ominous gold diggers from obscure countries and markets selling all kinds of bushmeat. Here, the Heart of Darkness felt even darker. The Congolese are great people. They for good and for bad – power our lives.