Congo Stories

Battling Five Centuries of Exploitation and Greed

By: John Prendergast, Fidel Bafilemba, Ryan Gosling - photographer, Soraya Aziz Souleymane - foreword, Chouchou Namegabe, Dave Eggers - afterword, Sam Ilus - illustrator

Narrated by: John Prendergast, Channie Waites, Jerome Butler, Peter Ganim

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

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2018 John Prendergast and Fidel Bafilemba (P)2018 Hachette Audio

Critic reviews

"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

Good book with lots to learn from

It's a relief to finally learn of some positive changes happening in places like Congo. But that does not mean the book shies away from some of the terrible things that happen there, much like they also happen or have happened in every corner of the world, as noted in the book. It highlights what is working and what readers can do to help bring positive change as well. Highly recommended.

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 this book, I have to say with shame I was not aware of. Some African people see Congo just as the child trouble maker, that always has problems. When we go to a place that is not organized to call it: "That's a Congo!".

Anyways, this book teaches you how the situation in Congo is today what it is:
Starting with the European colonization.
How it was used during WW1 and WW2.
How it was strategic to finish WW2.
How it was the place for African world war.
And the stories about the important minerals it has, used in the electronics.
Also very good to know that foreign countries are becoming aware of it, and some are taking actions.
Most importantly it has stories of people who were affected by the situation.

Its an activism book, that lets you think on the world we live on and how we are all connected.
It was worth my full Audible Credit!!!!

Brilliantly Reframes the Congo Narrative, Providing Hope

Hardly anyone knows much of anything about the Congo, and those who do know a little tend to misunderstand it. So, any books on the Congo would be a welcome addition to the audible library. Yet, even those who understand the Congo well tend to have no idea how to put their knowledge of it to work, and that’s where John Prendergast and his extraordinary cast of Congolese voices enter the picture.

This book redefines the Congo as a land exploited by outsiders and a burgeoning society of increasingly well organized insiders ready to take control of their national fate. It does so through an unusual concoction of Congolese telling their own stories interspersed with Prendergast providing context—and it surprised me how well it worked.

Prendergast has helped spearhead a movement to track the exploitation of Congolese resources and hold those who unethically source their material accountable. His work has paid measurable dividends in the Congo, where the conflict has abated along with the legislation he helped pass. And the success of his work confirms his narrative. In other words, it tells us that this is how we should think of the Congo, as an exploited land filled with people ready to take charge of it.

It should be read by everyone taking an interest in the Congo, and given the suffering involved in it, and how little virtually everyone knows about it, just about everyone should take more of an interest in the Congo. Please add it to your listening list and make yourself a leader in understanding it.

~ Theo Horesh, author of The Holocausts We All Deny