10.10.08 Congolese Dawn : Tim Butcher Interview

You seem to spend every moment of the book in fear for your life, did you actually enjoy the experience?

“I
think enjoy would be the wrong word. It was an ordeal, and it was
challenging and rewarding, but I wouldn’t say I enjoyed it. I’ve been
told that there aren’t many laughs in the book, and I’m afraid that
that’s because you can’t really make light of the situation. Of course
I enjoyed meeting the fantastic people who helped me, but that
enjoyment was tempered by the fact that I had to leave them there. I’m
still in contact with Benoit, who was one of the motorbike drivers who
took me on a large part of the journey, and since the book he has lost
his job with Care International simply because they were downsizing
their operation. He is now forced to eke out a shitty, miserable
living, while in a stable country he’d have a great job, maybe the head
teacher of a school. Benoit is one of the most incredible men I’ve ever
met, and I would trust him with my life – well, I did trust him with my
life. Some people accused me of being too negative in the book, but I
reject that claim. I think I wrote about the way that the human spirit
had survived, but it’s not a situation to be made light of. I think I
was realistic in the book.”

Why were the local Congolese people happy to go so far out of their way to help you on your journey?

“The
milk of human kindness runs very deep there. People like Benoit and
Georges Mbuyu, the pygmy leader, didn’t even ask for money. They really
wanted to help me. The people of the Congo are incredibly generous.
It’s one of those classic cases of a tiny fringe of radicals colouring
the perception of an entire group of people.”

Your journey
wasn’t just unusual in that it was done by a non-Congolese person, even
the locals rarely travel through the dangerous eastern provinces. How
unified can the country be if communities are so isolated?

“That’s
a very good question, because why would the country be unified along
such arbitrary geographic lines? – lines drawn up by the very worst
kind of colonialism. Amazingly there is a national identity, though,
because the country passes the football test. Everybody cheers for the
Simba. It’s astonishing, but even in areas of the country where it’s
impossible to get television coverage of the games, everybody knows
that there’s a game on and are behind the team. Since the 60s with
Katanga, none of the regions have really talked of secession. I mean,
some rebels have talked about making various provinces independent, but
it’s just pie in the sky. Considering that it’s basically a failed
state there is a remarkable amount of national unity.”

‘Blood
River’ mentions the lack of institutional memory, the fact that the
reasons for fighting wars can quickly be forgotten. Is Patrice Lumumba
remembered as a hero of independence?

"It’s
difficult to have that memory because it’s a country of young people.
Lumumba doesn’t really have a Mandela-like following. He was a man of
his time, and his murder was shrouded in so much mystery. It's only
relatively recently that the truth has come out. The violence is so
complicated and multi-layered that it is difficult for anyone to keep
track of it and remember it.”

The book is full of examples
of decaying infrastructure, as the jungle reclaims roads and
train-tracks. Is there a part of you that enjoys the unspoilt nature of
the rainforest?

"If I could guarantee that my
children would be safe and that my wife wouldn’t be raped, then the
Congo would be a beautiful place to visit. It’s an incredible
environmental paradise.”

“There are strange benefits. It is an
African irony that HIV started in the Congo, the first samples are from
Leopoldville, and there’s evidence from the 30s, 40s and 50s. But the
country hasn’t been that badly affected by HIV. There is HIV there,
certainly, but it hasn’t spread as rapidly as it could have done,
simply because the transport infrastructure isn’t there. HIV needs two
things to spread quickly: poverty and good transport, and that’s why
countries like Botswana and South Africa have been so badly affected.”

“So
there is a positive side to the unspoilt nature. The oxygen we breath
comes from the Congo rainforest, it’s one of the lungs of the world.
And the unfortunate fact is that I can guarantee that the first roads
that go into those areas will be logging roads.”

“Some of the
remoter regions support fantastic ecosystems. An expedition recently
found something like nine new species of mammal. So there is a pure,
exciting, Garden of Eden, element to the country, but at the moment
it’s not safe for the people.”

What does the Congo need, above all else?

“The
rule of law, and transparency. People have to know that if someone
takes something that belongs to them, they can do something other than
take a gun and shoot them. There is money in the country. The cobalt
mines are generating fantastic amounts of money, but where is it going?
Into Swiss bank accounts. Of course it’s easy for me to say what the
Congo needs. The million dollar question, the million dollar
developmental question, is how you implement the rule of law and
transparency.”