Africa's World War: Congo, the Rwandan Genocide, and the Making of a Continental Catastrophe

The first thing a reader will notice is the extensive list of acronyms, followed by an extended glossary and a series of maps. Do yourself a favor and bookmark them immediately and refer back often. Secondly, I found reading much easier with a big atlas with a map of Africa opened up, as frequent mentions of various capital cities are substituted for their countries, which I and most English speakers will be largely ignorant of.All that said, the author makes a great effort at explaining an extremely complicated history with hundreds of state and non state forces all contributing for their own often changing reasons. While he tries to make it as clear as possible, it is also obvious that it is a terribly complex situation that will require tremendous diligence from any reader to keep up with. If you can stay with it, it paints a picture of central Africa that is sufficiently broad to be relevant to global understanding, but also sufficiently niche to bring much light to a very tragic portion of our shared history.As with any recent history, some points are bound to be controversial or be seen differently in time, but on the whole the author is clearly an expert, and provides a very valuable perspective on a region I unfortunately understood very very little of.

This is going to be a complicated review.First, if you know nothing about the wars of central Africa over the past 15 years or so, in particular the Rwanda-related conflicts, this is an awful book to pick up and try to use as orientation. It assumes the reader already has a basic knowledge of the recent political events in about eight African nations and often launches directly into building cases against the conventionally-held wisdom, often without actually stating what the conventional wisdom is. I did my graduate thesis on the formation of an African Great Lakes rebel group, and I often had to stop reading to give my overworked brain time to process the flood of information or reread a section to make sure I understood Prunier's arguments. I can only imagine what readers who know nothing about the topic have to endure.Second, one has to decide to what degree one trusts Prunier. If this book was written by someone besides Prunier, I would probably dismiss it largely or in whole. However, Prunier is the author of 'The Rwanda Crisis,' considered a seminal early book on the genocide, and the author of 'Darfur: The Ambiguous Genocide,' also considered one of the best books of that conflict. In this recent book, Prunier recants entire storylines of 'The Rwanda Crisis' and basically says, "Fourteen years ago, I discounted information that I now believe to be credible and this is the story as I now believe it to be." So one has to decide if this is a sign that (1) Prunier has suffered some sort of mental breakdown or has perhaps been subverted by some political agenda or (2) Prunier has reexamined his sources and arguments in the light of new information, as a good historian should, to compile a more accurate portrayal. I seriously considered both as options, but decided that Alternative 2 was the most likely. You will see other reviewers who have decided otherwise.Moving on to the next roadblock for the reader, Prunier has some rather tenuous sourcing. For example, is a single news account quoting an aid worker describing how a frightened refugee identified a particular armed group credible? Probably not. Are dozens of such thin reports credible in identifying a pattern, or can it all be attributed to enemy propaganda and the chaos of war? Prunier, in light of some of the analysis he presents early in the book, believes he can identify patterns and reports these incidents without caveat. I'm in the strange position of willing to believe his general argument, while of the opinion that any one of the incidents he uses to make that argument might in fact be false. The choice that Prunier faced is either ignoring anything that cannot be 100% confirmed to organizations with proven credibility, which almost by definition excludes all sources present at the bleeding edge of a running war in the middle of a central African jungle, or using the many fleeting news reports and interviews with people pushing their own agenda that he in fact uses to create a narrative on which he builds his analysis. Readers craving the certainty of a Western style mediatized war, in which credentialed reporters interview the public affairs officials of organized combatants, will be appalled. Others will be heartened by the intimacy that Prunier brings to the work.OK, so assuming the reader has enough background knowledge to orient themself and is willing to entertain the idea that Prunier might be presenting an accurate-ish account, what does the reader get? Pretty much the only attempt thus far to offer a comprehensive account of the Congo wars.The parallel that springs to mind is Edward Gibbon's 'Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire,' which was heavily criticized for the many obvious mistakes, e.g. wrong dates, mis-spellings, etc. I once read a defense which, paraphrased, said only Gibbon had the breadth of knowledge to put together such a comprehensive work but, once he wrote it, people of lesser knowledge now had a stationary target against which to launch attacks.I have no doubt that this book is going to be a foundation stone of scholarship on the Congo wars for at least the next decade, with people reassembling the data Prunier has dug up into new conclusions and others disproving content. I could point out several factual errors myself, but I know that I'm completely incapable of attempting a work of the scale Prunier has produced so I won't be a boor. You can count the number of people who are capable of a work of this scale on this topic on one hand, so I'll thank Prunier for putting his neck on the chopping block and give his book five stars.

I would give this book 4.5 stars if I could, I fall just short of five for the reasons listed below. Prunier's book is an excellent account of the Congo Wars. It is vivid in detail. If you are not an Africanist and are just now learning about the Congo, please read Jason Stearns book before attempting to read this one. It is highly complicated if you are not familiar with African politics.I read over some of the negative reviews, its hard to call Prunier biased against Rwanda when he has written previous books on the Rwandan genocide. The truth is the Congo Wars are state on state wars, mixed with proxy wars. Due to the West's general ignorance of African politics in general and the Congo in particular its difficult to get accurate accounts of the truth of the Congo Wars. Too often the wars in the Congo are portrayed simply as wars over resources, they are not. The heart of the matter is this, the Rwandan civil war never ended, it simply moved onto Congolese soil. For those that regard Paul Kagame as some sort of great statesmen, I recommend reading this book first, then do your own independent research. The fact is Paul Kagame is a war criminal and it is a shame that he has gotten away with so many crimes against humanity.For any foreign policy analyst or grad student interested not just in the Congo but the African Great Lakes Region I highly recommend this book. I have been working on the Congo for over seven years. While I recommend this book I would be remiss if I did not point out two problems with this book. There are very few prescriptions offered to help stabilize the Congo. It ends on a note leaving the reader exhausted and depressed (as they should be) but I feel Prunier is negligent in not making a modest effort in making some policy prescriptions. Finally the role of the US governmental in the Congo Wars is a bit sensationalized in this book. The US helped topple the Mobutu regime is clear, at a minimum the US did not stop Rwanda from invading the DRC, at worst it actively aided it in doing so. Prunier does well describing some US policy analysts failings but the allegations the US sent mercenaries to help topple Mobutu is hard to verify. For Example Prunier does not even mention what company was allegedly recruited to go to the DRC. Furthermore his account on this relies upon his own interviews. Since he is relying on interviews he should plainly state in the text of the book rather than the foot notes that "according to my sources X, Y And Z this happened" but without some kind of leaked US documents to accompany his assertions than he should alter his citations.For the reviews who gave this book one star, they are odiously politically baised. I have written my own book on this subject. Prunier takes a bit of liscences with his sources but having worked on this for so many years, I would say 90 percent of the book is accurate simply based on my own personal interviews, research and fist hand experiences.Eric MillerActing Director of Save the Congo, U.S.

This book is brilliant, and information rich. It may be the best book on the Congo Wars, but its not an easy read. Its tough, and gets bogged down sometimes. Its an incredibly complex story, and it can be hard to follow at times.

In short : by far the best book written on the subject by far. Whereas othee attempts often concentrate on the anecdote and the superficial, Prunier clearly knows by experience what he's talking about. It's a long, but fascinating book that gives the reader a better understanding no so much on "world war" often described, but on the State in Africa and what motivates it's leaders to use force, be it a research of security for Angola, wealth for Zimbabwe and Uganda, or revenge for Rwanda. Behind the façades of states, Prunier gives us a masterfull account of individual's strategies and their interconnexions that, taken together, led not only to a war but to the very definition of a strategic ballance on which the region now rests. Essential.

Africa, if one were to believe the typical journalism, is a splendid location for outrage and strong moral judgements. The truth is a good deal more complex and Gérard Prunier has the experience to reveal it. He takes us from the Rwandan genocide over into Zaire dying much as its old boss Mobutu was dying. Here we meet a range of politicians, generals, chancers, and entrepreneurs who feed off the needs and fears of a range of mixed populations. Into this terrain, ripe for massacre and ethnic cleansing, also come various nation states; some to hunt their enemies but all to make sure they feed off the carcass. The result for over five years was a continental war in Africa. Prunier is unsparing in his criticism but also grasps readily why there are no saints (as there were no saints when Europe was doing this to itself last century). This is a very mature history, yet one that does not shrug its shoulders.

One of the most obscure wars in recent history in the Second Congo War which was Africa's World War as it involved not only the Congolese but also the armies of Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi, Angola, Zimbabwe, Namimbia, Chad, Sudan. Also one of Africa's bloodiest wars with a million or so dead.Also some very interesting insight on the Rwandan genocide, while the Hutus are probably the cause of worst commitor and instigator of the genocide, the Tutsis aren't angels themselves.Very insightful with many details unknown in past books.

I bought this book from Amazon.com and submitted my review to the American web site, edited a lttle, as follows;-Having worked in Rwanda for 7 years at the beginning of the Habyarimana regime, around 1970, I did not make a return visit until 2007 since when I have made three visits, most recently in January 2012. It is now a vibrant country, seemingly at ease with itself. What is also impressive is the number of 'Returnees' who are settling in Rwanda, some, such as one Anglican Bishop, from Mbarara in Uganda - to where his grandparents had emigrated 3 or 4 generations back - long before 1959. We met others returning from from Kenya whose exit also long predated the later Genocide.That is one measure of the progress now being made in Rwanda.Recently I have read both Gerard Pruinier's first book on the Rwanda Genocide and now this mammoth work on the Congo Crisis and its Pan-African implications. Like many of your reviewers I found it hard going but rewarding. My constant need to return to the meaning of all the abbreviations Prunier employs, even made me wonder if I was beginning to suffer from dementia, but I was reassured by being not the only one with the same experience! The maps are inadequate and Google Maps had to be constantly at hand to check just where places such as Ituri, are.Part of the difficulty for me was to realise for the first time the full extent of Rwanda's involvement in the Congo Wars and how far, geographically, Rwanda went in pursuit.So, a very difficult read but richly rewarding. Some observers have written that it is one sided and relies too heavily on personsal interviews which cannot be verified. But the book's importance is best gauged if it is seen as the making of a powerful case against the actions of the Rwandan regime, rather than a final judgement upon it. Such a judgement will come eventually but not yet.One relatively minor point: in the second third of the book Prunier promised to write about President Kagame's change of focus from his excursions into Congo towards the need to concentrate on the reconstruction and development of Rwanda - around 2003-4. This topic did not get raised again, and I missed his assessment of present day Rwanda.