Inside Congo

The forests and backwaters of Congo, and the world they hide within them, have long fascinated those with a passion for the unknown. In Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad's 1902 classic novella on the horrors of colonialism, Congo's intricate geography acts as a metaphor for the recesses of the human mind--as if in the folds and bends of Africa's landscape we can find meaning behind our hidden desires and nightmares. In such a vast and foreign place, though, even the most plainspoken facts--4 million people dead since 1998; more than 1,000 people dying of war-related disease and malnutrition a day--can remain beyond...

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