It became-and remains-one of the worst wars in modern history, a truly continental disaster that has killed millions of people. When he was overthrown in 1997, Congo plunged into a bloodbath that sucked in many of its neighbors. Then, thanks to American meddling, it produced the most corrupt continent’s most corrupt leader, Mobutu Sese Seko, who guzzled pink champagne and feasted on fresh cakes flown in from Paris while his people wasted away. The whip-wielding Belgian administrators who followed were hardly any better, and an ill-prepared Congo stumbled toward independence in 1960. It began in the 1880s, when King Leopold II of Belgium turned this abundantly fertile expanse in the center of Africa into his own personal fiefdom, murdering and enslaving the population in order to collect as much ivory and rubber as humanly possible. What is going on today-with rebels, government soldiers, and armed groups from neighboring countries raping and slaughtering Congolese civilians-is a continuation of the ruthlessness that has been embedded in this country for more than a hundred years. The history of Congo is the history of mass murder. Dancing in the Glory of Monsters: The Collapse of the Congo and the Great War of Africa
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