Helen Winternitz

Helen Winternitz, an American journalist, and her companion, journalist Timothy Phelps, traveled the Congo River by riverboat from Kinshasa to the Ituri rainforest, where they struck out overland to Goma, a journey fraught with adventure.

This is much more than an adventure tale, though. Along the way, she lays bare the ugly, unvarnished history of the region, and how Western influence has shaped the political structure from the 18th Century into the late 20th Century, when she traveled the show more region, and even into today.

I found this a very difficult, but very important book to read. show less

The author makes some good points, but its a political book by a propagandist. There is no balance because she seeks to persuade by emotion, not by facts. Winternitz comes across as a real pain, no one you would want to have lunch with, whether you agreed with her stance or not, and its interesting to note that she was eventually asked to leave the village herself.