East Along the Equator: A Journey up the Congo and into Zaire (Traveler / Atlantic Monthly Press)

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 region, and even into today.

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