The abduction and death in Algeria of Congolese politician Moise Tshombe heralded the start of a 30 year rule of President Mobutu and the steady decline of the Congo. The author contests that Tshombe, now a largely forgotten figure, represented a real alternative hope for democratic development in an era of western sponsored dictatorships in Africa. Bib, b/w illus, 156pp, UK. WORLDVIEW.

New in paperback. Ever since Stanley first charted its mighty river in the 1870s, the Congo has epitomised in the Western mind, the dark and turbulent history of a failed continent - from colonial cruelty under the Belgians to the kleptocratic chaos of Mobutu Seso Seko and the current post-apocalyptic riot of robber-baron politicians. However, its troubles only served to increase the interest of Daily Telegraph correspondent Tim Butcher, who was sent to cover Africa in 2000. He remembered his mother's stories of her own genteel river journey there in the 1950s and his connection deepened when he discovered that Stanley's expedition was funded by the Telegraph. Before long he became obsessed with the idea of recreating Stanley's original expedition but travelling alone. Tim Butcher deserves a medal for this crazy feat. I marvel at his courage and his empathy - Thomas Pakenham. Index, bib, b/w photos, maps, 363pp, UK. VINTAGE UK.

The previously untold story of Che Guevara's lost year in Africa. A year before his fateful Bolivia mission, Che Guevara led a group of guerrillas to support the Congolese liberation movement in 1965. The book includes his previously unpublished Congo Diary, which assesses the role of figures within the African liberation movements, among them Patrice Lumumba and Laurent Kabila, leader of the Mobutu regime in Zaire. Bib, 307pp. AUSTRALIA. OCEAN, 1876175087

1999 Paperback

New in paperback. Autobiography of one of the Cold War's hottest warriors: the CIA Station Chief in the Congo during the tumultuous years of independence. Larry Devlin arrived as the new chief of station for the CIA in the Congo five days after the country had declared its independence, the army had mutinied and governmental authority had collapsed. Within his first two weeks, he found himself on the wrong end of a revolver as militiamen played Russian-roulette with him, Congo style. During his first year, the charismatic and reckless political leader Patrice Lumumba was murdered, and Devlin was widely though to have been entrusted with (he was), and to have carried out (he didn't) the assassination. Then he saved the life of Joseph Desire Mobutu, who carried out the military coup that presaged his own rise to political power. Index, b/w photos, 290pp, UK. PUBLIC AFFAIRS.

The people of the Congo have suffered cruelly throughout the past century from a particularly brutal experience of colonial rule; and, following independence in 1960, external interference by the United States annd other powers, a generation-long spoliation at the hands of Mobutu (installed by the west in 1965), and periodic warfare which even now continues fitfully in the east of the country. But, as this insightful political history of the Congolese democratic movement in the 20th century makes clear, the Congolese people have responded by trying both to establish democratic institutions at home and to free themselves from exploitation from abroad. Map, notes, bib, index, xiii, 304pp, UK. ZED BOOKS.

Traces the story of the Congo from the unleashing of King Leopards fury across the region in the 19th century, to the Western sponsored murder of Patrice Lumumba in 1961 to the war that has ravaged the country since 1997. It is an immensely readable and radical introduction to the Congo that pays attention to the importance of economic production for social organization throughout the country's recent history. It also argues that the nature of global capitalism, far from always leading to modernization, can in fact mean the expansion of private capital accompanied by social collapse. As for the future, the hope is that another politics will emerge from the resistance of ordinary Congolese to imperialist slaughter and the post-independence Mobutu dictatorship. Index, notes, 243pp, UK. ZED BOOKS.

Successive waves of armed conflict, mind-numbing atrocities against civilian populations and the persistent pillage of innocent villagers' meagre possessions have been the reality of Eastern Congo since 1996. There have been at least 3 million overwhelmingly civilian casualties and constant military interventions of a partisan and economically self-interested kind by Uganda, Angola, Zimbabwe and Namibia in what is the world's least reported and least understood major war. With the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide still exercising its shockwaves, and United Nations troops in position, but apparently powerless to secure the lives of ordinary citizens, this book throws new light on the interventions of other African powers in the region and cuts through the highly tendentious, competing historical myths that people in the region and beyond resort to in trying to make sense of what is happening. Index, notes, chronology, 243pp, UK. ZED BOOKS.

Describes the creation, the development and the collapse of the Congo Free State and of the Belgian colony that replaced it. Conclusions are drawn about the na-ture of European colonialism and the consequences for Europe itself. BNS, illus, 288pp, UK. CURZON PRESS.

Tells how easy it became after the 1959 revolution to 'take down the rope' that had segregated black and white at public dances, yet how enormous the battle was to transform the social relations underlying this and other 'ropes' inherited from colonialism, capitalism, and US domination. Includes a chapter on Cuba and Africa. B/w ill, index, 182pp, USA. PATHFINDER, 0873489470

In 1961, during the United Nations intervention in the Katanga conflict in the Congo, central Africa, a company of Irish UN troops was forced to surrender to troops loyal to the Katangese Prime Minister Moise Tshombe. The contingent of Irish UN troops sent to protect the Belgian colonists and local population in Jadotville (now called Likasi) were shamefully attacked by those they were sent to protect. This book is their story. Apps, b/w photos, 383pp, IRELAND. NEW ISLAND.

An accessible and up to date history of the Congo from the earliest times through to colonialism, independence, and dictatorship. Also includes an annotated bibliography and chronology. Index, maps, notes, 215pp, UK. GREENWOOD.

A study of the political implications of the historical constructs of the Congo, both as a place and as a state of mind. The author looks at four historical periods in which the identity of the people and their landscape was contested and the ways in which this affected a broader concept of identity. Index, bib, notes, 221pp, UK. PALGRAVE, 1403961603

A century after Joseph Conrad's apocalyptic 'Heart of Darkness' the author revisits the Congo as the era of Mobutu Sese Seko collapses into absurdity, anarchy and corruption. Gloss, bib, index, x, 324pp, UK. FOURTH ESTATE, 1841154229

Based on the personal reminiscences of Irish Army veterans who served with the UN peace-keeping forces in the Congo from 1960 to 1964. In addition to tracking down foot soldiers, retired battalion commanders and journalists who covered the Congo, the author has also spoken to Belgians who were part of the pre-independence administration in the huge African colony, Swedish soldiers who played key roles as interpreters for Irish Army units, a Congolese clergyman and a Congolese journalist from Kinshasa. Here, published for the first time, are secret dossiers and previously unpublished photographs of military and civilian life in the newly independent Congo, which challenges the received understanding of such events as the Niemba massacre and the fighting to end the secession of Katanga, including the battle of Jadotville. The Irish Army in the Congo provides fascinating background to the development of UN peacekeeping missions around the world. This was the first major overseas mission in which Irish troops had ever been involved. BNS, 304pp, IRELAND. IRISH ACADEMIC PRESS.

New paperback edition. Hochschild's outstanding study, unmatched by any other work on the Congo, reveals how all Europe - and the USA - contributed to the making of King Leopold's holocaust of the Congolese people.' Nadine Gordimer. Maps, b&w plates, 376pp, notes, bib, index. UK. PICADOR.

Not a new book, but this attack on Belgian policy written for the Congo Reform Association in 1904, is still worth reading. It lambastes the holocaust in the Congo, in which over ten million people died. Congolese people were enslaved, mutilated, whipped, tortured, raped as Belgium secured the region and its vast resources. Contents: Introduction by Stefan Heym, King Leopold's Soliloquy, Supplementary, The United States Government and the Congo State, Interview with Rev. J.H.Harris: Ought King Leopold to Be Hanged? 95pp, b/w illus, USA. INTERNATIONAL PUBLISHERS, 0717806871

A history of the physical, visible city of Kinshasa and the second, invisible city that exists in the mind and imagination. This ethnography explores the constant transactions between these two cities in Kinshasa's urban landscape. Illustrated with striking photographs by Marie Francoise Plissart. Index, 285pp, BELGIUM. AFRICA MUSEUM TERVUREN, 9055445282

A large and rich anthology of historical essays on methodology, art, language, cultures, economics and society, socio politics and F Bontinck. Notes, tables, b/w illus, Text in French, bib, 472pp, BELGIUM. ROYAL MUSEUM FOR CENTRAL AFRICA.

Second edition of this expose of the destructive role played by the USA in the Congo in the mid sixties. B/w illus, 22pp, USA . PATHFINDER, 0873489357

In 1891 a group of mercenaries led by British army officer William Stairs marched nearly 1,000 miles, through once-fertile lands devastated by Arab and African slave traders, to seize the kingdom of Msiri, the most powerful ruler in Katanga. This is the story of the Stairs Expedition, related by the groups medical officer, Joseph Moloney. First published in 1893, Moloneys fascinating narrative evokes a world of cannibals, missionaries and slave traders; of a provocative military invasion and its bloody climax; and of the mercenaries nightmarish return march, racked by starvation and fever, back to the coast of East Africa. A crucial first-person history for anyone curious about the motivation and processes of European conquest in Africa. B/w illus, 194pp, UK. JEPPESTOWN PRESS