Across Congo, on a motor bike

Its deadline day here in the Prospect office, and we are all breaking the very slightest of sweats to get the magazine finished - so our apologises if the blog is a little light on traffic. Our next edition, though, will feature a strong lead opinion from Tim Butcher on the current crisis in Congo, which has been rattling on for the last few weeks. The coverage has, as Butcher argues, largely misunderstood the genesis of the fighting between what passes for a Government, and the Rwandan-backed rebels of General Laurent Nkundu. The focus has, perhaps unsurprisingly, been on the complex ethnic tensions Tutsi and Hutu tribes; a frame informed, arguably, by Western guilt over the genocide in neighbouring Rwanda. Butcher, though, sees other, more pecuniary causes. Anyhow, learning more about Tim, I came across this video, part of the material for his (apparently excellent) bookBlood River. It’s a fascinating insight into the country, and worth a watch. In it, Tim appears to travel through large stretches of Congo - one of the world's largest countries - on a motorbike, with only a fierce pygmy as his guide. Click on the picture to see it, and check out Butcher's piece in next month's Prospect.