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3/23/1955 - Down The Congo by David E. Reed

INSTITUTE OF CURRENT Y ORLD AFFAIRS DER March Down The Congo Leopoldville Belgian Congo Mr Walter S Rogers Institute Current World Affairs Fifth Avenue New York New York Dear Rogers Stauleyville interior Belgian Congo thirteen hundred miles Congo river Atlantic there activity there East Africa New buildings going practically every block divided pavement boulevards paving crews unable growth these thoroughfares still roads The Congo dollar earning The Reins Astrid Cono Sternwheeler Buicks Cadillacs display chrome glitter American style showrooms Prlces every making mouey doesn Bongs I leave Congo Cockney garage foreman Bongo means money natives language The altitude Stauleyville burns But night raining The lashed otherwise placid surface great river verandah roofs rlverfront cabarets Inside there music American tunes French chansons chateaubriand langouste champagne rouge American cigarets outrageous bills African waiters talking mixture Swahili French After nearly years East Africa where little interest stirs after sundown seemed reasonably imitation Paris eveuing quickly But clock leave We walked through docks board steamer thousand river Leopoldville capital Congo Belge At Stauleyville Congo covered nearly Journey It crossed equator cross again Just above Stanleyville river races churns through series rapids stretch uavlgable In explorers portages around rapids narrow gauge trains passengers freight Stauleyville Just below seventh cataract Congo quiet again flows The waters still current detectable first glance shores apart The steruwheeler Relne Astrid moored alongside Otraco docks Office exploitation Transports Coloniaux goverumeut corporation The named former Queen Belgium glory another For years Otraco talking scrapping burner favor economical diesel But there shortage vessels Congo territory hlghway Reiue Astrid continues putter river should retired Junkyard The diesels Journey Reiue Astr older AfricA meant little She stops couple times firewood until eigth morulug steams Leopoldville From docks Reiue Astrid looked something floating tenement house Three decks tiered closely other On lower boilers stacks firewood African passengers The boilers Reine Astrid would underway The littered trash arose African passengers spreading blankets tryin little sleep The middle first class passengers Europeaus The cabins already passengers unpackiug suitcases getting ready First means secoud class Congo above class another francs person It filling people There passengers driuklug people A phonograph Native fishermeu Wagenia tribe build scaffoldiugs these middle Stanleyville rapids traps chutes The swept racing current blared La Ronde nasal chansons finally switched American polka contained How burps bottle bottle bottle Au elderly Belgian listened moment What singing cannot understand The rainstopped captain young curly urvous mannerisms aboard A African ventured lower depths Job captain kicked companionway Midnight The passeugers retired their cabins turned electric It eight mouiug Reiue Astrid underway hours Its stern wheels throw plumes muddy browa Congo water Stanleyville miles wakenow There nothing forest banks forest stretch hundreds miles It steaming tropical jungle expects along Congo The trees undergrowth about those eucrcllug northern Michigan The things place frequent clusters trees exotic flowers occasional crocodile slithering river Here explorer Stanley fought battle after battle native canoes He route headwaters wanted certain whether headwaters Nile tributary Congo appears Atlantic couple thousand miles One native party consisted fifty canoes match white Arab lieutenants their black askaris Many river tribes caunlbals those And along riverbauk thousand miles tattooed cannibals danced files Livlngstone unsuccessful search headwaters Nile interested similar exDloratious vaster Congo system Everything Nile I black Couo On lower Afrlcau firemen hrowing stacks metal plates thundering crashes Other firemen heave boilers The boilers steam escaping shreiks pistons hammer forth Two decks there other dlsturbauce The phonograph wails veteran L Ronde first class passeugers trying their breakfast Egs No monsieur there Cereal No monsieur Oranges grapefruit What The waiter serves pieces salami cheese bread butter coffee How burps bottle Can someone phonograph Two decks below African passengers stacks firewood clatter eugines eatlug bananas pieces The Reiue Astrld steams effortlessly river Sometimes ceuter stream smooth water either At other times steamer comes close banks passeugers almost reach passing Sometimes forest yields Africau village comes collectiou Long dugout canoes shore These fishing canoes Europeaus Cougo canoe almost forgotten Naked African children toward passing steamer shoutiug greetings womeu calico frocks European shirts shorts In these regions Stauley presence excites furious passions murder As quickly villages forest rushes water The bridge above The captain spends sittiug chair stariug moodily through field glasses channel ahead He another temper first morulu slapped booted another African No knows This captain second Congo perhaps nervous about taking Reiue Astrid biggest boats thousaud miles Leopoldville Or Africa without leave Before coming Congo spent couple years captain steamer Kasai tributary It better there bubbling nervous excitemeut No other boats cluttering river When arrived somewhere people happy It because weeks Two Africans perched every minutes souudiugs striped poles The Reine Astrid draws meters water Congo shallow places The chauuel staked buoys plauted islauds shores helmsman African He keeps fixed channel The river wideus He swings midstream Then river flares dozeu distributaries signpost island points proper chauuel It biggest middle The helmsmau swings Reine Astrid against current takes distributary along shore More dlstributaries The helmsman swings floating tenement house around We shore proper chauuel The captain European ruuuing The radio operator seudiug signals momeut African eugiueer maitre hotel The chief eugineer highly Africau board earning equivaleut month The maitre about If machinery working stops 0traco loses mouey Audre passeugers But eating Audre forties member Belgian resistauce movemeut during Germau occupation One Jobs those collaborators Now manges family estates Belgium lately putting arouud Africa peanut sized Volkswagon automobile He wanted about iuvestmeut possibilities arouud Lake Kivu easteru Cougo drove Volkswagon Gibralter crossed North Africa south across Sahara arrived Kivu couple months after leaving Belgium Now floating comfort distressed because Reins Astrld stock favorite drink yoghurt From Leopoldville Matadl nearby Atlantic himself little Antwerp Noon approaches It remain cabins going Shirts perspiration passengers their foreheads handkerchiefs Excitement All passengers leaning railing An African village reached hooked Rsiue Astrid Now skimming along surfboat The passengers applaud Another comes sight grabs first A quarter river shore More excitement A dugout canoe hooked Reins Astrid It skimming along The Afrlcaus canoe Just killed young crocodile Reine Astrid African passengers Every piece snatched canoe drops behind francs richer The captain hears about storms lower He tells Africans either throw river Africans couole crocodile captain doesn stunk It lunchtime European passeners The phonograph blares Salvation Arm marching Can someone phonograph Au African waiter finally turns How burps The burps subdued The diners anyway Meals found going served inexorable schedule eight clock breakfast lunch seven dirnero Pavlov whenever rings supposed salivate For those British terrlt leisurely dining really rough We tonic first please bloody ready But After lunch siesta As passe ngers sleep miles forest glide unseen A monkey crawls cautious passing spectacle crocodile slides muddy brovn waters hippo plunges safety river bottom Reins Astrid draws Late afternoon round island steam across placid water swing around current shore village There perhaps firewood stacked along banks The Reine Astrld boilers running ahead first there plenty African passengers But shore firewood A splashes water African drags ashore begins steel cable He fastens cable another splashing stern The boilers excess steam gangplank Fifty Africans shore waitlug begin carry The Reine Astrid loading firewood night firewood aboard They recruited csually villages ceuts cubic meter bring aboard The first person gauplauk village haired grandmother known K C K C Mrs Kent Cottrell sixties artist She British lives South Africa frequently travels around sketch paint African tribesmen She published Sunburnt Sketches Congo continent gather material K C typically British crossing Belgian Congo presents difficulty crossing London She speaks French subscribes belief clear English world This leads difficulties sometimes While Stanleyville African hotel rvaut bring glass honey He brought bottle She repeated order English course disappeared return bottle whisky She never honey At village K C alights attered Relleiflex search picturesque types photograph Perhaps spots villainous looking African Magnificent K C exclaims I photograph The seuses growls French twenty francs The shutter clicks K C hands francs Then through crowd search leaving first insults K C oblivious saying tells herself Congo Africans really lovable darlings It takes hours Reine Astrid firewood Then there auplank pulled swings river turuing points donstream again resume Journey Leopoldville It sunset Every sunset Africa pageant color The burns giving everything baked looko But sunset comes evening Congo orange blues splashed across western K C cloud looks Just castle Rhlue For moments there sunsets mirrored placid Congo Then thirty Days nights almost equal length tropics Lightuln flashes ahead French Equatorial Africa Reiue Astrid searchlight begins sweep forth across river searchin reflectors buoys landmarks The night Con6o still darker color Flurries 6range sparks shoot smokestack flutter river Later rises lingers tropical night DER Sunset The quickly merge another under spell river forget which In morning shower shave breakfast bridge write river forest seems Sometimes The White Tower taken expedition toward frozen Alpine At chapter light cigaret sultry Congo Then comes lunch maybe siesta another afternoon reading bridge watching river Soon cocktails seven clock summons salivate after night sometimes somtlmes If Astrid loading crashln metal plates there little sleep But otherwise river still Reine Astrid moves almost without sound taking sleeping passengers farther farther great river The Couo moods There sweltering electric continuously stirs river But other mornings surface river flecked driving The decks drives chilly through cabin windows passengers their suitcases Jackets The beats morning lunchtime clouds returns equatorial river steamer Inch progress recorded fifth fourth sixth Coquilhatville crossing equator But there King Nepttuae ceremony Reine Astrid steams southern hemisphere Most passeugers lived in0Africa enough crossed equator scores times trains boats planes At frequent intervals Congo swelled tributaries Many izeable rivers their right flowed through Kenya would place But Just below CoquilhatVille giant tributaries appears Ubangi marking border French Equatorial Africa The confluence hidden thick cluster islands Stanley missed first Couo Below confluence river expanse unrippled water cutting through virgin African forest It seems three miles places But deceptive All either islauds The shore shore Congo miles behind these In places Congo fifteen miles The Belgian territory right French Equatorial Africa Two glide Another river Kasal central Belglau Congo Joined Congo When Kasal flood Ubangl versa Hence there little seasonal variation mighty Conge The almost Leopoldville Just river The The passengers scratch thelr heads argue about Leopoldville docks The forest thluulug appear aloug shore Then forest replaced rolling savannah The coastal hills western Congo basin Reine Astrid gliding along miniature gorges It night Journey passengers granted special privilege The dinner seven thirty there Joy The dining tables pushed walls after Africau waiters brought flaming crepe suzettes coffee there daucing It night river rrowed sharply places pluched territories colonial powers The current seems little faster river wiuds around picks through coastal hills It morning thirty Reine Astrid rides anchor There heavy hills barely visible We Stauley Basin where river wideus huudred square At other basin Leopoldville across Brazzaville capital Freuch Equatorial Africa Beyond cities Congo uarrows again combined waters twenty 8rear rivers wildly through series cataracts three huudred miles There question further navigation would pieces while Still Leopoldville The Matadl Atlantic train The Reine Astrid waiting signal enter basin When comes anchor weighed begin hours duration Journey Stanleyville The lifts distance three yellow shapes appear lookin devils eoded plalus Tauganyika Minutes devils buildings The kyline Leopoldville Audre Hardly impressive New York still those fifteen story buildings It uearly years since I buildin seveu stories We steamed straight toward buildings docks appeared There gantry cranes clusters river boats warehouses packed Ith merchandise railway eugines trucks crated automobiles winging through hundreds sweating black stevedores Our another drove docks hurrying traffic boulevard laues width There buildings hotels restaurants stores crowds people everywhere I found myself remembering times Kenya I around campfires incredulous Africans there really cities larger Nairobi Ho white tells funniest Jokes would reply Now I Leopoldville nearly third million twice large anything I nearly years It would seemed strange bewildering those Kenya Africans seemed little morning Cordially 6oveuet Dad Eo Ree