Review: Vivid, well-observed 'Congo' by Jeffrey Tayler

November 23, 2000
Web posted at: 10:08 a.m. EST (1508 GMT)

"Facing the Congo"
by Jeffrey Tayler
Ruminator Books
Travel/Memoir
260 pages

In this story: Many obstacles Larger meaning RELATED STORIES, SITES

By Joshua Kuritzky
Special to CNN.com

(CNN) -- In 1994, Jeffrey Tayler, a travel writer, is feeling directionless. His first book ("Siberian Dawn") is not attracting any publishers, his day job isn't leading anywhere, and he's having doubts about himself and his future. Travel writers, when faced with existential crises, travel. After some research, Tayler hits upon the perfect trip to raise his spirits. It is a simple but challenging idea: to descend the Congo River, from Kisangani to Kinshasa, in a pirogue. As he writes:

Traveling its jungle waterways, I would strip myself of encumbering personal concerns, remake myself. I hoped that the expedition would settle once and for all my doubts about who I was and what I could accomplish.

And so begins "Facing the Congo," a very readable and fascinating tale of travel. Tayler's trip consists of two distinct parts: traveling by barge from Kinshasa to Kisangani, and then covering the same distance in a pirogue.

As can be expected, Tayler faces many obstacles, both insectile and bureaucratic, along the way. Once in Kinshasa, he must maneuver through missionaries and soldiers, while outfitting himself for the barge trip with two weeks' worth of food, medication, and anti-mosquito armament. He must also meet (and pay) the right people in order to secure his transport and his safety, both of which are as flimsy as mosquito netting.

In the course of his pre-trip networking, he encounters one of Mobotu's colonels, who offers Tayler a cabin on his barge. The Colonel, who appears to be helping Tayler solely because he finds him amusing, is one of the many interesting characters Tayler introduces.

The barge trip could make for an interesting book by itself. Filled mostly with merchants of one sort or another, the barge travels upriver, attracting fishermen, more merchants, and many mosquitoes. The barge experience, as rendered by Tayler, is one that is both frustrating and educational, taking on more meaning when cast in contrast to Tayler's intentions of traveling back down the river by pirogue.

On the barge, Tayler meets Desi, whom he decides to hire as a guide for the trip downriver. After some preparation in Kisangani the two set out in Tayler's recently purchased pirogue. Along the way they meet people who are friendly -- and not so friendly -- and endure more insect bites than one would think to be possible.

But what is most interesting about Tayler's account of this portion of his trip is the strange relationship that develops between Tayler and Desi. Despite being from vastly different worlds, too different to make a great friendship possible, they bond. This becomes more notable when Tayler realizes that this trip could result in death for one or both of them.

Tayler, a talented writer and astute observer, is constantly aware of the larger meaning of his trip through Zaire (which is now the Democratic Republic of Congo), both as the intended antidote to his self-doubt, but also for what it means in the context of Congolese history. Tayler's intended trip down the river is a partial retracing of Henry Morton Stanley's trip over 100 years before. As he travels the river, both by barge and pirogue, Tayler is frequently reminded that a white man traveling on the river is usually only there for one of two reasons: either he is a missionary, bent on converting the "natives," or he's there to steal, kill and exploit.

Ultimately, Tayler must deal with the way in which his travels and his experiences are influenced by his reasons for undertaking them, and he comes to see that using Zaire to cure his personal problems is, at least in a way, an exploitation of the Congo. That Tayler risks his own life and the lives of others to pursue this challenge -- a challenge that is part of the daily life of many of the people he's encountered -- is something he discusses at the end of "Facing the Congo." Although the book would remain entertaining and riveting without this post-trip discussion, observations like this are what make Tayler such an excellent, and underrated, travel writer.

"Facing the Congo" does what a travel book is supposed to do. It presents a vividly described and observed world that brings the reader as close to the Congo as words can do, inspiring the type of wanderlust that can only be sated by one's picking a spot -- any spot, really -- on a map and just going.

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Ruminator Books

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