Posts Tagged ‘Congo’
Rape in the DRC: Now complete with statistics!
A few days ago, I got a press release about Congo, the first line of which is this: “A new study shows that women in the Democratic Republic of Congo have been raped at a rate 26 times higher than previously thought. The shockingly high number is equivalent to 1,152 women raped every day, 48 [...]
The double standards of rape reporting — and outcry
Lots of folks have been outraged by the NYT coverage of a gang rape in Texas. The coverage veered often and unnecessarily into blame-the-victim territory. The NYT has defended their story, saying they were just reporting what victim-blamers in Texas were saying, not blaming the victim themselves. I won’t rehash the many sensible objections to [...]
To Journalism, with love from Africa
In a break from a torrent of writing, I was reading a quick take on Adam Hochschild’s talk at a recent writer’s conference. He’s written Bury the Chains, about the antislavery movement, and of King Leopold’s Ghost, which I find in Africa as often as I find the Bible, and “Blood and Treasure,” the best [...]
Rwandans in Congo? “They’re all around us”
Here’s a terrific article by Michelle Faul of the Associated Press about the sort of thing that’s often rumored in quiet dinner conversation in the Great Rift Valley region. Well, we keep our voices down in my part of the valley, anyway. It’s got all my favorite elements — land, conflict, cows — in terrifying [...]
Things that are worth your time
Adam Hocschild’s article from Congo, about mining, which I blogged about earlier, is online. Read it. Amazing. “Africa to Appalachia,” Jayme Stone’s collaboration with kora player Mansa Sissoko. I’ve been listening to it on and off since it came out, but in the past few weeks, I’ve been really listening to it. It’s incredible. (So, [...]
One article you SHOULD read on Congo
If you live in America, go to your nearest newsstand and buy the March issue of Mother Jones. You’ll probably like most of what’s in the “special report on human rights,” but Adam Hochschild’s article on the DRC — “Blood and Treasure: Why one of the world’s richest countries is also one of the poorest” [...]
I am a freelance journalist and multimedia producer who covers human rights, Africa and foreign affairs. [