Hotel Congo

February, 2011

DARKNESS CASTS A LONG SHADOW OVER THE WAR-TORN AFRICAN NATIONEducated Congolese hate to hear any mention of Heart of Dark­ness in relation to their country. Joseph Conrad's classic novel—and its cinematic transposition, ApocalypseNow—concentrates, in their eyes, everything wrong with the world's perception of the Congo.The two Kivu provinces of the east­ern Congo that border Rwanda and Burundi can't escape comparison with Conrad's tale of colonization and exploitation. With two recent wars— one...