Brazzaville Charms gives a rare insight into the history and culture of the Republic of Congo. It is a first-person account of what it was like to live there, backed up by research into its history and politics, and told through interviews with Congolese people whose stories come alive through its pages.
Cassie Knight (now Cassie Dummett) lived and worked in the Congo and was inspired to write the stories of the people she met there. She was inspired by their courage and bravery, whether it was living through civil war and escaping the militia, or risking arrest by campaigning for justice. She travelled all over the country and wanted to share the stories that people told her, whether it was their experiences of survival and care for each other, or their beliefs in magic and sorcery.
The Republic of Congo is a hidden gem, it has so much to offer. It has the most unbroken primary forest in the Congo Basin, the world’s second largest rainforest after the Amazon. It has offshore oil and gas reserves. It has a small population and what was a leading university, with a well-educated cadre of civil servants and civil society. It has a huge and famous river, the River Congo, and a sea port. There is fertile soil and plants grow fast in the tropical climate. And yet the people are desperately poor. But they are rich in terms of human kindness, in story telling and laughter, in music and creativity, in belief, faith and most of all in hope.
Brazzaville Charms is a travel book which takes the reader around the country. It is part history and part ethnography. If you want to read the story of an African nation, from the colonial period through to contemporary politics, this is the book for you. It provides an understanding of how a society survives, adapts, even flourishes, despite repression and dictatorship. It explains how corruption can be a hard fact of life and yet people uphold their values and strive for a better alternative. It explains how magic is intrinsic to the relationships between people and to their understanding of their place in the natural world and the social order. It tells stories of sorcery and how it can be used to further one’s ambition or to undermine one’s enemies. The reader is taken to meet Congo’s most powerful sorcerer who describes how he protected his city during the civil war, forming a barrier around it which the militia could not penetrate. And it describes scenes of exorcism and even medical treatment for satanic possessions which deliver people from their spiritual torment.
If you are interested in Congo, Central Africa, Africa or the world, this is the book for you.
Brazzaville Charms gives a rare insight into the history and culture of the Republic of Congo. It is a first-person account of what it was like to live there, backed up by research into its history and politics, and told through interviews with Congolese people whose stories come alive through its pages.
Cassie Knight (now Cassie Dummett) lived and worked in the Congo and was inspired to write the stories of the people she met there. She was inspired by their courage and bravery, whether it was living through civil war and escaping the militia, or risking arrest by campaigning for justice. She travelled all over the country and wanted to share the stories that people told her, whether it was their experiences of survival and care for each other, or their beliefs in magic and sorcery.
The Republic of Congo is a hidden gem, it has so much to offer. It has the most unbroken primary forest in the Congo Basin, the world’s second largest rainforest after the Amazon. It has offshore oil and gas reserves. It has a small population and what was a leading university, with a well-educated cadre of civil servants and civil society. It has a huge and famous river, the River Congo, and a sea port. There is fertile soil and plants grow fast in the tropical climate. And yet the people are desperately poor. But they are rich in terms of human kindness, in story telling and laughter, in music and creativity, in belief, faith and most of all in hope.
Brazzaville Charms is a travel book which takes the reader around the country. It is part history and part ethnography. If you want to read the story of an African nation, from the colonial period through to contemporary politics, this is the book for you. It provides an understanding of how a society survives, adapts, even flourishes, despite repression and dictatorship. It explains how corruption can be a hard fact of life and yet people uphold their values and strive for a better alternative. It explains how magic is intrinsic to the relationships between people and to their understanding of their place in the natural world and the social order. It tells stories of sorcery and how it can be used to further one’s ambition or to undermine one’s enemies. The reader is taken to meet Congo’s most powerful sorcerer who describes how he protected his city during the civil war, forming a barrier around it which the militia could not penetrate. And it describes scenes of exorcism and even medical treatment for satanic possessions which deliver people from their spiritual torment.
If you are interested in Congo, Central Africa, Africa or the world, this is the book for you.
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Cassie Dummett, née Knight, is an experienced manager in international development and humanitarian response. She lives in London with her family after many years overseas, in Congo-Brazzaville, Congo-Kinshasa, India and Bangladesh.
Brazzaville Charms gives a rare insight into the history and culture of the Republic of Congo. It is a first-person account of what it was like to live there, backed up by research into its history and politics, and told through interviews with Congolese people whose stories come alive through its pages.
