Paperback of the Week

Mobutu Sese Seko seized control of the Congo in 1965. For the next 32 years he ran the country, which he re-named Zaire, as his personal property, governing by theft, bribery and corruption on an unprecedented scale.

While Mobutu built palaces and jetted off to his holiday homes in Europe, the annual per capita income of his people fell to below $120. Yet another of Africa's potentially rich countries suffered economic, social and moral collapse. Now "average life expectancy is 52, 80 per cent of the population is employed in 'subsistence activities'; illiteracy is growing; Aids is rife and such diseases as bubonic plague and sleeping sickness are enjoying a vibrant comeback."

An ailing Mobutu was finally ousted in 1997 in the onslaught led by Laurent Kabila, his own property being looted in turn by the rebels. Mobuto died four months later in Morocco.

Michela Wrong spent time in Kinshasa when it had become "a stop bypassed even by hardened travellers, where airlines avoided leaving their planes overnight for fear of what the darkness would bring". She was present at Mobutu's downfall and she tells the history of his regime with great immediacy, full of good humour as well as moral outrage. If her affection for the people of the Congo is real, she does not shirk judgment. Much Western opinion about Africa is based on contented ignorance. This wonderfully readable book not only tells the truth, it does so with style.