There is no one on the mountain. I am here, safe in my anomie. There is only the screech of the kites, the barking deer and the quiet work of the meltwater. I think I must leave this place and not come back.
a u t h o r ’ s n o t e
This is a work of fiction. Those with expert knowledge of the Belgian Congo will see that certain episodes have been bent to the demands of the novel’s narrative. That said, the general outline of events and much of the detail is true. The literature on the Congo’s independence is too large to catalogue here, but I would like to acknowledge the debt I owe it. I have taken Stipe’s definition of neoteny from William Jordan’s Divorce Among the Gulls.
I would like to thank the Society of Authors for financial assistance in helping me undertake a research trip to Zaire in 1995.
A version of Part Two appeared in the London Review of Books in 1992.
Table of Contents
Also by
Title Page
Copyright
Contents
Dedication
sankuru river, december 1960
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four
author’s note
The Catastrophist: A Novel Page 28