"When Jon Lee Anderson, our storied foreign correspondent, met the king of Bukumu, at his compound in eastern Congo, this fall, Mwami Kahembe IV Isaac Butsitsi (or Mwami Isaac, as he is known) was draped in the skin of a leopard killed by his great-grandfather. He was also wearing a crown of matching fur, and holding an ivory-tipped scepter."
"His people's lives have been marked by years of bloody conflict. The history of the Bukumu kingdom includes volcanic eruptions, brutal combat, forced displacement, colonial influence, sexual violence, and plenty of treachery, usurpation, murder. More recently, the region has been beset by war; since the First Congo War broke out, in 1996, the death toll is estimated between four and six million. The remaining locals are just trying to survive."
"And yet, except in extraordinary spasms of upheaval, the persistent fighting in eastern Congo rarely makes international news. During Anderson's visits to the region, which he writes about in a remarkable story for this week's issue, he found an atmosphere of escalating aggression among rival tribes-despite Donald Trump's frequent claims of having restored peace there. Anderson's story is a gripping, artfully told portrait of a ravaged place ruled by generations of complicated people."
President declared a diplomatic triumph in Congo while a thirty-year war continues along the eastern border. Mwami Kahembe IV Isaac Butsitsi wears ancestral leopard skin, crown, and an ivory-tipped scepter and defines himself as keeper of traditions and a bridge between tradition and modernity. The Bukumu kingdom's history includes volcanic eruptions, brutal combat, forced displacement, colonial influence, sexual violence, treachery, usurpation, and murder. Since 1996, the First Congo War and its aftermath have left an estimated four to six million dead. Persistent fighting in eastern Congo rarely makes international news, and escalating aggression among rival tribes persists despite claims of restored peace.
Read at The New Yorker
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