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Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown | Congo | S01 E08 | All Documentary

Anthony Bourdain travels the Congo River, from the volatile city of Goma through rebel-controlled regions to the Wagenia fishermen, exploring the country's brutal colonial history under King Leopold.

Key Takeaways

  • The Congo's present-day instability is inseparable from its colonial history, especially Leopold's brutal rule.
  • Armed conflict in eastern Congo is fragmented and extremely difficult to map or summarize.
  • Despite violence and hardship, Congolese communities display resilience, tradition, and hospitality.
  • The Congo River has been central to both the country's economy and its exploitation.

What the video covers

  • Bourdain begins after nine days of threats and difficulties, with the Congo River as the final destination before flying home.
  • The episode opens with a truck breakdown and the traveling team, including Dan and local associate Hareb, working on a documentary about rebel groups in the DRC.
  • Goma is described as a city scarred by the Mount Nyiragongo eruption and recent M23 rebel invasion, with NGOs and the UN largely powerless.
  • The complex web of armed groups (M23, FDLR, Mai-Mai, APCLS, FRPI) is presented as a confusing, constantly shifting conflict that Western media struggles to explain.
  • The team flies from Goma to Kisangani, facing weather and security risks, referencing Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness.
  • The Congo River is framed as both nation-builder and destroyer, serving colonial extraction of ivory, rubber, and slaves.
  • The Wagenia fishing tribe and their acrobatic practices at Stanley Falls are showcased, including their chief's ancestral ties to the 1870s.
  • The episode details King Leopold II's personal claim to the Congo and the atrocities of forced labor, mutilation, and population collapse.
  • Post-independence instability and Belgian withdrawal are linked to the country's ongoing governance problems.
  • The Hotel Flandria / Congo's abandoned colonial-era hotels, once visited by film crews of The African Queen, are shown as ruins.

Chapters

  1. 00:00Intro: The Congo River as the Final Goal
  2. 03:00Goma, Volcano, and Rebel Threats
  3. 16:40Flight to Kisangani and Heart of Darkness
  4. 37:30The Congo River and Wagenia Fishermen

Answers

Questions about this video

Why does Bourdain go to Goma at the start of the episode?

Goma is the staging point for the journey, reached by a truck ride from Rwanda. Bourdain describes the city's volcanic devastation, the recent M23 invasion, and the broader security problems that shape travel in eastern Congo.

How does the episode connect the Congo to Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness?

Bourdain repeatedly quotes Conrad, who wrote about the Congo River and the 'inner station' in the novel. The episode uses Conrad's imagery to frame the river and its colonial history, as well as the fictional Kurtz, who is linked to Leopold's agents.

What historical event does Bourdain highlight as the Congo's first holocaust?

Bourdain describes how King Leopold II of Belgium obtained personal control of the Congo and ran it for his own profit, with agents raiding villages, mutilating people, and forcing labor for ivory and rubber. He says that roughly half the population died during this period.

Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown

00:07
Speaker A
after nine days of threats of imprisonment, confiscation of footage, and what was the most chaotic, difficult, yet amazing trip of my life, the last thing that stands between us and our flight home is the reason we came: the Congo River itself.
00:31
Speaker A
said he's been here since this morning i've had times where i've been held up for days what's up freddy they're starting the engine awesome just broke down again yeah we now have one hour of daylight left okay great here it comes yeah
00:58
Speaker A
U.N. truck just said he's been here since this morning.
02:01
Speaker A
wanted to see the congo and for my sins they let me [Music] in heart of darkness joseph conrad writes of his alter ego when i was a little chap i had a passion for maps at that time there were many blank
02:26
Speaker A
I've had times where I've been held up for days.
02:50
Speaker A
that the 20th century's first holocaust happened here when belgium's king leopold managed to bamboozle the world into giving him a personal title to the congo [Music] leopold's agents of whom the mythical kurtz was won raided slaughtered mutilated and pressed
03:13
Speaker A
What's up, Freddy?
03:34
Speaker A
that everybody in the world wanted and things pretty much went downhill from there [Music] [Music] but this story begins with a truck stop in rwanda stocking up in rwanda because my expectations for food in the condo are more measured
04:36
Speaker A
They're starting the engine. Awesome. Just broke down again.
04:48
Speaker A
appalling genocide behind the wheel dan he's been living in the drc for two years working on a documentary about some of the several dozen rebel groups in the country riding shotgun dan's close friend and associate hareb a congolese
05:11
Speaker A
Yeah, we now have one hour of daylight left.
05:49
Speaker A
number of whom are idps internally displaced people sitting rather inconveniently at the base of mount miragongo a still smoldering volcano [Music] current street level is about 12 feet above where it was in january 2002 when it last erupted
06:07
Speaker A
Okay, great. Here it comes.
06:29
Speaker A
invaded the city the ngos battened down the hatches the un stood by hands tied everyone else had to fend for themselves until the rebels withdrew the congo is a place i've dreamed of visiting since before i ever thought i'd
06:46
Speaker A
Yeah, you learn quickly in Congo. Things change at a moment's notice.
07:10
Speaker A
on what we can grilled chicken [Music] ugali piri piri pepper a pretty nice meal goma in the 50s you know taurus used to come from as far down as rhodesia up here to vacation amazing with life and also i remember
07:29
Speaker A
Welcome to the A Jungle through this beautiful world. Felt the cool rain on my shoulder.
07:43
Speaker A
house-to-house fighting or artillery or mortars dropping into goma was today a good day well right now we have a rebel group just 10 kilometers north of us right and then we have uh maybe seven other rebel groups that are all caught in the
07:57
Speaker A
[Applause]
08:13
Speaker A
recently the largely tootsie rwandan-backed m23 has been active in the area around goma but the mostly hutu fdlr is also here the maimai can refer to either somewhat generic local self-defense groups or specific entities like apcls or cheika some groups like the frpi are
08:32
Speaker A
[Music]
08:46
Speaker A
up with a name or a cool acronym yet this is only a fraction of the rebel groups in a single area of the congo and be advised this map was hopelessly outdated before we even got here it's all these variables kind of nodded into
09:02
Speaker A
[Music]
09:18
Speaker A
the way to the congo river so we need to keep moving and rhodes forget it certainly nothing even remotely safe between goma and where we're headed we're flying to kazangani this is uh this is the preferred route so we've
09:33
Speaker A
[Applause]
09:47
Speaker A
take nothing for granted in the congo just as we're about to take off thunder lightning i don't see what the problem is but it looks fine to me let's get this thing airborne wow it's best to wait this one out a
10:10
Speaker A
[Music]
10:23
Speaker A
yeah most of the time yeah but not us don't worry impossible man the weather clears up sort of so we decide to give it a go when the weather is very bad stay on the ground [Music] what about rebels they're shooting at
10:41
Speaker A
[Applause]
11:14
Speaker A
in heart of darkness as the inner station here surrounded by dense jungle lies our rendezvous with the congo river a waterway responsible for both building this country and helping to destroy it [Music] two hours out of goma we land at kissing
11:44
Speaker A
[Music]
12:19
Speaker A
country's middle conrad describes it as a twisting snake with its head in the atlantic ocean and its tail buried deep in africa's heart to europeans it was a natural route to transport slaves ivory rubber minerals the commodities upon which modern day brussels and
12:40
Speaker A
Everyone gets everything he wants. I wanted to see the Congo, and for my sins they let me in.
13:02
Speaker A
morton stanley the wagenia tribe has been fishing the river in unique fashion highly coordinated and acrobatic the wagenya dive into the treacherous rapids of what is still referred to as stanley falls navigate downstream between baskets that need tending
13:29
Speaker A
Heart of Darkness. Joseph Conrad writes of his alter ego: "When I was a little chap I had a passion for maps. At that time there were many blank spaces on the earth, but there was one yet the biggest, the most blank, that I had a hankering after."
13:57
Speaker A
tourism has been pretty much non-existent chief of the wagenia pierre mossala abeka it is said is a direct descendant of king natandebuma efila who greeted stanley in the 1870s please please thank him for the privilege of seeing his community
14:23
Speaker A
This then is the Congo, the size of all Western Europe combined. It should be Africa's wealthiest nation, but people forget, or never even knew, that the 20th century's first holocaust happened here, when Belgium's King Leopold managed to bamboozle the world into giving him a personal title to the Congo.
14:44
Speaker A
historic route to the coast before effectively jump starting the colonial period [Music] [Music] using stanley as administrator king leopold of belgium claimed the congo as his personal property under leopold's reign men women and children were tagged with numbers separated into
15:12
Speaker A
[Music]
15:32
Speaker A
half the population of the country was gone have you ever thought about all those years ago if your people had just killed stanley someone else have to come somebody else would have come ordinarily a large tiger fish like this
15:55
Speaker A
Leopold's agents, of whom the mythical Kurtz was one, raided, slaughtered, mutilated, and pressed into forced labor much of the population in a bloodthirsty quest for first ivory and then rubber. When independence finally came, the Belgians trashed what they could and left behind a completely unprepared, tribally divided, and largely ungovernable landmass filled with stuff that everybody in the world wanted. Things pretty much went downhill from there.
16:13
Speaker A
and steam [Music] typical tradition [Music] [Music] a lot of work though it looks like they're not having an entirely miserable time but the water looks good on a good day how many like this on a good day uh
16:43
Speaker A
[Music]
17:00
Speaker A
man are catching people right hundreds of them used to come yes well things get a little better here maybe they come back i hope so i hope so too [Music] after leopold the belgian government took over and pretty much continued
17:28
Speaker A
[Music]
17:49
Speaker A
were here while filming the african queen they stayed at the luxury hotel the poor quap pop this is the poor quapon now like everything else of that time a hollow ruin inhabited by squatters or simply eaten by the jungle
18:05
Speaker A
But this story begins with a truck stop in Rwanda, stocking up. In Rwanda, because my expectations for food in the Congo are more measured.
18:25
Speaker A
but what lights do glow around town much of it comes from places like this small kiosks serving the congolese version of barbecue and what passes for cold beer christian is one of our fixers tasked with keeping us on track
18:41
Speaker A
If you're looking to get to the eastern Congo, and many would ask why you'd even want to do that, the best way is to drive across from neighboring Rwanda. This country, of course, not too long ago suffered its own appalling genocide.
18:56
Speaker A
i think it could be the the best place to live very kind people people like listening to music sitting taking their videos eating what's a congolese word for barbecue barbecue i like any meat on a grill it's looking
19:15
Speaker A
Behind the wheel, Dan. He's been living in the DRC for two years, working on a documentary about some of the several dozen rebel groups in the country. Riding shotgun, Dan's close friend and associate, Hareb, a Congolese.
19:32
Speaker A
is a lot that's more than most people make in a day or even two days what are the first things you buy if you're very very very poor very poor soft soap because at least you have to look a bit
19:44
Speaker A
They're taking me across the border. One side, Rwanda: hotels, paved roads, internet, and paperwork to be filled out. Just a few feet of barbed wire, machine guns, and cement walls away, this: welcome to Goma.
20:01
Speaker A
food and keep maybe one dollar to buy sure so that's called pride yeah and there's hope you can plan for tomorrow [Music] [Music] [Music] in heart of darkness conrad writes about the greed of the belgian colonizers they grabbed what they could get for the
20:56
Speaker A
[Music]
21:20
Speaker A
first democratically elected leader patrice lumumba the cia and the british working through the belgians had him killed we helped to install this miserable bastard in his place joseph mabutu he stole billions of dollars from his people and pretty much became the
21:37
Speaker A
A city of one million, the significant number of whom are IDPs, internally displaced people, sitting rather inconveniently at the base of Mount Nyiragongo, a still smoldering volcano.
21:52
Speaker A
bills and the trains basically stopped running this is kisungani station [Music] there's one short run left service once a week when operational which isn't often i'm guessing abandoned by the belgians shot up and stripped by rebels in the 90s
22:27
Speaker A
[Music]
22:56
Speaker A
conductors mechanics and engineers show up at work and do what they can in an attempt to keep things in working order [Music] so at one time you could dispatch a freight from south africa we used to make it
23:42
Speaker A
Current street level is about 12 feet above where it was in January 2002, when it last erupted. Lava everywhere, which explains the less than smooth ride. One of the first things you notice out the car window is the, um, about four months ago the M23, one of the various rebel groups holed up in the jungle nearby, invaded the city. The NGOs battened down the hatches. The UN stood by, hands tied. Everyone else had to fend for themselves until the rebels withdrew.
24:17
Speaker A
that's working today a feature of great pride to the staff the railway employees i'm told do not get paid yet they continue to show up at work uh [Music] it is said of the building of the country's once vast rail network
24:55
Speaker A
The Congo is a place I've dreamed of visiting since before I ever thought I'd get the chance to travel the world. Actually being here, I'm not so sure.
25:46
Speaker A
would in a desert till you thought yourself bewitched and cut off forever from everything you had known once so conrad described the congo after piloting steamships in the early days of belgian colonialism i've had something of a multi-decade
26:03
Speaker A
Dan, Hareb, and I head for a local restaurant. Good food is going to be a challenge soon, so we take the opportunity to fill up on what we can: grilled chicken, [Music] ugali, piri piri pepper. A pretty nice meal.
26:23
Speaker A
all right did you maggots load the chickens finding food along the way it's anticipated will be a challenge refrigeration of any kind is impossible okay well i'm psyched my dream has finally come true [Music] locked by officials this could be months
26:51
Speaker A
Goma in the '50s, you know, tourists used to come from as far down as Rhodesia up here to vacation. Amazing. With life, and also, I remember in my childhood seeing lions just alongside of the road. Sometimes Goma was a tourist place for a long time. They're not coming anymore.
27:22
Speaker A
of kurtz and his ivory horde a crumbling belgian research center with a shadowy past awaits us at our destination it's a turn of the century map so it's kisagani was then called stanleyville leopoldville that would be here we were
27:40
Speaker A
No, no. You're just saying no. It's a red zone.
27:56
Speaker A
[Music] gentlemen [Music] a half days journey downriver there's a local dignitary we've promised to visit [Music] yeah there's the chief who's coming down [Music] we arrive late but the king is still waiting for us traditional headgear not so traditional
28:22
Speaker A
[Music]
28:57
Speaker A
incredible we give him a goat as a way of saying i'm sorry for being so late and sorry we can't stay longer and he gives me a simple yet hefty looking bracelet which only later do i come to appreciate
29:10
Speaker A
It's looking like there won't be house-to-house fighting or artillery or mortars dropping into Goma. Was today a good day?
29:37
Speaker A
but she said his father gave it to him in 1935 so who knows man wow so where'd you get the bracelet no african king gave it to me congo river where'd you get yours [Music] we've come a long way down river but
30:01
Speaker A
Well, right now we have a rebel group just 10 kilometers north of us. Right, and then we have maybe seven other rebel groups that are all caught in the blender. You know, things change quickly in Congo.
30:15
Speaker A
the moment of truth it's quickly getting dark and i'm very aware of a number of things how did they usually kill chickens small knife cut the head off our chickens are thin scraggly and tough guys bite me in order to make
30:30
Speaker A
Confused yet? Virtually all of the eastern part of the country is being contested by rebel groups, some local and others allegedly acting on behalf of interests based in neighboring countries. Recently the largely Tutsi, Rwandan-backed M23 has been active in the area around Goma, but the mostly Hutu FDLR is also here. The Mai-Mai can refer to either somewhat generic local self-defense groups or specific entities like APCLS or Cheka. Some groups, like the FRPI, are principally defending a stake in a resource like gold, and others, like the Reya Mutomboki, are mainly interested in fighting with a particular enemy. In their case, they have a beef with the FDLR and lots of other organizations controlling territory, who haven't come up with a name or a cool acronym yet.
30:41
Speaker A
takes time i'll hold the bucket you kill a chicken you want to eat you got to kill your own chicken and pluck it too time to get killing killing but every man has a breaking point [Music] and in retrospect perhaps this was ours
30:58
Speaker A
This is only a fraction of the rebel groups in a single area of the Congo, and be advised, this map was hopelessly outdated before we even got here. It's all these variables kind of knotted into one big mess, and these are the reasons why media has a difficult time. The Western world doesn't hear much about the Congo, because how can you sum it up in a three-minute report?
31:25
Speaker A
[Music] somewhere down the congo river and i'm continuing to deal with a few pressing concerns the one knife on board is as sharp really as a soup spoon and soon i'm frantically trying to rip out the backbone and guts
31:45
Speaker A
But for us, Goma is just a stopover on the way to the Congo River, so we need to keep moving. Rhodes? Forget it. Certainly nothing even remotely safe between Goma and where we're headed. We're flying to Kisangani. This is the preferred route, so we've chartered a bush plane, formerly Queen Elizabeth's flying wardrobe. When the Queen traveled, presumably in her younger years, her clothes followed in this beast, or so we're told. I have not seen this model of plane before.
31:55
Speaker A
i can't see there's only three light bulbs on right now there's only 240 watts there's no way it's it's the bra they're not going to eat at all i'll never i'm never going to get through with this [Music]
32:12
Speaker A
First for me, of course. You'll learn to take nothing for granted in the Congo.
32:24
Speaker A
we've gone through all of this [Music] misery with these chickens all right shetty it would be apropos to point out that we do not want to be moving at night we would not like to run aground in the
32:42
Speaker A
Just as we're about to take off, thunder, lightning. I don't see what the problem is, but it looks fine to me. Let's get this thing airborne.
33:03
Speaker A
itself with the lights burning it becomes insanely buggy crush the wrong one of these moss while swatting your face and you will blow up like a balloon seriously okay take the other two bottles of wine you pour all three bottles of wine into
33:16
Speaker A
Wow, it's best to wait this one out a little bit. Crashes are pretty commonplace. Not so long ago a plane with nearly 100 people on board went down on the same route. We were taken today, no. Most planes that crash in Congo crashed because of the weather, right?
33:41
Speaker A
carefully to the table go right let's see [Music] in the end my coco val was a bit scraggly but passable it is written that i should be loyal to the nightmare of my choice i think i now understand what that means
34:28
Speaker A
Yeah, most of the time. Yeah, but not us. Don't worry. Impossible, man. The weather clears up, sort of, so we decide to give it a go. When the weather is very bad, stay on the ground.
34:46
Speaker A
onions for me don't go crazy if you don't have we don't have i will not go crazy all right i will get on the spam and egg patrol i may have invented the stealth bomber really this will be our crowning
35:02
Speaker A
[Music]
35:20
Speaker A
a necklace of spam cans that was glorious time to get back out on the river we have places to go two days down the congo we're finally nearing our destination [Music] it's an abandoned belgian research station and it's still functioning in some
35:48
Speaker A
What about rebels? They're shooting at the planes?
36:09
Speaker A
uranium enrichment and have host of bizarre experiments here however the facts would suggest the scariest thing to ever happen here some genetically modified banana varietals you made it man young gumby deep in the jungle and miles from anywhere
36:47
Speaker A
No, normally no. Okay, we'll see you after your trip. Yeah, yeah. Okay, have a good one.
37:13
Speaker A
cessation of funding of the hundreds of structures built here what used to be housing laboratories hospitals and research facilities the vast complexes library is clearly the most important to those who remain though crumbling like everything else the grass is cut
37:36
Speaker A
Lifting off from Goma, we head out over the shores of Lake Kivu before circling back north-northeast. Our destination, what Conrad referred to in Heart of Darkness as the "inner station," here surrounded by dense jungle, lies our rendezvous with the Congo River, a waterway responsible for both building this country and helping to destroy it.
37:55
Speaker A
did the place stay open did people continue to do research there's some new stuff they don't get anything but for those who have been there for long they get an allowance from the government independence comes what happens here
38:27
Speaker A
[Music]
38:49
Speaker A
but for 20 years there hasn't been electricity to run the dehumidifiers to keep out the damp through so many wars through all of these difficulties he has maintained this facility to an extraordinary degree staff still show up to work and organize
39:27
Speaker A
Two hours out of Goma, we land at Kisangani. This was once Stanleyville and the country's second largest city, before war and neglect cut it off from the rest of the Congo and the world. Stanleyville, known in Heart of Darkness as the "inner station"... [Music]
39:54
Speaker A
is that that best what do you say to someone who suggests that belgian colonialism might have been the good times [Music] the road home such as it is rotting bridges makeshift ferries it's an adventure fortunately ours was a
40:30
Speaker A
The Congo River stretches across the country's middle. Conrad describes it as a twisting snake with its head in the Atlantic Ocean and its tail buried deep in Africa's heart. To Europeans, it was a natural route to transport slaves, ivory, rubber, minerals, the commodities upon which modern-day Brussels and Antwerp are built. For the Congolese, both before and after the Belgians, it provided more basic things: water to wash, to clean your clothes in, to cook with, to drink. Also fishing. Since long before the expeditions of Dr. Livingstone and Henry Morton Stanley, the Wagenia tribe has been fishing the river in a unique fashion, highly coordinated and acrobatic. The Wagenia dive into the treacherous rapids of what is still referred to as Stanley Falls and navigate downstream between baskets that need t
40:47
Speaker A
a long time have been waiting hoping for things to get better a lot more hope here than there's any right to expect [Music] when all is said and done i wanted to go to the congo i did [Music]
41:28
Speaker A
you
Topics:Anthony BourdainCongoCongo RiverGomaKing LeopoldWageniaStanley FallsHeart of Darknesseastern Congo conflicttravel documentary

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