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Forbath, Peter LORD OF THE KONGO: A Novel ISBN 13: 9780684809519

LORD OF THE KONGO: A Novel - Hardcover

 
9780684809519: LORD OF THE KONGO: A Novel
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Against the backdrop of the Portuguese entry into the Congo, the friendship between a Portuguese cabin boy and Prince Mbemba, a Kongo prince who becomes the ruler of a puppet kingdom, turns tragic. 25,000 first printing.

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Review:
Set in 16th-century Africa, Peter Forbath's Lord of the Kongo follows the fortunes of young Gil Eanes, a 15-year old Portuguese cabin boy who finds himself alone and on his own for several years in an uncharted land. The novel encompasses a period of 20 years that saw the first European attempts to find a water route around Africa and the discovery, colonization, and eventual despoiling of the land called "Kongo." Young Gil's experiences as he struggles to survive in this world add to the adventure.

The late Peter Forbath was once a Time magazine correspondent in Africa, and his knowledge of the continent and its history is evident. Using original records from a variety of sources, he has artfully blended fact and fiction into an unforgettable epic tale.

From Kirkus Reviews:
Forbath (The Last Hero, 1988, etc.), who died earlier this year, leaves a powerful valedictory based on the real and tragic events precipitated by Portugal's first lodgment in West Africa. In 1482, a caravel dispatched by the Portuguese king to find a sea route to the Indies makes a brief landfall near a mighty river called Zaire by the natives. Leaving the captain's page, 15- year-old Gil Eanes (who's been represented as a royal), to pay the crown's respects to the local chief, the ship sails away, never to return. A talented linguist, Gil impresses the chief and his younger son Mbemba; owing to the enmity of the tribe's juju man, however, he's exiled from the upcountry court to an offshore island well away from established trade routes. Ten years on, the lonely castaway finally flags down another Portuguese vessel. Gil (now with a son by Mbemba's younger sister) gets word of the arrival to Mbemba, who soon after seizes the throne. Eager to learn the art of writing and other of civilization's blessings for his people, the ambitious young prince embraces Catholicism and becomes a vassal of the Portuguese. A decade later, the Portuguese, anxious to settle their new province of Brazil, start casting about for slaves and settle on Mbemba's people, and the Portuguese monarch sends five well-stocked cargo craft to the Kongo (latter-day Zaire). While sanctimonious priests speak of saving souls and building cities on a hill, hard-eyed, well-armed Portuguese soldiers are scouting for bondsmen. Factions long mistrustful of Mbemba rise in rebellion; Gil dies; his son is enslaved; and the Portuguese seize control of the country. Mbemba's penance for the sin of vaulting ambition is to live on as slavers ravage his country and its people. A true adventure brought vividly to live amid the violent social, cultural, and religious conflicts that marked the Dark Continent's first contacts with Europe. -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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  • PublisherSimon & Schuster
  • Publication date1996
  • ISBN 10 0684809516
  • ISBN 13 9780684809519
  • BindingHardcover
  • Edition number1
  • Number of pages512
  • Rating

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Book Description Hardcover. Condition: New. First Edition. A decade before Columbus set sail for the New World, Portuguese explorers seeking a route around the southern tip of Africa to the Indies discovered the Kongo. To their astonishment, the vast, rich land, many times bigger than Portugal, was ruled by a fierce warrior tribe, highly sophisticated and wealthy enough to scorn the trade goods the Portuguese had brought with them for barter with the natives and as presents to their chiefs.Based on real historical events, Lord of the Kongo is the story of a young Portuguese page and cabin boy, Gil Eanes, whose gift for languages, boundless curiosity, and true grit win him the friendship of Mbemba, one of the two sons of the ManiKongo, the great king.Sent by his captain on a dangerous journey inland to visit the fabled capital of the Kongo and pay his respects to the king, Gil is stranded when his ship sails without him and survives by his wits in the dangerous world of Kongo court politics, eventually fathering a son by the beautiful Nimi, one of the ManiKongo's princesses, and winning the trust of her brother Mbemba, whose fascination with the written word and with the teachings of Catholicism is already leading him on a remarkable journey that will pit him against his warrior half-brother in a clash for the throne, divide the kingdom into warring factions, and eventually, with the return of the Portuguese in greater numbers, turn Mbemba into King Affonso I, the black Catholic ruler of a Portuguese puppet kingdom, the covert purpose of which is to provide slaves for the newly discovered Portuguese territories in South America.In the end, Gil's friendship with Mbemba and Mbemba's curiosity about the European world begin the cycle of tragedy that will destroy Gil, his son Kimpasi (who becomes a Portuguese-educated Catholic priest), and everything Gil cherishes about the land that has become his home. This cycle of civil war, dynastic struggle, and undisguised slaving, all played out amid the burning pyres of the Inquisition, will eventually depopulate the Kongo and turn it into the "Heart of Darkness" it became. Seller Inventory # DADAX0684809516

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