In the Forests of Ituri

These are a naive traveler's views of a mysterious land. The Democratic Republic of Congo was formerly called Zaire, meaning "the river that swallows all rivers", evoking the grand scale of the basin that drains tropical central Africa. Congo is home to vibrant cultures, unimaginable resource wealth and biodiversity. The history of the Congo is marred by dark colonial heritage, poverty, disease and war. The puzzle is that the problems exist because of its riches.