All Things Must Fight to Live: Stories of War and Deliverance in Congo

Bryan Mealer, a foreign correspondent, tells of his time reporting in Congo, weaving his own encounters with the country into the wider story of its long and brutal past. The account began as a three-part series in a magazine, and it moves between his experiences on the ground and the history that shaped the place, showing how decades of colonial rule, conflict and outside interests left deep marks on ordinary lives. Mealer builds his narrative around the people he met along the way, from soldiers and villagers to those trying to survive amid the fighting, and asks what it takes to endure in a land that has suffered so much.