"In Lingala, [the language of the Congo], yesterday and today are the same word: lobi. That had begun to capture so much of Congo to [Sophie] that there was only a now and a not-now, that moving forward was much the same as moving backward." "Anything that happened to the rest of the world between the 1950's and the 1990's never really made it here." "On average 1,200 Congolese had been killed every day since 1990, 5.4 million, and it wasn't nearly over yet." Sophie's African mother and American father have divorced and Sophie returned to visit her mother who runs a Bonobo rescue and release program. When war breaks out, Sophie repeatedly risks her life to save Otto, her rescue bonobo. This is a horrifying look at life in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and war's devastation. I was surprised to learn that bonobos share 98% of our DNA and that the peaceful, matriarchal bonobos prove war and conflict are not inevitable. There is a great Q & A section in the back.
Truman Award Preliminary Nominee 2014-15
No comments:
Post a Comment