Dancing in the Glory of Monsters The Collapse of the Congo and the Great War of Africa

A “meticulously researched and comprehensive” (Financial Times) history of the devastating war in the heart of Africa’s Congo  

At the heart of Africa is the Congo, a country the size of western Europe. It borders nine other nations, and since 1996 it has been racked by a brutal war in which millions have died. In Dancing in the Glory of Monsters, renowned political activist and researcher Jason K. Stearns has written a compelling and deeply reported narrative of how Congo became a failed state that collapsed into a war of retaliatory massacres. Stearns brilliantly describes the key perpetrators, many of whom he met personally, and highlights the nature of the political system that brought these people to power, as well as the moral decisions with which the war confronted them. Now updated with a new introduction, Dancing in the Glory of Monsters tells the full story of Africa’s great war.

Jason Stearns is a senior fellow at NYU’s Center on International Cooperation and the founder and chair of the Advisory Board of Congo Research. He has worked for the International Crisis Group, and the UN Group of Experts on the DR Congo, and the Rift Valley Institute. His most recent book is The War That Doesn’t Say Its Name. He currently lives in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.