Harare Review of Books

208 pages.

First published on April 11, 2023 (Catapult).

Non-fiction/Memoir.

The temptation was very strong as I read this book to most uncharitably roll my eyes (“What was he even doing there??”), and I cringed mightily over the definite outsider’s gaze in the author’s approach to the Central African Republic (CAR); but I do have some empathy, in the end, for what Sundaram had been trying to do, and for his pain and trauma. After all, someone must tell the story, and maybe people will listen more if it’s someone they respect, which would never be true of local (African/CAR) journalists. Sundaram was needed to bring the attention of the war to Western media, as was the Human Rights Watch worker identified as Lewis in the book. Still, those Heart of Darkness feelings stayed with me right up to the end of the book, and soured for me what is otherwise an interesting and heartfelt story. 

Sundaram writes about how he felt compelled to go to the CAR to tell the little-known story of the war there, ostensibly between Christians and Muslims, but with a long colonial history (of course) involving France (–none of the colonisers are clean, no matter how much they try to sanitise their image). His experiences there, and various other things, led to the break-up of the book’s title, of his marriage to a fellow journalist. This is a memoir in every sense, with our exposure through it to a lot of the author’s interiority; but it is also interesting for the historical details of his traumatic time in the CAR. I did learn a lot about the dynamics of the CAR from this book, and that was wonderful. The final section of the book (a chapter or two) details the actual end of Sundaram’s marriage, and his attempts to make sense of what happened. 

In all, a decent read, that will probably appeal to others more than it did to me. I am glad I read it, and I’m sorry I didn’t like it more, which always makes me feel bad when I read a true story. Thank you to Catapult for the DRC.