All Things Must Fight to Live

In 1996, the fighting in Rwanda spilled over the Congolese border, sparking a conflict that would eventually claim four millions lives—more than any other since the Second World War. In the course of his three years as a reporter in Congo, Bryan Mealer was the witness—often the only witness—to almost unimaginable scenes: entire cities laid waste by teenage gunboys with machetes and ball gowns; an obsessive UN commander locked in a fight with a shadowy militia leader named Cobra Matata; local heroes who resurrected a defunct rail line to ferry supplies to war-choked villages.

 

Staying in Kinshasa and Bunia and traveling with the war, Mealer immersed himself in Congolese life—a turbulent and often terrifying existence. But every time he tried to leave for home and his wife, he found himself drawn back, absorbed into the cycle of destruction and hope in Africa's most troubled state. Eventually, he set out from the urban fight zones he covered to take a two-thousand-mile journey through the wild backcountry by barge and train.  Amid burned-out battlefields, the dark corners of the forests, and the high savanna, where thousands have been massacred and quickly forgotten, Mealer searched for signs of renewal.

 

All Things Must Fight to Live is Mealer's personal account of his experiences in Congo through the long scope of the country’s dark and brutal history.  It is a written tour through the aftermath of war and colonialism, in an emerging country that has been devastated by a decade at war and is the site of the greatest humanitarian catastrophe on earth. It is harrowing, meticulously crafted, and, in the end, redemptive.

Praise

“The country's agonies are far from over, but, in Bryan Mealer's new book All Things Must Fight to Live, they now at least have their definitive account . . . It is Mealer's gift that even when he is covering what is, journalistically, well-worn territory—the fog of war, the addictive and atrophied life of a combat reporter—his writing is not only fresh but empathetic . . . With the maturity and talent he displays in this book, Mealer could have a dazzling future as a chronicler of distant lands. He has already set a new standard by which all correspondents might approach other forgotten wars.”—Time

“Mealer’s talent for detail, deftly rendered, lifts his material toward the sublime . . . offer[s] a way of imagining Congo's tragedy that can only come from someone who's thrown himself so thoroughly into the place.”—Christian Science Monitor

“Gorgeous, heartbreaking, and redemptive. Bryan Mealer has given us a story of a people and a land nearer to our hearts than we know. An immensely honest job of reporting, wonderfully told by a writer who feels as much as he sees.”—Robert Kurson, author of Shadow Divers

“[A] troubling exposé of the brutalities suffered by those in war-racked Congo.”—Chicago Tribune

“Bryan Mealer has put his life on the line to bring us a story of terror and courage from the heart of Congo . . . Both as a journalist and as a reader, my hat’s off to Mealer.”—Sebastian Junger, author of The Perfect Storm

 

“Mealer is a gifted writer who reports his harrowing experiences with humility and humanity.”—Greg Houle, African Update

“Goes a long way toward making the phrase ‘dark continent’ the anachronism that it should be.”—Minneapolis City Pages

“One has to be young and perhaps a touch mad to voluntarily travel, as Bryan Mealer has, by foot, boat, barge, bicycle, rickety airplane, and a train that goes off the rails, through one of the most violent places on earth. But a sane and cautious person would not have been able to bring back the vivid and tragic stories he has, from what is by far the world's bloodiest—and most underreported—zone of conflict.”—Adam Hochschild, author of King Leopold's Ghost

“The author pulls no punches in describing the sights that flickered before his eyes . . . Gutsy, richly descriptive recollections effectively conjure grisly events in a troubled nation.”—Kirkus Reviews

“With vivid prose and compelling emotion . . . [Mealer] reports his own ‘creeping emotional atrophy’ as he is repulsed and then spellbound by the violence and by the courageous people who struggled to make sense of the fighting.”—Booklist

“A perceptive, empathetic, stomach-twisting presentation of the human condition during chaos . . . A quiet paean to the courage he has witnessed, and its final salute to ‘the many proud people of Congo’ is as much eulogy as affirmation.”—Publishers Weekly

About the Author(s)

Bryan Mealer

Bryan Mealer was the Associated Press staff correspondent in Kinshasa, Congo, and has reported from places across the African continent, including Nairobi, Somalia, and Togo. His writing has appeared in Harper’s and Esquire, among other magazines. He was born in Odessa, Texas, and graduated from the University of Texas at Austin. He lives in Brooklyn.