In Beauty and Conflict, Jordy van Enkhuizen describes the splendours of Congo and its people, while at the same time recounting the various struggles he came across during his work with a non-governmental organisation in the beautiful, but troubled northeast of the Democratic Republic of Congo. In his gripping account as a pharmacist flying between different rural areas in 2016, he makes detailed observations on the state of affairs in the heart of Africa and intriguingly explains how humanitarian aid workers attempt to make a change in a landscape controlled by various armed groups.
From the bleak colonisation by the Belgian King Leopold II to the numerous joyful children who waddled barefoot along the lava rock-covered roadsides with stacks of firewood on their heads, his narrative is both enlightening and entertaining. Written from the heart, but with a soothing sense of humour, Beauty and Conflict is a compassionate and revealing story about the lives of the Congolese and those providing them with indispensable humanitarian aid.
