River Journeys - Congo with Michael Wood, Travel documentary based in Africa, originally broadcast in 1984. Fair use - Public interest, needs to be watched!
this documentary was made in 1984 and the boats they used were already considerably old by then. it is 2022 and they are still using the same boats today. Almost nothing has been improved or renewed since Belgium left the Congo. i saw another recent documentary where they are still running trains from the 60's.
loved this documentary, did this trip from Bumba to Kisangani in 1990 when travelling through Africa on motorbikes. Zaire was my favourite country and Uganda was up there as well.
I saw this when it was first broadcasted in the early 80s and loved it. I have always loved Michael woods work especially his documentary of Troy, Iliad etc
I too have been looking for this film for years. Michael Wood and the music capture the atmosphere so well, and ultimately the spirit of the Zairoise. Thank you!
Thanks from me too I really enjoyed it. It really is too bad efing Leopold fucked up and also the natives done find something to agree on and pull themselves together and make the whole continent a better place. thumbs up.
Dear cofiant thank u so so much for bring back my childhood memeoriese back. I have been searching this documentary for years. Didnt know the correct name. Only thing remebered a journy through nile. My god long time ago. There was a animated graphic picture of a man dive in to the water at the begining of this docu. I couldnt find it here. That intro music still echo in my memories. If u can pls tell me where to find it. I am from sri lanka.
My wife and I had several journeys in South America where people gave us things and refused to be paid - in Argentina, a woman gave us her car for the afternoon, and when we returned, she refused the $100 we wanted to give her - even refused to let us refuel the gas tank. It also happend to us in Liguria (free medical care) and Rhonda (free food). There is something about being a traveler, although it seems that the past few years, things have changed.
I often wondered where the Pygmy and interior Congolese tribes got Western clothing, razor blades and batteries! The floating steam boat markets. Absolutely wild! Human beings are so adaptable and innovative.
What I really wonder is even with more modern communications has the culture or lifestyle really changed that much from 40 years ago? The internet has actually destroyed alot and is probably the most effective means of modern colonization.
Remember large chunks of this wonderful doc and I haven't seen it since it first came out in 1984. Michael wood was bloody good. His great railway journey in 1980, the Zambezi Express was the stand out episode of probably the best ever BBC travel series. Better even than the excellent Michael Palin. If Palin hadn't got the round the world in 80 days gigs and the progs that followed in its wake, Wood would have been just as interesting and compelling. Why cant we have these progs on a DVD BBC?
Thanks Michael Wood for uploading this fascinating video about Congo River and its tributories and the day to day life of prople living around it. It is really amazing, educative, entertaining and informative. Through this one can realize and visualize life of people in this natural surroundings. People are really gentle giants. Although poor, got great hearts and magnanimous. - N V Kotian, Mumbai
It’d be nice to visit this beautiful country one day. May God delivered her people from dictators, evil rulers, poverty and all sickness. May Congo grow and prosper and a country full of God’d glory.
Nobody does impartibility like Michael Wood, a true cosmopolitan nomad. Many thanks for sharing cofiant. Greatly enjoyed. It would be nice to try and find out what has happened to the old Paddle steamer at the end. Thanks again. Kind regards Robert,
The thing is, he's got a cameraman with him all the time. And maybe a sound person, and a producer? So all the time he's talking as though he's travelling alone, and making decisions about where he stays for the night etc., receiving gifts, there's these other people with him who he's pretending aren't there.
I've seen this a million times since I first saw and taped it in 1987. At the time I often visited the 'Matongé' neighborhood in Bruxelles, loving and buying the hot and elegant music by Franco and his peers at the wonderful 'Musicanova' record shop at the Gallery d'Ixelles in Bruxelles, the colonial and post-colonial stories by Belgians and Zaireans in places like the Mambo Club (or Congolese, if you like, though I have to say, that, notwithstanding Mobutu was an extremely cruel, criminal, murderous and insane dictator, the idea of 'Zaïre' did appear to give the people of a very large country an idea of shared identity and proudness, in a time were the idea of 'Congo' was one of suppression, slavery and colonization.) I was never 'over there', and probably never will, but have often gathered, danced and celebrated with the people over here, and happy, happy times they were!
Beautiful documentary about the Congo river. I became totaly fascinated with the history of the Congo through the book Blood River by Tim Butcher. Ar there any other similar books or documentaries that anyone can recommend? Cheers
Michael Wood brings his magic to this documentary with more than hint of amorous encounters en route and evoking the spirit and enormous physical beauty of Central Africa . He lightly sketches in the horrors , highlighting the thirty years of the monstrous privately ruled Congo Free State and the anti White massacres in 60s and 70s'. He commendably emphasises the humanity and kindness of its people rather than dwelling on countless centuries of horror they have experienced at the hands of their various rulers. It's an up lifting. Wood's commentary for the BBC.
Michael Wood, when the villagers gave you the gifts they did expect a little gratude eg,a gift of some sort from you..I could see not every one was waving back at you. A simple 'Asante Sana' did not fit a culture that trades it's kindnesses,and why not.. l am a traveller and also speak Swahili, besides several languages and believe even in Morocco if some one gives youa cigarette,it is your duty to offer a cigarette to your host next..that applies all over the world..even in cultures that show recluctance, the underlying idea is also of receiving..you should have read between the lines the,'Mosquito Net',..ok you had a need for it,so you should have offered some thing else in return..a plain thank you is like a burnt toast without butter and jam on it..!!
Fun trying to remember the fear back in the old days before satellite communications. Now you can get a satellite phone that will send text messages and even update your Facebook for $100.
Sublime,,I thought that journeys like the one Patrick Leigh Fermor made from Dieppe to Constantinople could never be made again,,because our world is now cold and grey,,,but this film shows that with magnanimity and love great journeys are still possible,The gift of three chickens from the poor people of Lowa,,mythical,,biblical, Mr Wood,,when you left the diplomatic corpse in the car you became,,as Enobarbus said of Antony,,the mine of bounty
It was hell then, as it was hell before and it is hell now. What a strange observation. Might I suggest 'Heart of Darkness', and vast number of other books on witnesses Stanley, Leopold, and the slavery and butchery that was the Belgian Congo, followed by Western sanctioned anarchy keeping the Congolese people far from the richness of their land on which delicacies our 'democracies' feast .
@@Patrick3183 Yes he can because he mean by that -them- central african people, he is totally entitled as much as you can say "us" when you speak about your Belgian or French heritage, you victim blaming neo-colonialist. Even the computer you use has minerals you robbed, yes, from Congo and we know how you do that.
I hope the people of Congo can find a way to realy enjoy, live and profit from this river as it brings so many possibilities. And thanks for the upload of course.
Interesting ...not so sure about that Michael Wood bloke though.. Why is it that many of those French speaking former colonies are such seemingly hopeless cases ?......at least some of the former British, German or Dutch colonies have _some_ resemblance to their former masters.... Pity that half of it got lost with the VHS copy of a copy "quality"......
It's very close to an old Hymn called, Brethren, We Have Met to Worship. Here is a video of a solo guitar arrangement I did; ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-kFFlw93cm8M.html
