Virunga National Park, the heart of darkness as UNESCO World Heritage

Abstract

The article outlines some of the historical traces for the eco-crisis that presently threatens the first and most outstanding national park in Africa, homeland of the mountain gorilla. Texts and films about Virunga reiterate the same rhetorical figures that are frequently discussed in connection with Conrad’s description of the Congo River, thus showing the long-term political effects of the “discours conradien”. After a short description of the site, the article presents the Congo Reform Movement’s campaign against the bloody repression in the Congo Free State around 1900, often referred to as the Red Rubber-regime. The article argues that we can detect similar and highly problematic rhetorical structures in the animal rights campaigns, which took on a global scale in the 1970s – initiated among others by Dian Fossey and her famous and infamous fight for the protection of mountain gorillas in the Virunga. Both human rights campaigns and animal rights campaigns share a responsibility, the author argues, for the eco-crisis at Virunga. Finally, he presents the documentary Virunga from 2014 as a model and as a rhetorical alternative.