Ben Cooke

The DRC is a strikingly mis-named country, finds Ben Cooke. It's undemocratic, for a start, and a republic only in name. He starts in Lubumbashi, heads into the hinterlands of small-town Kipushi and then braves the capital, Kinshasa. He finds the Congo's reputation for being dangerous has been superseded by its capacity to relentlessly hassle any visitor - especially if carrying a camera - and he finds the unremitting focus on a lone white traveller forces his mind into solitary reflection.