De restauratie van een ongepubliceerd boek-De memoires van Chicongo
*Update 27 March 2012*
'De memoires van Chicongo' will be published autumn 2012 by a major Dutch publisher.
Vermeulen's previous books 'De pioniersdagen van Chicongo' and 'Ingang der Hel' will probably also be re-published at the same date together with the Memoires.
By F. van den Hoek, B. Vermeulen and C.M. Lindemann.
This is the amazing story of an exceptional man’s journey into a primitive world during a time that was almost lost forever… until now. To be more precise it is Alfons Vermeulen who went to the colonial Belgian Congo in 1899 and spent 26 years there. His mission was to establish trade posts for the Dutch NAHV company which held concessions in the vast, unexplored Congo territory ruled by Belgium and France. Subsequently he published two well-received biographical novels about his Congo period which show Africa, Congo and life in a refreshingly positive light.
Where Joseph Conrad describes Congo in Alfons' time as a living hell in 'Heart of Darkness'; Alfons presents us with a realistic account of life along the Congo river. A paradise where the 'primitive' and 'wild' inhabitants of the jungle prove to be more civilised than their European counterparts.
Already in his eighties Alfons managed to produce a third, unpublished, book in manuscript form. Many hours of research, editing and restoring of these documents led to: 'The Memoires of Chicongo', the third part of, which is now, a trilogy and will be published as such. Here Alfons details more aspects of daily life in the Congo and literally takes us to a world that has since dissappeared.
If you are interested in a copy of the Staverman story please contact me.