When the author returned to the Congo for a year as a newly qualified medical doctor he was able to observe Christian missionary activity at first hand and, more importantly, to work and learn from the people amongst whom he had been born, and who he came to appreciate and admire. The stimulus for this book sprang from a desire to learn more about the country and the people of Congo before the intrusion of Europeans, the effects of Belgian colonization, the role of missionaries in exposing the brutalities of King Leopold II's rubber industry, and the contribution of Christian missions to the development of the country that is now the Democratic Republic of Congo. Mission. Impossible? is based on a detailed study of the archived records of the Congo Balolo Mission, personal interviews with retired missionaries and missionary children, current leaders of the Congolese church and other previously unpublished personal material. Following the "discovery" of the Congo River by Henry Morton Stanley in 1877 the Congo was presented to the wider world as "The Heart of Darkness", a concept challenged by the author in the final chapter. A postscript by Norbert Mpu-Mbutu adds an important Congolese perspective.
