Take a region of huge potential wealth, subject its people to the slave trade, colonise it to sustain the ambitions of "the Zaire of Europe" (Belgium), embroil it in Cold War politics - and you have a dish ready-made for the arrival of "The Leopard", or Mobutu Sese Seko. In Michela Wrong's thoroughly researched account of Zaire/Congo's recent history, the absolute corruption of the young idealist Mobutu has a certain sense of inevitability. Mind you, the notorious kleptocrat was not shy of embracing his fate, especially after the economic downturn of the 1970s, when every asset (cobalt, uranium, diamonds), and every aid package, was transformed into cash, in order to to buy support from voracious factional leaders. Ultimately, Kurtz-like, Mobutu lost his own plot, marooned in his infamously costly jungle palace. Having been stripped bare (apart from a rotting nuclear reactor), Congo is now, concludes Wrong, a matter of indifference to the rest of world.