Internal War
When war is mentioned we imagine that one country - in this case, Congo - is at war with another. The key theme of the book is that a country can actually be at war with itself. This is a country that has been in a constant state of fighting and the result is more atrocities and more deaths in battle than any other nation on earth. There are so many different factions and groups that it is almost impossible to see who is fighting whom, but the fact that Congo is a constant war zone even in what is technically peace time is the crux of this theme.
Grinding Poverty
This is an exceptionally poor nation and it is this grinding poverty that is one of the key themes of this book. There are many examples in every chapter; for example, any infrastructure that has been attempted has been abandoned in part because there is no way to fund it. Food is scarce and the staple diet is a horrible gruel-like substance called cassata. Transportation is challenging and sparse since gas is always compromised and even in this condition is prohibitively expensive so that people who purchased mopeds for transportation end up pushing them everywhere as they can't afford to run them. Those who have no homes wheel bikes with their belongings carried on them. Throughout the book the theme of poverty is key to every stage of the journey.
Government Corruption
The problem is not that the developed world has not tried to help in Congo but that the help that is given is misappropriated by corrupt politicians and even more so, by local officials. This fact is both stated and implied throughout the book and the author witnesses examples of this corruption at every stage of the journey.
Underdeveloped Versus Underdeveloping
One of the themes of the book is the conclusion that Butcher draws regarding Congo's classification as a "developing nation". He asserts that it is not developing at all, and is actually under-developing, meaning that although it is behind the developed world it is also behind the curve when it comes to its neighboring developing nations and it is in fact under-developing and moving backwards so that things are becoming less developed, and the country seems to be going back in time.
