S: Gert Jochems

About David van Reybrouck

David Van Reybrouck was born in Flanders. He read archaeology and philosophy at the universities of Leuven and Cambridge and holds a doctorate from Leiden. He was a visiting scholar in Barcelona and Paris and a postdoctoral research fellow in the history department of Leuven. His essays and reportages have been published in most well known newspapers and magazines of Belgium and the Netherlands. As well as being a literary non-fiction writer (The Plague Facing Belgium A Plea for Populism) Van Reybrouck is an acclaimed playwright. Next to that fascinated by the visual arts Van Reybrouck has collaborated in book projects with leading photographers such as Stephan Vanfleteren (Belgium 2007) and Carl De Keyzer (Congo (belge) 2009) as well as the painter/sculptor Koenraad Tinel (Scheisseimer 2009). He was a writer in residence in Amsterdam and Wassenaar. Over the years Van Reybrouck has travelled extensively throughout Africa. In May 2010 he finally published Congo: A History an ambitious and absorbing history of Africa's most devastated country. He lives in Brussels.