Congo-Kinshasa is the country Harry Hole enters while tracing the supplier of a weapon connected to a Norwegian double murder. The investigation’s journey there opens onto a wider story of coltan, armed conflict, and commercial ambition: the country is not merely a distant destination, but the place where the novel’s murder evidence meets the political economy of mineral extraction.

Setting and mineral wealth

In Harry’s conversation about the journey, coltan is identified as a rare metal used in mobile phones, with most deposits located in Congo-Kinshasa. The deposits lie in war zones beyond anyone’s effective control, a condition that allows resource-seeking entrepreneurs to take possession of the material and send it into Rwanda. The mineral’s value links the country to consumer goods far beyond its borders, while the risks of mining and conflict remain concentrated at the point of extraction.

The novel gives this resource chain a more concrete form through Tony Leike’s account of a mine northeast of Congo-Kinshasa. When mobile-phone production boomed in the 1990s, he says, a group of Frenchmen and local partners operated a pit where children used picks and shovels to dig out coltan. The rock looked ordinary, but could be processed to obtain tantalum. Leike understood the potential for great wealth and hoped to attract sponsors to modernize and properly operate the mine. His story makes the mineral’s route from ground to market inseparable from the labor and power relations at the site.

Armed control and commercial history

Herman Kluit’s memories place Congo-Kinshasa within his career as a mercenary, during which he had fought in several African countries and served whoever paid him. He recalls the discovery of a rich seam of diamonds, cobalt, and coltan in Congo-Kinshasa. The local chief belonged to the Mai-Mai armed faction, whose members believed water made them invulnerable. Kluit describes a setting in which money could settle most matters and, when money ran short, a case of Kalashnikovs could serve instead. His account links mineral extraction to the purchase of local cooperation and the availability of weapons; he also says that he became rich within a year and extremely rich within three.

Görna, where Kluit and his companions went about once a month to sleep in beds rather than outdoors, is the nearby city most clearly associated with his recollections. His account evokes the region through black lava, money, and the effects of disease: half the men contracted malaria, while others suffered illnesses grouped under the name jungle fever. Kluit himself never fully recovered from one such illness. He recalls finding relief in a Singapore Sling at a villa by Lake Kivu, said to have been built by King Leopold when Congo was the Belgian Congo Free State. The story connects an indulgent colonial-era setting to the extraction and wealth that have shaped his life, though the villa’s royal provenance is presented as an allegation rather than a confirmed fact.

Harry’s journey into the country

Harry makes his destination explicit at the border by specifying Congo-Kinshasa, distinguishing it from the other country called Congo. After crossing the boundary, he and his driver head toward Görna. The road is muddy and pitted with craters; a thin man in a torn jacket sits at the roadside, a military jeep travels ahead, and an armed soldier watches them with a tired, cold expression. Aircraft rumble overhead. The route presents the country not as an abstract source of minerals but as a place where military presence and damaged infrastructure shape ordinary travel.

Harry’s driver, Joe, reports that United Nations forces bring more guns and grenades, that Nkunda is advancing closer to the city, and that many people are fleeing as refugees. Joe has not seen Eddie van Boorst for some time and wonders whether he too has left. The report gives the journey an immediate human and political context: the investigation proceeds through a city threatened by advancing forces and amid a population on the move.

Investigation, investment, and significance

In Görna, Harry uses the Norwegian state’s position as a major development-aid donor to pressure Eddie van Boorst. He threatens to identify him to Norwegian authorities in Kinshasa as an uncooperative supplier of the murder weapon in a Norwegian double murder. The leverage is diplomatic as well as criminal: Harry makes cooperation consequential by invoking the possibility that local authorities could detain van Boorst while the investigation continues. Congo-Kinshasa thus becomes a place where a Norwegian case depends on relationships among police, aid, and a foreign supplier.

Leike’s account of his business plans shows how investment follows the same uncertain terrain. After borrowing money, losing it through partners who cheated him, borrowing again, and eventually earning a few million, he says he gained access to wealthy investors. He has sold shares and exchanged them for options to pay debts; to regain a full partnership, he now needs more money to exercise those options. Leike claims that the major investments, including local bribes, are already in place and that a jungle runway has been built so transport planes can be loaded directly and goods flown out through Uganda. This is his optimistic pitch, not confirmation that the operation succeeds. Its promised route out of the country makes transport infrastructure, political payments, and international finance part of the same venture.

The novel’s Congo-Kinshasa emerges through sharply different accounts: Kluit’s mercenary memories, Leike’s investment prospectus, Joe’s warning about refugees, and Harry’s negotiation with van Boorst. Together they make the country central to the murder investigation without reducing it to a backdrop. Mineral wealth draws money and armed power into the story, while the immediate realities of conflict and displacement complicate the investors’ language of opportunity.