Kinshasa, May 15th, 2025 (CPA) – The President of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Félix Tshisekedi, has decided to adopt the book ‘L’Afrique peut nourrir le monde’ (Africa can feed the world), proposing strategies for food self-sufficiency, as a ‘Congolese farmer’s manual’ at its naming ceremony in Kinshasa on Wednesday, according to information from the Congolese Presidency. ‘Thank you very much George Arthur for your book. I will make it a farmer’s manual, a policy manual to combat food insufficiency’, declared Félix Tshisekedi, congratulating the author of the book, whom he affectionately called “le Grand Katangais”(the Great Katanga).
‘I wish this book every success, and I hope that everyone will buy it’, the Head of State hammered home to a multicultural audience. A renowned Congolese entrepreneur, George Arthur Forrest was born in Lubumbashi in 1940 to New Zealand parents. He heads the Forrest International Group, one of the jewels in the crown of African industry. Drawing on his experience as a businessman, cultural activist and philanthropist, George Arthur Forrest’s 131-page book is an engaging and inspiring plea for food self-sufficiency in Africa.
Family photo showing Félix Tshisekedi, Mr Forrest and others
At the age of 85, Mr Forrest reviewed his book in front of the Head of State and his guests from various backgrounds.
Entrepreneur George Arthur Forrest’s assessment was clear-cut. He believes that Africa, with its vast expanses of fertile land and large, young population, has all the resources needed to produce what it consumes and consume what it produces.
Faced with a growing population and future climatic upheavals, Africa has no choice: it must rise to the challenge of food self-sufficiency, the first condition for economic growth. Mr Forrest revealed that the DRC, his homeland, is not just a mining scandal; it is also, in his view, an agricultural scandal.
For Mr Forrest, with its 24 million hectares of arable land, vast tracts of forest covering 66% of the territory and favourable rainfall of 9/12 months, the DRC has everything it takes to be the breadbasket of Africa. In 2022, the Forrest International Group celebrated the centenary of the Forrest family’s presence in the DRC. ‘Africa can feed the world’ is the second book in the series published by Georges Arthur Forrest, following “A century of dreams”, published in 2022. In his first book, ‘A Century of Dreams’, George Arthur Forrest retraced his family’s entrepreneurial adventure, which began in 1922 in Kolwezi, in the heart of Katanga. In the present book, the author talks about ‘a century of hard work on a long road punctuated by obstacles and crises, but a century of stubborn dreams to build an industrial group and participate in the development of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), my native land, and contribute to the transformation of a confident and conquering Africa’.