White Actress Accused of Fabricating Memoir About Gap Year in Zambia

Many claim that Louise Linton's self-published memoir, 'In Congo's Shadow,' paints an inaccurate portrait of Zambia.

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A self-published memoir recounting one woman's experiences as a volunteer in Zambia has come under fire for being what many are alleging is complete and utter bullshit. Louise Linton's In Congo's Shadow purports to tell her story of being "an intrepid teenager" who left behind a privileged existence in Scotland to travel to Zambia during her gap year, though a recent excerpt published by the Telegraph has many questioning the validity of the author's claims.

"I had come to Africa with hopes of helping some of the world's poorest people," Linton writes in the excerpt. "But my gap year had become a living nightmare when I inadvertently found myself caught up in the fringes of the Congolese War." However, as noted by BuzzFeed News, the memoir's claims of near-death encounters with Congolese rebels may have been greatly exaggerated:

Gerard Zytkow, who says he owns a fishing lodge near the one Linton describes in her memoir, said Congolese rebel-operated boats did arrive in the area but not in the manner described in the book. "The captain of the first vessel was at pains to assure the people of Zambia that they were not coming to attack," Zytkow wrote on Facebook. "I was listening to this on our marine radio." Zytkow also took aim at Linton's "mind-boggling and nonsensical" attempt at fictionalizing the events, arguing that her book should be banned:

I am genuinely dismayed and very sorry to see that I have offended people as this was the very opposite of my intent. I wrote with the hope of conveying my deep humility, respect and appreciation for the people of Zambia as an 18yr old in 1999. I wrote about the country’s incredible beauty and my immense gratitude for the experiences I had there. Sorry he was mistaken. It was 1999, 3 years prior to 2002 and I was never posted at Ndole. The angel hair is what the children said, not me.

Though Linton's subsequent statement, posted below, disputed the timeline of Zytkow's counterclaim, Zytkow and others remain adamant about the growing claims of inaccuracy surrounding Linton's memoir. "She claims to have not wanted to do any damage to the people of Zambia," he toldBuzzFeed News Monday. "Telling blatant lies does not help—especially when many readers will not be aware of the lies."

Here's Linton's statement, posted via a series of tweets Monday, in full:

To make this whole thing even worse, that's not the only disputed point in Linton's book. A "Hutu-Tutsi conflict" described as having taken place in Congo actually took place in Rwanda. Furthermore, Linton's writing makes mention of Zambia's "monsoon season," despite the fact that no such thing exists in the region. 

The negative reaction to the memoir, which was written with help from Wendy Holden, has since spawned the hashtag #LintonLies:

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The protest even made its way to the book's Amazon page, stacking up the reviews section with dissections like this:

According to her official website, Linton is also an actress with a law degree who is "currently completing her pilot's license."

Representatives for Louise Linton did not immediately respond to Complex's request for comment.

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