The Cobra's Heart (Penguin Great Journeys)

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The Cobra's Heart (Penguin Great Journeys #20)

by Ryszard Kapuściński, Klara Glowczewska (Translator)

4.33 of 5 stars 4.33 · rating details · 3,013 ratings · 318 reviews

One of the most brilliant journalists of the postwar world, Kapuscinski (born 1932) spent decades criss-crossing Africa, witnessing the horrors of a continent ravaged by imperialism and its aftershocks. Humane, evocative and magical, The Cobra's Heart makes the case for Kapuscinski as a great writer as well as a great journalist.

Paperback, 112 pages

Published by Penguin UK (first published January 1st 1998)

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Apr 06, 2013 Lisa rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: africa, non-fiction

Shifting seamlessly from vignettes of daily life to grand excursions into Africa's turbulent political past, Kapuscinski zig-zags across vast expanses of scorching desert and lush greenery in this masterful piece of journalistic travel writing. He describes people, politics and landscape with equal ease. The lioness stalking in the tall grasses is as riveting as the utterly fascinating character study of Idi Amin.

The first chapter was studded with generalisations about Africa and Africans that m...more

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Dec 31, 2008 Susan rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Kapuściński was a Polish journalist who died in 2007, and who spent time in Africa between the late 1950ies and the 1990ies. Africa was not his only beat, but when he spent time there he spent time with the people and shared their lives when he could. He was the first Polish foreign correspondent to cover Africa and he was always seriously underfunded compared with those representing the big European and American publications and agencies. What he lacked in funds he made up in ingenuity and a wi...more Kapuściński was a Polish journalist who died in 2007, and who spent time in Africa between the late 1950ies and the 1990ies. Africa was not his only beat, but when he spent time there he spent time with the people and shared their lives when he could. He was the first Polish foreign correspondent to cover Africa and he was always seriously underfunded compared with those representing the big European and American publications and agencies. What he lacked in funds he made up in ingenuity and a willingness to share in the lives of Africans with the result that he got the big stories (a coup in Zanzibar is the subject of one piece) but also the stories about the little people. He went to visit friends in remote villages where there wasn't enough to eat. He traveled in war zones. He met the dictators and sadists who were independent Africa's first rulers. Once traveling with Greek correspondent in the region of Lake Victoria, he took refuge in a hut where he collapsed, exhausted, into a bunk only to discover a huge Egyptian cobra coiled underneath. He and the Greek threw their weight behind a huge metal container (their only weapon) and tried to crush it. The canister did not cut into the snake and they had to wrestle it to death. He got cerebral malaria, nearly died, and lived with the after affects for years.
The pieces in this book are beautifully written, undoubtedly due in part of the translator. Not like journalistic pieces one usually reads, with their pyramid structure and journalistic phrases and short cuts. Kapuściński's scope was broader, from the latest war or coup to serious attempts to characterize African people. He put himself on the line in every piece—it was personal, heartfelt and wise. He engaged seriously with people, didn't just watch from afar or "interview the participants".
One learns a great deal about the history of Africa—and why in a sense there was no history until the Europeans started to divide Africa up into colonies and zones of interest. Why there'd never be a history because there were no documents at all, only the oral stories the people told. The chapter on Rwanda is worth the purchase of the book alone: Kapuściński put the genocide in a context which none of the several books I read on the subject of the Rwandan genocide was able to do. Similarly, another long chapter on a visit to Liberia developed a context for the awful civil wars which began when an army sergeant took charge and carved up the President in his bed—without even a plan for what he'd do when he became leader—and was eventually carved up himself. That essay ends when Kapuściński is allowed to travel up country and meet the tribal people (which the ruling Americo-Liberians called aboriginals when I visited in 1965). They are coming into Monrovia across a bridge and Kapuściński sees a naked man with a Kalashnikov, the others carefully stepping out of his way. "A madman with a Kalashnikov" is how he, quite appropriately, ends the essay.
Kapuściński's focus in this book is mostly East Africa and the Sahara and Sanhel, a few mentions of West Africa, not much of Southern Africa. Not much about the more "civilized" parts of Northern Africa.(less)

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Dec 15, 2008 Tracey rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2008, africa, book-club, non-fiction

This book takes you on an a whirlwind tour of Africa over the span of many years, many countries, and many different types of situations. The essays span the continent and quickly zoom the reader in and then back out of small incidents, large coups, nomadic wanderings, war lords, and everything (and everyone) in between.

I've never been able to get my mind around Africa. Its complexity both geographically and politically make it difficult to understand and internalize. In one respect the book do...more

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Apr 24, 2008 James rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: lincoln-park-group, travel-adventure

Last fall I read Travels with Herodotus by Ryszard Kapuscinski, the Polish journalist. It was his final book (he died in January, 2007) and I enjoyed it very much, having recently read Herodotus' Histories upon which he draws extensively. So it was with great anticipation that I looked forward to reading earlier works by Ryszard Kapuscinski. As an introduction to the mosaic of life that is known as "Africa" The Shadow of the Sun did not disappoint. The book consists of loosely connected essays o...more Last fall I read Travels with Herodotus by Ryszard Kapuscinski, the Polish journalist. It was his final book (he died in January, 2007) and I enjoyed it very much, having recently read Herodotus' Histories upon which he draws extensively. So it was with great anticipation that I looked forward to reading earlier works by Ryszard Kapuscinski. As an introduction to the mosaic of life that is known as "Africa" The Shadow of the Sun did not disappoint. The book consists of loosely connected essays on the travels and specific experiences of the author interspersed with brief historical commentaries. The looseness of the content is linked together through recurring themes such as the Sun of the title, the importance of minerals and elements, such as water in the Sahara, and the pervasive violence of both nature and man. The latter is evidenced by the presence of "Warlords" in several countries and the recurrence of tribal attacks of blacks on blacks leading at one extreme to examples of genocide as happened in Rwanda. The ubiquity of oppression of one group upon other(s), again both black, was striking and the existence of black on black apartheid (before it ever occurred in the Republic of South Africa) was both illuminating and disillusioning.In a book as much about the plastic water container as the warlord and preferring the African shanty town to the Manhattan skyscraper as a monument to human achievement, what Kapuściński, the author of Shah of Shahs describes is not just Africa, which he claims does not exist except geographically, but more a distillation of life itself, through its religiosity, its trees, the frightening abundance of youth, sun that "curdles the blood" and terrorising, ruling armies that fall in a day. A couple of minor criticisms: the chronology in the book was uncertain at times, infuriatingly so; and, the book would have benefitted from a map for reference as the episodic quality of the content led the reader to and fro across the continent. Kapuscinski is an excellent writer and a literary journalist. He is also a brave man who went into places and faced situations that appeared quite dangerous. His readers benefit from his adventurous personality. This excursion into his world makes me even more interested in reading other examples from his oeuvre.(less)

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Sep 01, 2008 Greg Coyle rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Mr. K is the sort of intrepid traveler we're used to reading about in tales of an earlier generation, the Burtons, Humboldts and Spekes of the world. He marks his year by the number of coups he witnesses and the number of death sentences rendered against him. In Shadow of the Sun, a collection of dispatches from around Africa, he manages to relate, in language worthy of Conrad and Maugham, both the beauty and the horror of Africa. It's a stunning, enlightening and occasinally frightening smorgas...more

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Mar 19, 2013 Maria Grazia rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: giornalismo, letteratura-polacca, ryszard-kapuscinski, viaggi

I diari africani del grande Kapuściński, come sempre in grado di calarsi in qualsiasi situazione e andare al fondo delle persone e dei fatti con estrema umiltà.
Non giudica mai, non c'è mai superiorità nelle sue descrizioni, ma un continuo chiedersi la ragione delle cose, quella vera, e una naturale e incredibile capacità di guardare dietro le apparenze e trovare l'origine delle colpe.
Nonostante sia datato, credo che Ebano sia tutt'oggi uno dei migliori libri per conoscere le radici del disastro...more

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Jan 07, 2009 Matthieu rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Very impressive testimony of what Africa is/was really like, beyond media blurb (despite the fact that Kapuscinski was a journalist). This is a series of extracts from his notes and diaries, concerning episodes in XXth century African life and politics (Kapuscinski was present during many of the continent's revolutions in the 60s and 70s). He has (rather had) very keen insight and a clear analytical mind about the people and cultures he encountered, never denigrating, and explaining for a Wester...more

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May 13, 2013 Leon rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Ryszard Kapuscinski arrived in Africa in 1957, at the beginning of the end of colonial rule––the “sometimes dramatic and painful, sometimes enjoyable and jubilant” rebirth of a continent. The Shadow of the Sun sums up the author’s experiences (“the record of a forty-year marriage”) in this place that became the central obsession of his remarkable career.From the hopeful years of independence through the bloodcurdling disintegration of nations such as Nigeria, Liberia, Rwanda, and Angola, Kapusci

...more

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Mar 28, 2013 Peter rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book has been my companion for ages, and I will miss it. I have been reading these snapshots of life in Africa for about a year, on the bus to work. This is the Africa that I have lived with for the last 50 years. The coups, wars and genocides are covered, but this is no political history of Africa. The author says in his forward "In reality, except as a geographical appellation 'Africa' does not exist." Nevertheless there are themes that define the western concept of Africa, and they come...more

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Sep 03, 2012 Cheryl rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: creative-nonfiction, africa, war-stories, international, simply-delicious

This book has such a broad appeal...excellent insight into Africa from a Polish journalist who spent years traveling around Africa (starting in the 50's).

This is a book about Kapuscinski's time spent in Africa; during coups, wars, racial tensions, hunger, starvation, sickness, etc. What I really liked about this is that Kapuscinski gets into the experience, living it and detailing it. He's not a removed journalist. In fact, this book reads like a great collection of stories. He talks about the...more

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Nov 18, 2011 Michael rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Michael by: A Polish postcrosser (moniabk)

Shelves: postcrossing-recommendations

This is the second book by Ryszard Kapuściński I've read and I am quickly becoming a fan of his writing.

This book is a collection of anecdotal narratives of the events he saw while covering revolutions, coups, and wars in Africa for the Polish news service from the late-1950s through the early 1990s.

Westerners generally tend to think of Africa as a rather homogenous lot, but we're wrong. There is an incredible amount of cultural diversity and long history of warring tribes and nations.

Ever sinc...more This is the second book by Ryszard Kapuściński I've read and I am quickly becoming a fan of his writing.

This book is a collection of anecdotal narratives of the events he saw while covering revolutions, coups, and wars in Africa for the Polish news service from the late-1950s through the early 1990s.

Westerners generally tend to think of Africa as a rather homogenous lot, but we're wrong. There is an incredible amount of cultural diversity and long history of warring tribes and nations.

Ever since I lived in Brazil I've been fascinated with how different cultures approach and treat time. Here's what the author has to say about Africans sense of time:

The European and the African have an entirely different concept of time. In the European worldview, time exists outside man, exists objectively, and has measurable and linear characteristics. According to Newton, time is absolute: "Absolute, true, mathematical time of itself and from its own nature, it flows equably and without relation to anything external." The European feels himself to be time's slave, dependent on it, subject to it. To exist and function, he must observe its ironclad, inviolate laws, its inflexible principles and rules. He must heed deadlines, dates, days, and hours. He moves within the rigors of time and cannot exist outside them. They impose upon him their requirements and quotas. An unresolvable conflict exists between man and time, one that always ends with man's defeat--time annihilates him.

Africans apprehend time differently. For them, it is a much looser concept, more open, elastic, subjective. It is man who influences time, its shape, course, and rhythm (man acting, of course, with the consent of gods and ancestors). Time is even something that man can create outright, for time is made manifest through events, and whether an even takes place or not depends, after all, on man alone. If two armies do not engage in a battle, then that battle will not occur (in other words, time will not have revealed its presence, will not have come into being).

Time appears as a result of our actions, and vanishes when we neglect or ignore it. It is something that springs to life under our influence, but falls into a state of hibernation, even nonexistence, if we do not direct our energy toward it. It is a subservient, passive essence, and, most importantly, one dependent on man.

The absolute opposite of time as it is understood in the European worldview.

In practical terms, this means that if you go to a village where a meeting is scheduled for the afternoon but find no one at the appointed spot, asking, "When will the meeting take place?" makes no sense. You know the answer: "It will take place when people come."

(less)

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Aug 02, 2011 Ian Kemp rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

An excellent insight into the history and situation of a score of African nations - but above all their psychology. Kapuscinski comes across as an astute and empathetic social observer who presents the complexities of modern Africa, a world perhaps 1/4 of the present century and 3/4 of the primordial heritage of the thousands of generations leading back through time.

From Ryszard's first hand accounts there is clearly no lack of entrepreneurliasm and of ambition throughout the diverse societies o...more

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Jul 27, 2010 Rowland Bismark rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

For four decades Polish war correspondent, Kapuscinski, traveled through Africa whenever he could, documenting the people and places in the midst of siege, turning over the rocks to show his fortunate readers the truth of what lies beneath. I learned more about Africa reading this one small book than half a century of living had taught me prior. The mind of the African does not lend itself to self-criticism. This, according to Kapuscinski, is the challenge of the future for this enormous and dis...more

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Apr 23, 2010 Steve rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: africa

I have just added a new favorite author, Ryszard Kapuscinski. His work is completely amazing.

Kapuscinski was a Polish journalist who arrived in Ghana in 1957 as the first African correspondent of Poland's state newspaper. The career which would follow constituted of almost 50 years of covering the Dark Continent. Kapuscinski is a not just a journalist, an explorer or cultural scientist. He is an artist of words. His reporting is the height of what the writer and journalist can hope to achieve w...more

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Mar 07, 2010 Wolfram rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A fantastic introduction to this mysterious continent. The experiences of over 40 years travelling in and reporting from Africa are beautifully condensed in this small book. Here is a long quote:

"The European and the African have an entirely different concept of time. In the European worldview, time exists outside man, exists objectively, and has measurable and linear characteristics. According to Newton, time is absolute: “Absolute, true, mathematical time of itself and from its own nature, it...more A fantastic introduction to this mysterious continent. The experiences of over 40 years travelling in and reporting from Africa are beautifully condensed in this small book. Here is a long quote:

"The European and the African have an entirely different concept of time. In the European worldview, time exists outside man, exists objectively, and has measurable and linear characteristics. According to Newton, time is absolute: “Absolute, true, mathematical time of itself and from its own nature, it flows equably and without relation to anything external.” The European feels himself to be time's slave, dependent on it, subject to it. To exist and function, he must observe its ironclad, inviolate laws, its inflexible principles and rules. He must heed deadlines, dates, days, and hours. He moves within the rigors of time and cannot exist outside them. They impose upon him their requirements and quotas. An unresolvable conflict exists between man and time, one that always ends with man's defeat – time annilhates him.

Africans apprehend time differently. For them, it is a much looser concept, more open, elastic, subjective. It is man who influences time, its shape, course, and rhythm (man acting, of course, with the consent of gods and ancestors). Time is even something that man can create outright, for time is made manifest through events, and whether an event takes place or not depends, after all, on man alone. If two armies do not engage in a battle, then that battle will not occur (in other words, time will not have revealed its presence, will not have come into being).

Time appears as a result of our actions, and vanishes when we neglect or ignore it. It is something that springs to life under our influence, but falls into a state of hibernation, even nonexistence, if we do not direct our energy toward it. It is a subservient, passive essence, and, most importantly, one dependent on man.

The absolute opposite of time as it is understood in the European worldview.

In practical terms, this means that if you go to a village where a meeting is scheduled for the afternoon but find no one at the appointed spot, asking, “When will the meeting take place?” makes no sense. You know the answer: “It will take place when people come."(less)

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Sep 19, 2009 Diane Paoni rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: yes

Recommended to Diane by: recommended in the bk 6 Months in Sudan

The author is a Polish journalist who's spent extensive time in sub-Saharan Africa in the last 40 years. He's covered major events, from the death of colonialism, the death of slavery (1936 in Nigeria - who knew?), to the creation of many, many civil wars. The book's chapters are snipets of longer correspondence about different cultures at different times. He brings to life the landscapes and ordinary people he travels and lives with. He considers "Africa" to be an oversimplification of the larg...more

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Nov 21, 2008 Juan rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Ante un sentimiento de amenaza y miedo invariable, entre la agobiante hambruna y la fulminante sequía, en medio de la lucha irracional y salvaje por el poder en donde la conservación de la vida se convierte en una meta es donde existen personas a las que el resto del mundo se ha empeñado en llamar subdesarrolladas, ignorantes o incultos sin embargo estos son términos que se les maneja en un sentido económico, materialista propio del occidental intolerante reflejo de su concepción limitada del mu...more

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Nov 11, 2011 Sam rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: africa, adventure, biography, eastern-europe, essays, non-fiction, owned, travel, war

I love the Penguin Celebrations series. With this latest acquisition, I now have sixteen out of thirty-six, which is not bad, and every single one I have read has been enjoyable. This one is from the travel and adventure range and is a series of dispatches from Africa written by the Polish journalist Ryszard Kapuscinski. Arriving in Ghana in 1957, when many African countries were just throwing off the shackles of colonialism, his reports cover a range of countries in sub-Saharan Africa from the...more I love the Penguin Celebrations series. With this latest acquisition, I now have sixteen out of thirty-six, which is not bad, and every single one I have read has been enjoyable. This one is from the travel and adventure range and is a series of dispatches from Africa written by the Polish journalist Ryszard Kapuscinski. Arriving in Ghana in 1957, when many African countries were just throwing off the shackles of colonialism, his reports cover a range of countries in sub-Saharan Africa from the 1950s to the 1990s and is as much of a love letter to Africa and it's people as it is a travel journal.

Kapuscinski has the good fortune to often be in the right place at the right time. He witnesses a coup in Zanzibar, the action of child soldiers in Liberia, another coup in Nigeria, meets key players such as Mugabe and generally witnesses history in the making. His constant quest to experience the 'real' Africa and not remain sheltered in European areas makes for some dangerous episodes too; at times you feel as though you could be reading the plot for the next Indiana Jones film. Kapuscinki also catches a nasty bout of malaria and when he refuses to go back to Europe, he contracts TB, which almost kills him. He drives head first through a herd of buffalo on the Serengeti plains, gets caught in a monsoon storm whilst trying to escape in a small boat off the coast of Zanzibar and becomes delirious with thirst when his truck breaks down in the middle of the Sahara desert.

These adventures add a bit of spice to his writing and keep the pace brisk. What I liked most about this book was the balance between factual reporting and personal impressions. Kapuscinski does give you the background on the political situations of each country, but he also writes about what it is like to be there in the blinding heat and describes as best he can his experiences with the local people and wildlife. This meant it wasn't unbiased reporting, but I very much enjoyed the personal touch as it gave me more of a sense of what Africa is like.

The writing itself was gorgeous too, and the love Kapuscinski felt for Africa came across in every sentence. I'm going to end this review with my favourite quote;
"More than anything, one is struck by the light. Light everywhere. Brightness everywhere. Everywhere, the sun." (less)

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Feb 15, 2012 Gillian rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012, travel, non-fiction

Brilliant! If you want a clear-eyed yet compassionate look at Africa, and told not from the glossy safari travelogue perspective, then Kapuściński is your author. He lived an extraordinary life as Polish foreign correspondent all over the developing world (he died five years ago, in his 70s), and this book is a collection of glimpses into various countries in Africa. With 50-plus countries and thousands of nationalities, tribes and tongues, it really is just a glimpse. However, as a privileged r...more

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Jan 08, 2013 A. rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: polacos

Ryszard Kapuściński periodista polaco, testigo fiel de revoluciones, hambrunas, miseria y terca esperanza escribió que "éste continente es todo un océano, un planeta aparte, todo un cosmos heterogéneo y de una riqueza extraordinaria. Sólo por convención reduccionista, por comodidad, decimos "África". En realidad, salvo por el nombre geográfico, África no existe"
Justamente ésa es la conclusión a la que uno llega al dejarse atrapar por estos relatos, maravillosamente escritos, tan valiosos desde...more

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Dec 12, 2011 Mark rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: anyone and everyone

Recommended to Mark by: my brother Jeremy

Shelves: epistolary, travelogue, war-works, the-natural-world, history, autobiography-biography, favorites

A book like this would normally I would have imagined taken me very little time to read because I would devour it in a binge of gulpings and swallowings but it took me a good deal longer. In part, for the simple reason that I was taken up with other things and couldn't find the freedom to absorb myself in his world as I would have liked but also for the equally simple but at the same time profound reason that there was just too much to take in.

I listed it as epistolary and though it is not offic...more A book like this would normally I would have imagined taken me very little time to read because I would devour it in a binge of gulpings and swallowings but it took me a good deal longer. In part, for the simple reason that I was taken up with other things and couldn't find the freedom to absorb myself in his world as I would have liked but also for the equally simple but at the same time profound reason that there was just too much to take in.

I listed it as epistolary and though it is not officially so it reads like a series of letters across a long career working in the continent of Africa as it breaks free of colonialism and steps onwards into independence. Sometimes this takes him on a positive journey but far too often it brings him into contact with the dark horror or vicious oppression and poverty. Years ago i read Thomas Eidson's novel ' St Agnes' stand' in which a group of nuns are cornered in the desert of the US and as I read it my throat experienced the parched land in which they were caughtand i swear I felt thirsty. As I read Kapuscinski's accounts of poverty and degradation and the destruction of hope and joy I swear I felt just a little of that pain and sadness. He is masterful at making you see, of making you hear and smell and notice and this is a great grace. Salman Rushdie talks somewhere about novels enabling us to meet and hear and encounter people from whom we would normally flee, this journalist does exactly the same thing.

Across this book you journey through about 50 years and he touches down in various places and times. Tyrants and despots crowd around for your attention alongside the poor and downtrodden. The eternal optimist in his writing argues back and forth with the realist and some lovely achingly beautiful images come about. He writes of political change and geographical oddities, he writes of celebration and colour and welcome and then flips the coin and there is hatred and fear and isolation but through it all is this really wonderful sense of his real love for the African peoples. He does not shy away from the brutality and stupidity of things that have happened; he drives home the guilt and irresponsibilty of the previous colonial powers whilst not ignoring the obvious culpability of the fools and, much worse, the thieves and thugs so often in power now but over-riding it all his eternal optimist seems to gain the upper hand.

He writes fondly of the odd quirks and traditions and emphasizes the importance of cultures listening and learning and therefore beginning to understand each other even if not agreeing. I suppose, in many ways, this is an imprtant service his writing might achieve. He sometimes writes with his tongue firmly in his cheek and I found this an endearing breather after the sadness and bleakness of some of what he had to relate. Speaking of a growing relationship with his driver, Omenka, with whom he worked he writes

:On the day we first met, I gave him nothing as we parted. He walked away without so much as a good bye. I dislike cold, formal relations between people and I felt bad. So the next time I gave him 50 naira (the local currency). He said goodbye and smiled.........'

this, Kapuscinski relates, cheered him and so he gradually increased the amounts he gave to the driver and after each increase the man's response to him also deepened until

'without stretching this story out any longer, suffice it to say that I ended up showering him with so many naira that we were simply unable to part. Omenka's voice was always trembling with emotion, and with tears in his eyes he would swear his everlasting devotion and fidelity '

This humour might seem when taken out of context to be a belitling or criticizing of the driver but within the framework of Kapuscinski's admiration for Africa and its peoples it does not read like that. I chose the example purely cos it made me smile and was a wonderful example of his ability to create in such a way that you met the people of whom he was speaking.

There are so many lovely passages that i could just lift sentences and phrases from almost every chapter but that would be to fragment what is a really lovely creation, someone described it as a mosaic and that is a great image. For him Africa is ever alert to its chance for change and growth and so maybe the very last paragraph is a wonderful clarion call of hope and a good quotation on which to finish

'Everyone walked in silence to their huts, and the boys snuffed out the lights on the tables. It was still night, but Africa's most dazzling moment was approaching - the break of day '(less)

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Jul 21, 2012 Louise rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: nigeria, rwanda, ghana, africa, zanzibar, ethopia

I've read Theroux and Naipaul on Africa and the relatively unknown Ryszard Kapuscinski is every bit as good, and in some ways better.

As a correspondent for a Polish news organization that can't afford a correspondent, Kapuscinski brings a different perspective to his travels. While Theroux visits his old college pals, Kapuscinski lives and travels with the masses. In Africa, this puts him in situations where he can die of dehydration, thuggery, a stampede, TB or a malarial sweat.

The the brief hi...more

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Jul 31, 2012 Sven Nomadsson rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: history, non-fiction, travel

It’s rare to find a book that’s so encompassing and yet categorical in its descriptions of a place. Africa being such a massive continent is not one that fits easily into any particular pigeon-hole, the boxes in which we place it are so general the they have little meaning, but Kapuściński goes beyond any of that.

Throughout his years, decades actually, as a foreign correspondent for the Polish Press Agency, in Africa Kapuściński never comes across as a man with preconceived notions about a parti...more It’s rare to find a book that’s so encompassing and yet categorical in its descriptions of a place. Africa being such a massive continent is not one that fits easily into any particular pigeon-hole, the boxes in which we place it are so general the they have little meaning, but Kapuściński goes beyond any of that.

Throughout his years, decades actually, as a foreign correspondent for the Polish Press Agency, in Africa Kapuściński never comes across as a man with preconceived notions about a particular people or place. To it all he enters wide-eyed and understanding – maybe all the more so because he is Polish and much of his own people’s history has been one of occupation and usurping by others. His comment alone, about how the colonial period wasn’t the placement of artificial lines on Africa but an attempt at unifying some 5000 different cultures down to 50+ states, shows how astute his observations can be.

Asides from the fact that Kapuściński transverses the entire continent, though with little in the way of Southern Africa being mentioned (I believe he has another book that covers Angola), it’s his awareness of both history and the realities of modern life that make his reporting such a good read. He doesn’t sway from his own insistence in being there to document and tell a story – whether it’s the revolution on Zanzibar or simply a wish to visit Timbuktu, he gets there by whatever means and more often than not he’s traveling like the locals.

Kapuściński suffers to, but it’s always in context. If he’s got malaria he goes into great details about its effects and how Africans must deal with it, the impacts it has on their lives, and even its historical effects. A whole in the road – well those who live there make a living from it rather than repairing it, and in telling such a story he never degrades those who participate in it but imparts the philosophy behind such methods. It makes for even a simply train journey from Dakar, Senegal to Bamako, Mali not just a pleasure but one in which, as the reader, we are fully there, intent on taking in every aspect of the trip as if we were sitting beside Kapuściński himself.

Kapuściński’s style is something of interest and I wonder at the translation, for he likes to reiterate things in a single sentence. He adds to it all a drum beat emphasis, boom, boom, boom to his words and the roll off the page offering even the most capricious reader a chance at understanding life in Africa. In many ways it’s a shame that this book actually comes to an end, as given his time in Africa, I would expect that Kapuściński has so much more to say. It’s those areas where things shift, and they constantly shift, that make for the most interesting developments and thus reads – be it about the Taureg, Eritrea or Rwanda – the places where nothing is wholly defined or confined to one thing or person is what makes Africa, Africa. Kapuściński understands that and gets readers to.

*Note: Copied from my blog at: http://worldwritsmall.wordpress.com (less)

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Dec 15, 2011 Karen Triggs rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: africa, postcolonial, non-fiction

Ryszard Kapuscinski is as much a philosopher and a poet as a foreign correspondent. This marvellous book about postcolonial Africa is both a brightly lit road movie and an engaging narrative history.

There is no aircon in Kapuscinski's Africa - it's damn hot on every page. He bakes, burns and sizzles his way through Ghana, Nigeria, Liberia, Uganda, Tanzania, Zanzibar, Rwanda, Eritrea and Ethiopia.

He meets coup leaders and village chiefs, market traders and truck drivers, child soldiers and miss...more

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Nov 07, 2009 David rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book captures perfectly the life of Africa and Africans as I have experienced it - one page can be hilarious and the next deeply disturbing. Especially in the way he describes how African thought processes differ from Europeans, the author really helps you to understand why things are the way they are in Africa, and why applying European answers to African problems doesn't always work. And despite all the development that has taken place in Africa, some of his stories from 50 years ago coul...more

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Nov 21, 2011 Edgar Mora-Reyes rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Personas con criterio, antropólogos, filósofos, historiadores, padres de familia

Recommended to Edgar by: Filósofos

Ébano, nos transporta a un mundo totalmente desconocido, fue descubierto y colonizado, pero dudo mucho que haya sido entendido. El autor, grande entre los periodistas de la historia, nos regala una obra con un lenguaje descriptivo fino, nos ayuda a sumergirnos entre la brutalidad cultural Europea, la falta de un lenguaje que nos haga comprender en su totalidad a Africa y unas anécdotas que rayarían en la locura de no haber sido realizadas por un periodista que busca la realidad.
Sin ninguna manip...more

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Sep 03, 2007 Kimberly rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Though I enjoy travel journals of Africa, I found this book to be way overgeneralized and romantic. Yes, he has seen a great deal of Africa, but why must authors continue to try and describe such a diverse continent as a whole in generalities? I suppose this criticism only applies to the opening and concluding portions, but the last chapter was particularly bad.

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May 23, 2012 Diane rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Diane by: Bob B

Shelves: africa-africans-african-americans

Ryszard Kapuscinski was a Polish journalist (he died in 2007) who reported from Africa for many years. He originally covered the African independence movement, beginning with Ghanaian independence in 1957. He is very well known as a journalist, author, poet, and photographer with a long Wikipedia entry. My parochialism is again evident: I had never heard of him before reading “The Shadow of the Sun.” Although originally seen as a journalist, he apparently was known for publishing his reports in...more Ryszard Kapuscinski was a Polish journalist (he died in 2007) who reported from Africa for many years. He originally covered the African independence movement, beginning with Ghanaian independence in 1957. He is very well known as a journalist, author, poet, and photographer with a long Wikipedia entry. My parochialism is again evident: I had never heard of him before reading “The Shadow of the Sun.” Although originally seen as a journalist, he apparently was known for publishing his reports in book form. This book is a series of short pieces on his experiences in Africa, very loosely associated with independence movements.

Ryszard says that he grew up in poverty, with hunger, and without shoes, and that he identified with the African people who lived in these same circumstances. He also seems to have identified with the helplessness of people who live under politicians who want power and wealth. He describes his sense that he grew up in a colonialized country, but that in Africa he just seen – can only be seen - as white, not as poor, or from a downtrodden country.

My favorite piece in the book was “My Alleyway, 1967.” He describes renting an apartment in a poor part of Lagos. His apartment is constantly broken into and at first this irritates him. He begins to see how much he has, how little others have and how insignificant his small losses are next to the loss of others. He then meets Suleiman who tells him that theft is method of lessening inequality and that it can even be seen as a friendly gesture, letting him know that he is useful and therefore accepted because he allows himself to be robbed and has never reported it to the police. Suleiman has him buy some chicken feathers in the market and hangs them in the doorway. There are no more break-ins. Like many of Ryszard’s pieces, this one speaks to the difference in cultures, the difficulty, - maybe the impossibility - of understanding each other, but also of the possibility of at least acknowledging each other and accepting - even ever so little - the differences. It reminds me of the essence of my experiences in Malawi.

My three-week experience working in Malawi was life changing – I truly became aware of what I can only call “the other” and will forever feel humility for my assumptions about the scope of what can exist in the world. I loved Malawi and the people I met there and was/am in awe of their ability to keep going, to enjoy life, to be so alive. Ryszard captures much of this feeling.

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Jan 06, 2012 Bettie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Bettie by: spotted on Mark's profile

Shelves: african-continent, essays, one-penny-wonder, nonfiction, war, colonial-overlords, winter-20112012, travel, afr-ghana, published-1998, history, lifestyles-deathstyles, paper-read, translation, afr-tanzania, afr-uganda, afr-kenya, afr-mauritania, afr-ethiopia, afr-nigeria, afr-rwanda, afr-drcongo, witches-and-wizards, afr-somalia, afr-senegal, afr-liberia, afr-cameroon, afr-mali, afr-eritrea, teh-brillianz, afr-niger

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Jul 23, 2012 Siobhan Burns rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Brilliant, absolutely brilliant. I read these essays about Africa while I was traveling there, and Kapuscinski's insights and perspective made my experience richer and more valuable. He spent a lot of time in Africa during the period when many colonies were gaining their independence, and then during many of the uprisings and civil wars that, in some countries, followed. He is clear-eyed in his love for Africa, bringing his heart into the stories without taking the focus away from the land and i...more

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About Ryszard Kapuściński

Ryszard Kapuściński debuted as a poet in Dziś i jutro at the age of 17 and has been a journalist, writer, and publicist. In 1964 he was appointed to the Polish Press Agency and began traveling around the developing world and reporting on wars, coups and revolutions in Asia, the Americas, and Europe; he lived through twenty-seven revolutions and coups, was jailed forty times, and survived four deat...more

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“The continent is too large to describe. It is a veritable ocean, a separate planet, a varied, immensely rich cosmos. Only with the greatest simplification, for the sake of convenience, can we say 'Africa'. In reality, except as a geographical appellation, Africa does not exist.” — 7 people liked it

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