<![CDATA[The Shadow of the Sun]]>

false <![CDATA[The Shadow of the Sun]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1166028067m/9541.jpg 9541 20 When Africa makes international news, it is usually because war has broken out or some bizarre natural disaster has taken a large number of lives. Westerners are appallingly ignorant of Africa otherwise, a condition that the great Polish journalist and writer Ryszard Kapuciñski helps remedy with this book based on observations gathered over more than four decades.<p> Kapuciñski first went to Africa in 1957, a time pregnant with possibilities as one country after another declared independence from the European colonial powers. Those powers, he writes, had "crammed the approximately ten thousand kingdoms, federations, and stateless but independent tribal associations that existed on this continent in the middle of the nineteenth century within the borders of barely forty colonies." When independence came, old interethnic rivalries, long suppressed, bubbled up to the surface, and the continent was consumed in little wars of obscure origin, from caste-based massacres in Rwanda and ideological conflicts in Ethiopia to hit-and-run skirmishes among Tuaregs and Bantus on the edge of the Sahara. With independence, too, came the warlords, whose power across the continent derives from the control of food, water, and other life-and-death resources, and whose struggles among one another fuel the continent's seemingly endless civil wars. When the warlords "decide that everything worthy of plunder has been extracted," Kapuciñski writes, wearily, they call a peace conference and are rewarded with credits and loans from the First World, which makes them richer and more powerful than ever, "because you can get significantly more from the World Bank than from your own starving kinsmen."<p> Constantly surprising and eye-opening, Kapuciñski's book teaches us much about contemporary events and recent history in Africa. It is also further evidence for why he is considered to be one of the best journalists at work today. <I>--Gregory McNamee</I> 3573 book 1998 Heban total:693|5:354|4:253|3:70|2:15|1:1| 693 3023 1111 134 5 2 false false Mon Dec 29 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Mon Dec 22 09:59:09 -0800 2008 Wed Dec 31 20:19:22 -0800 2008 more...]]> 5 1 false false Mon Dec 15 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sun Dec 14 21:26:29 -0800 2008 Mon Dec 15 19:21:07 -0800 2008 1 more...]]> 5 1 false false Fri Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Sep 01 14:56:03 -0700 2008 Mon Sep 01 15:03:50 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sat Mar 14 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Mar 14 10:03:06 -0700 2009 Sat Mar 14 10:43:32 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Wed Jan 07 17:47:27 -0800 2009 Wed Jan 07 17:55:32 -0800 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Sat Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Sep 19 10:51:30 -0700 2009 Sat Sep 19 11:09:10 -0700 2009 1 more...]]> 5 0 false false Fri Nov 21 14:27:00 -0800 2008 Fri Nov 21 14:34:09 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Nov 04 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Mon Oct 26 10:03:44 -0700 2009 Sat Nov 07 06:36:47 -0800 2009 more...]]> 5 1 false false Sat Aug 30 04:40:33 -0700 2008 Sat Aug 30 04:41:44 -0700 2008 more...]]> 2 2 false false Thu Jun 04 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed May 13 12:10:00 -0700 2009 Fri Jun 05 09:07:05 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Oct 25 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Oct 12 05:25:45 -0700 2009 Mon Oct 26 05:33:36 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 1 false false Sat Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2005 Wed Nov 28 09:20:39 -0800 2007 Wed Nov 28 09:20:39 -0800 2007 5 0 false false Sun Aug 10 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Fri Mar 13 16:50:58 -0700 2009 Fri Jul 17 15:54:07 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Aug 10 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sun Jul 27 20:56:23 -0700 2008 Sun Aug 10 14:30:39 -0700 2008
Despite the author's humility and humanity (displayed by his generosity, insistence upon living with the locals, ...more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Apr 23 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Thu Apr 24 10:57:29 -0700 2008 Thu Apr 24 10:59:18 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 0 false false Fri Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Mar 31 06:09:51 -0700 2008 Mon Mar 31 06:32:11 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 0 true false Wed Apr 16 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Thu Jan 03 10:03:13 -0800 2008 Wed Apr 16 14:52:24 -0700 2008 more...]]> 3 1 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Wed Nov 14 07:08:08 -0800 2007 Sun Dec 30 10:29:06 -0800 2007 http://www.richardwebster.net/johnryle.h...

Before starting this book, I'd already read John Ryle's review in the Times Literary Supplement (link above). The review focused on Shadow of the Sun, but also included a discussion of The Emperor. Ryle is an Africa specialist, and he cataloged a...more...]]> 5 0 false false Sun Sep 28 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Fri Aug 08 21:30:26 -0700 2008 Sun Sep 28 13:30:09 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 0 false false Mon Oct 26 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Oct 19 06:13:56 -0700 2009 Mon Oct 26 11:24:22 -0700 2009 more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=9541