Ryszard Kapuściński (1932–2007)

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 show more disastro Africa. show less

The marriage of a persistent stream of lucid writing with flashes of genuine insight makes Ryszard Kapuściński's The Shadow of the Sun a treat, and one of the more original travel books I have read. Many travel books – particularly those about Africa – can't resist a sort of fawning orientalism, a fetishization of the 'dark continent' that presents it either as a hellish wasteland of rape and war or a vibrant, drum-playing kumbaya that puts the stolid West to shame. Perhaps show more Kapuściński is too worldly-wise, or too good a writer for untruths to survive in his prose, but The Shadow of the Sun manages to resist the allure of these fetishes and is bracingly realistic about Africa.

Kapuściński maintains a good balance between the two extremes. He can wax lyrical about the continent's treasures, but doesn't shy away from its poisons either; nowhere is this better shown than in the chapter on Rwanda (pp165-82), which remarks upon the beauty of the Rwandan mountains (pg. 170) but also gives an excellent summary of the tribal animosities that led to the appalling Rwandan genocide. And while Kapuściński is willing to discuss the very real effects of colonialism on the continent, he does not fall into the self-hating Western panacea of blaming all of Africa's problems on the white man's predation. The freed African-American slaves who returned to found Liberia established a caste system which enslaved the natives. The mountainous Rwanda, he notes, was largely untouched by the 18th- and 19th-century slave trade which impacted the plains societies; the murderous rancour between Hutu and Tutsi was something they generated themselves.

Kapuściński eulogises the immediate colours of the African dawn, but is also unperturbed about documenting some of the societies' self-defeating behaviours – for example, the unpaid airport staff who make their money from corruption, and so steal Kapuściński's travel documents upon arrival so he must buy them back from them (pg. 236). Another good example of this is the following observation: "If a tree trunk falls across the road, it will not be removed; people will go around it, onto the adjoining field, and eventually beat out a new road" (pg. 259). Endurance and a stoical determination, but also a short-termism that ensures the future will ultimately have the same unresolved problems as the present.

For all the criticism of Kapuściński that he may have invented or embellished certain stories, on a more fundamental level of writing he refuses to editorialise. The willingness to people his book with the idle "gapers of the world" (pg. 138) as well as with industrious and philosophical Africans gives you a sense of Africa that, you suspect, is a closer approximation of the truth. In one of his most astute observations in the book, he notes that when cultures meet it is not always in the best of circumstances, and "first contacts… were most frequently carried out by the worst sorts of people: robbers, soldiers of fortune, adventurers, criminals, slave traders". Such encounters set the tone, and naturally "respect for other cultures, a desire to learn about them, to find a common language, were the furthest things from the minds of such folk" (pg. 321). Kapuściński laments that this "cultural monopoly of crude know-nothings" (pg. 322) has had such a deep and destructive impact on our world but, in spending his own thoughtful words on the matter in The Shadow of the Sun, he has done what he can to try to break that monopoly. show less

"Herodotus is by turns surprised, astounded, delighted, terrified by things. To some he simply gives no credence, knowing how easily people can be carried away by fantasy."(p 182)

This was my introduction to the world of Ryszard Kapuscinski. And what an introduction. I was impressed and intrigued with his fine writing style and the way that he was able to interpolate his companion, The Histories of Herodotus, with his youthful travels in India, China, and beyond. Having read Herodotus' work show more fairly recently this was even more a delight as I marveled at the interpretations Kapuscinski shares with the reader as he travels the world. He comes full circle back to the Mediterranean Sea that was central to Herodotus and the Greeks. Ending with a visit to Halicarnassus where Herodotus was born he bridges the time that has passed since that day with a meditation on the meaning of history. I subsequently read his The Shadow of the Sun and look forward to other of Kapuscinski's books show less

Dispatches from Africa spanning the decades from the independence movement to the Rwandan genocide. What makes Kapuscinski’s work so compelling is his willingness to break off, to leave a scene or a story just as it’s getting started, letting the reader’s imagination take over based on the cues and clues he’s provided. His voice is a economical and drily comical, with echoes of Sebald and (maybe just me) Werner Herzog.

The pieces in this collection range from single-scenes, show more vignettes, arrivals or departures in the desert, the slum, the savanna, to mini-essays like his unputdownable biography of Idi Amin. He never tries to downplay his outsider status, but he also understands that if it’s unbearably hot for him, it’s the same for the locals (in fact he ascribes many of the continent’s characteristics and customs to the largely inimical climate).

There’s stuff here on Sudan, Nigeria, Mali, Ghana, Niger, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Uganda, Rwanda, Zambia, Zanzibar, and many more places in passing. The guy was just a born journalist. show less