Ryszard Kapuscinski was a respected Polish
journalist and traveller. At
one time I owned three
of his books:
Imperium (1994)
- the USSR
The Shadow of the Sun (2001)
-Africa
Travels with Herodotus (2004)
- matches
his own travels with those of Herodotus
Unfortunately in downsizing
for a move to a smaller place, I let go of the last two. Recently I
regretted this and had
to borrow them from the
library. In doing so I noticed that neither book had a table of
contents, and they're organized in a way that made it difficult to
track down the information I wanted, so
for my own use I put together a rough version for each. What follow is what I have for The Shadow of the Sun.
The front cover deserves
comment. The head of the man in the photo is
out of sight because he is bent over paddling. (What looks like his head is actually a hand.) Beyond him on shore is
a camel, almost in the position where his head would be. My
interpretation of this odd picture is that it's a comment on how difficult it is to get
an accurate picture of that vast continent. The author says in an
untitled preface:
I lived in Africa for several
years. I first went there in 1957. Then, over the next 40 years, I
returned whenever the opportunity arose. I traveled extensively,
avoiding official routes, palaces, important personages, and
high-level politics. Instead, I opted to hitch rides on passing
trucks, wander with nomads through the desert, be the guest of
peasants of the tropical savannah. Their life is endless toil, a
torment they endure with astonishing patience and good humour.
This is therefore not a book
about Africa, but rather about some people from there--encounters
with them, and time spent together. 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.
(Page numbers in brackets are from the hardcover edition.)
Ghana
The Beginning: Collision, Ghana, 1958 (3) - arrival in Accra, Nkrumah, politics
The Road to Kumasi (14) - travelling by bus in Africa
The Structure of the Clan (24) - colonialism, importance of greetings, African relationships
East Africa
I, a White Man (35) - Dar es Salaam
The Cobra's Heart (44) - an Egyptian cobra, arrival in Uganda
Inside the Mountain of Ice (53) - Kampala, cerebral malaria, lions & elephants
Dr. Doyle (62) - living in Dar es Salaam
Zanzibar (71) - turmoil in Zanzibar, Abeid Karuma, John Okello, influence of slavery
Nigeria
Anatomy of a Coup d'Etat (98) - 1966, Lagos
My Alleyway, 1967 - life in Lagos, robberies
Mauretania
Salim (118) - a breakdown in the desert
Ethiopia
Lalibela, 1975 (127) - travel by road
Uganda
Amin (137) - the rise of Amin
The Ambush (147) - child soldiers, Soroti, the Karamajong
There Shall Be a Holiday (156) - African roads, life in a village
Rwanda
A Lecture on Rwanda (165) - an account of the Tutsi-Hutu conflict
Uganda
The Black Crystals of the Night (183) - why drivers avoid travelling at night
Sudan
These People, Where Are They? (192) - war in Sudan
Somalia
The Well (202) - "the Somali is born somewhere on the road"
Senegal
A Day in the Village of Abdallah Wallo (211) - "the village was like a submarine at the bottom of the ocean"
Ethiopia
Rising in Darkness (219) - Addis Ababa
Liberia
The Cooling Hell (233) - life in Monrovia, a brief account of the country's gruesome history
Cameroon
The Lazy River (261) - digging for gold in the Ngabadi River
Senegal
Madame Duif Is Coming Home (270) - Dakar and the changing nature of cities
Mali
Salt and Gold (280) - from Bamako to Timbukti, the Tuareg
Nigeria
Behold, the Lord Rideth on a Swift Cloud (289) - a temple in Port Harcourt
The Hole in Onitsha (298) - the largest market in Africa
Eritrea
Eritrean Scenes (306) - a war-torn state
Ethiopia/Tanzania
In the Shade of a Tree, in Africa (314) - an enormous mango tree in the village of Adofo is a meeting place, an elephant invades a Christmas party in Tanzania
"Nothing creates a bond between people in Africa more quickly than shared laughter."
