The Shadow of the Sun

Polish writer and foreign correspondent Ryszard Kapuscinski may be in the twilight of a golden career spanning more than 40 years but The Shadow of the Sun, an alternative record of his experiences of Africa and its stupefying white heat, is perhaps his finest hour. This for a writer who, to echo the sentiments of Michael Ignatieff, has turned reportage into literature. Drawn to the Developing World through an impoverished wartime upbringing, Kapuscinski arrived in Ghana in 1957 and was on hand to witness the tumultuous years in which colonial Africa was dismantled, resulting in born-again countries ripe for ransacking by despots. From the glare of Accra airport which greets him on first arrival, to the Tanzanian night of the final pages, he crosses savannah, desert and city by foot, road and train, searching out the two most important, yet inconstant commodities on the continent: shade and water. Threatened by an Egyptian cobra, cursed with cerebral malaria and tuberculosis, plagued by black cockroaches the size of small turtles, Kapuscinski intermingles the immediate and the reflective in 29 satisfyingly fragmented vignettes, encompassing historical narratives and personal experience across a host of countries, including Ethiopia, Uganda, Nigeria, Sudan and Liberia.

While acknowledging European colonial culpability, he refuses to rinse his words in guilt. The Shadow of the Sun is reminiscent of Gianni Celati's Adventures in Africa, employing similarly symphonic atmospherics that can bear poetic witness to both the tragic history of Rwanda and the Ngubi beetle, which toils in the desert to produce the sweat it drinks to survive. 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 Kapuscinski, the author of Shah of Shahs describes is not Africa, which he claims does not exist except geographically but 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. The first in a projected trilogy pulling together Africa, Central America and Asia, The Shadow of the Sun is an exceptional and humbling work of imagination and experience by a writer intent on liberating truths from fact. --David Vincent

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Ali Mazrui - Rated
i absolutely loved the book. though there was one hitch:

in the book, Ryzard refers to the intellectual 'Ali Mazrui' as 'Ugandan'. He is not Ugandan. He is Kenyan. To be specific from the Coastal Province of Kenya. I say this because:
1. i'm kenyan
2. i'm from the coast of kenya
... and more importantly
3. i am a distant relative of Ali Mazrui.

If the error can be corrected it would be great!

An Exerllent resource - Rated
Once in a while you come across a book both entertaining and loaded with useful information. Shadow of the Sun is one them - I found the author's interspersing of narrative with historical commentary very useful in understanding the present circumstances of many of the places he visited - it puts everything into context. The author has done an excellent and accessible account of his African experiences.

Africa is a big and complex continent as the author even admits and warns of failure at any generalization attempts. He however falls into this trap in some instances. I found some of his attempts at accounting the 'metaphysical African' completely unrecognizable as an African. For example in one of the chapters, he found himself in a Nigerian church in the Delta and goes on to explore African religions. He concludes that they incompatible with Christianity. He observed that Africans do not feel guilt and that to them, as long as a crime or an evil deed is undiscovered, it remains an innocent/normal action. I found that to be completely untrue. How else can one explain the forgiveness of bad thoughts in the practice of the traditional African religions I am aware, that includes am sure, the area of Nigeria he found himself. There are a few similar instances in the book, but overall, this author has an extraordinary interaction with Africans in a way most Europeans don't. He is an excellent observer and very detail in his accounts.

This is a great read and I am looking forward to reading more of his books

Sobering travel book - an antidote to brochure-style writing - Rated
Great book by a great writer. Curiously I read this at the same time as Braudel, and wondered a lot about how Africa might have developed differently if it hadn't been in the shadow of Europe. Would it have had its own industrial revolution? No answers here, but lots of food for thought.

Best travel book I have ever read - Rated
This is just how all travel books should be written!

Superb. He had the guts and insight to travel to a continent which was about to witness the end of European colonianism, and gives an insight into an Africa that many would not recognise today.

The beautiful thing about this book is that he lives amongst the people whom he so vividly describes and thus gives a telling insight about the places and peoples he visits. His attention to the smallest details marks him out as being a very special writer. He makes the reader feel as though he too just travelled with him, which is not always the case. He observes customs and explains why Africans and Europeans often seem to misunderstand one another - he is able to explain local customs only because he stayed in the right places and met the right people, so is in a position to make observations which most visitors or "tourists" would be blisfully unaware of.

Highly recommended reading.

Feel the heat - Rated
Ryszard brings together a wealth of 1st hand African experience in this surprisingly long and rich paperback. Stories that will bring home to anyone reading the struggle for survival for the average human living in Africa. Some truly amazing tales including the fight to kill a cobra lurking under the bed, the arab salt traders bartering with people they never get closer than half a day's travel to. The reliance on witchcraft to cure ills and battle with malaria made me feel very spoilt and lucky living here with all that services can provide. I have never been to these countries but feel now that I know them quite well and would love to visit myself.