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January 6, 2004
The Shadow of the Sun - Ryszard Kapuscinski
My father first introduced me to the works of Ryszard Kapuscinski through The Emperor, Kapuscinski's unnerving examination of Emperor Haile Selassie's rule in Ethiopia told through the eyes of former members of Selassie's court. With The Shadow of the Sun, Kapuscinski spreads his journalist reach throughout the continent of Africa revealing its mosaic of cultures, histories, tribal worldviews and indomitable geography. Kapuscinski is Poland's most renowned journalist. First arriving in Africa in 1957, he lived there off and on for 40 years observing countless coups and managing to contract malaria as well as tuberculosis. Unlike most European visitors who kept to the safe, wealthy areas, Kapuscinski wanted to know how everyday people - tradesmen, bus drivers, medical aides - lived. In this book Kapuscinski describes the centuries old conflict between the Hutus and the Tutsis that resulted in the extraordinary genocide the world observed in the 90s. He writes of the fundamental differences in how people of different African tribes view themselves in relation to the rest of the world, and how these differences often lead to tragedy incomprehensible to the Western mind. Also revealing was the history of the former American slaves who founded Liberia in the early 1800s only to enslave the surrounding local population for the next 100 years.
The Shadow of the Sun is about power and politics, deprivation and survival, and unrelenting inhospitable climates. Reading this book reminds me of how naïve we can be, expecting the success of Western democracy, hoisted upon tribal cultures with age-old hatreds and fundamentally different worldviews. What occurs so often is the alpha-male struggle for power, ultimately resulting in destroyed societies and millions of refugees depending daily on foreign aid in order to survive. What Kapuscinski points out is that Africa is a collection of thousands of mini kingdoms, upon which arbitrary borders were placed with the colonialization by Europeans in the 1800s. The conflicts between these tribes have never gone away, but serve to fuel horrendous internecine wars.
Kapuscinski writes beautifully, almost poetically about his sobering observations. This is not an academic text, nor does Kapuscinski have a political agenda. My father points out, “this is not the National Geographic version of the world.” Kapuscinski’s writing is beautiful, but his subject matter is not. Like a thousand Israel-Palestine conflicts, this story has no clear solution. Which is exactly why Africa must be so frustrating to the West. We want to improve, develop, progress. There, only the European educated power elite want that. The people simply want food in their bellies, land for farming or cattle, and complete annihilation of their enemies.
Links:
An Interview with Ryszard Kapuscinski: Writing About Suffering
Shah of Shahs
Imperium
Posted by elise at 10:13 PM
to History, Non-fiction
