Cheap The Shadow of the Sun (Book) (RYSZARD KAPUSCINSKI) Price

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Customer Reviews of The Shadow of the Sun

In Africa droughts and war have depopulated areas of the bush and driven the inhabitants into the cities involving tens of millions of people and creating expressions of hope and gestures of despair.

The relentless burning heat of the sun is indisputable in Africa and makes life hard for the inhabitants and travellers alike. There is sadness and loveliness. There are injustices to the African resulting from the impact of colonialism. There are people fleeing from one another.

What does the African possess? All too often just a handful of rice, an old shirt, a piece of blanket and a clay pot. The author has seen it all, experienced the size of cockroaches, trucks stuck in muddied rivers. He has visited in his travels Zanzibar, Tanzania, Kenya, Ghana, Senegal, Uganda, Mauritania, Ethiopia and a host of other African countries.

Kapuscinski paints pictures of Africa - of its hungry people, of young unemployed children - boys, often drugged, who do battle with guns. There is a cry from the heart for the children of Africa. The author observes each situation that arises. He has adventures in Ethiopia and Nigeria, he visits African markets, enjoys the lushness of the forests of the Cameroon. He observes the warlords in the Sudan, Angola, Somalia and Chad. He spends time with the half a million Tuareg people in the countries of North Africa. He tells of the crises and murders of dictators in Liberia and Monrovia; he relates the misery of Ruanda and Burundi and explains the history of these people.

The book is excellent. Lacking, in my opinion, was a map of the African continent and also a Contents page and an Index at the back.

Beautifully written account of Africa's recent history
I was mesmerized by Kapuscinski's account of his travels through Africa during the last 40 years. For me, someone who has not yet been to Africa and has always been confused by the politics of that continent, this book helped greatly in sorting out the issues, politics and history of that region. Kapuscinski is a brilliant writer and, more importantly, a brilliant story teller. Visions of certain related stories play through my head as if a part of my own distant memories, such as his killing of a snake, his night in a cockroach-infested hotel room in Monrovia, his descriptions of heat and sunlight. My only complaint about this book is that it dwells too much on the negatives of Africa. Surely somewhere there are beautiful cities, or at least sections of cities. Although the history, personalities, and misdeeds came through strongly, the beauty of this continent did not.

Very good - a couple of problems, though
I really enjoyed reading this book, but I was disappointed at the factual errors in explaining the origins of the Hutu and the Tutsi people (which is that these groups were "assigned" by the Dutch depending on how tall a person was and how big their nose was).

Also, I would have appreciated a little bit more cohesiveness. The book jumps around from area to area, but I often wanted to know more or know the background of certain situations.