The Shadow of the Sun

Rysard Kapuscinski

Yet another tardy book review.

The wife and I stumbled across this at Borders back in NY last summer. I had no great expectations for it, thinking it would be a good travelogue written from a slightly different perspective. What I got was a bit more than that.

The author is a foreign correspondent who previously worked for the Polish News. He has quite a bit of experience in Africa and beyond, and was lucky enough to be there at the beginning of the independence era. The book covers the period from independence to modern time, in that way it provided a more human complement to the previous book.

Kapuscinski comes through with some great insights about the differences between Africans and Europeans/ Westerners, without delving into stereotypes. He achieved this by experiencing Africa in a way many would not be willing to. He lived in the African section of cities, eschewing the more comfortable ex-pat areas. This of course led to some difficulties (as when his house was broken into many times in Lagos), but it also provided opportunities to make observations that others--not willing to make that step--could not make.

There are a few passages in the book that I think warrant specific attention. During his travels to Uganda to witness the independence ceremonies, he was struck down with Malaria. The account goes on for several pages, but I'll provide a snippet:

...the attack arrives quickly, sometimes quite abruptly, with few preliminaries. It is a sudden, violent onset of cold. A polar, arctic cold. Someone has taken you, naked, toasted in the hellish heat of the Sahel and the Sahara, and thrown you straight into the icy highlands of Greenland or Spitsbergen, amid the snow, winds, and blizzards.... You begin to tremble, to quake, to thrash about. You immediately recognize, however, that this is not a trembling you are familiar with from earlier experiences--say, when you caught cold one winter in a frost; these tremors and convulsions tossing you around are of a kind that at any moment now will tear you to shreds. (p54)

There are plenty of grand observations about the impacts of history: colonialism, slavery etc., the differing values on human life and labor, living if not with at least in much closer proximity to death, that you can find many other places. But every once in a while there is a true gem. A story that encapsulates how differences in lifestyle and culture can really make a difference. Like this about catching a bus in Accra:

We climb into the bus and sit down. At this point there is a risk of culture clash, of collision and conflict. It will undoubtedly occur if the passenger is a foreigner who doesn't know Africa. Someone like that will start looking around, squirming, inquiring, "When will the bus leave?"
"What do you mean, when?" the astonished driver will reply. "It will leave when we find enough people to fill it up." (p16)

It displays a completely different understanding of that most basic of concepts: time. Whereas the European sees time as something apart from humanity, not dependent on humanity: "The European feels himself to be time's slave, dependent on it, subject to it. To exist and function, he must observe its ironclad, inviolate laws, its inflexible principles and rules." (p16) Compared to the African view: "For them it is a much looser concept, more open, elastic, subjective. It is man who influences time, its shape, course, and rhythm.... Time appears as a result of our actions, and vanishes when we neglect or ignore it." (p17)

Interestingly: "In practical terms, this means that if you go to a village where a meeting is scheduled for the afternoon but find no one at the appointed spot, asking, "When will the meeting take place?" makes no sense. You know the answer: "It will take place when people come." (p17) This is quite different from my (albeit limited) experience. I've never encountered this difficulty. Perhaps it is dated. It comes from the chapter on Ghanaian independence in 1957. Maybe it represents a urban/ rural difference. Maybe it is based on the participants in the meetings. Maybe my observation is flawed?

Regardless, the book is well worth your time. It is an interesting, quick read--aided by its layout: short, independent chapters. The perfect format for a nighttime read.