The shadow of the sun

No cover — Ryszard Kapuściński: The shadow of the sun (2001, Allen Lane)

325 pages

English language

Published Nov. 8, 2001 by Allen Lane.

ISBN:: 978-0-7139-9455-1

(4 reviews)

Only with the greatest of simplifications, for the sake of convenience, can we say Africa. In reality, except as a geographical term, Africa doesn't exist'. Ryszard Kapuscinski has been writing about the people of Africa throughout his career. In astudy that avoids the official routes, palaces and big politics, he sets out to create an account of post-colonial Africa seen at once as a whole and as a location that wholly defies generalised explanations. It is both a sustained meditation on themosaic of peoples and practises we call 'Africa', and an impassioned attempt to come to terms with humanity itself as it struggles to escape from foreign domination, from the intoxications of freedom, from war and from politics as theft.

4 editions

nicknicknicknick reviewed The Shadow of the Sun by Ryszard Kapuściński

Review of 'The Shadow of the Sun' on Goodreads

4 stars

1) ''One day I summoned my strength and set off on a walk from hut to hut. It was noon. In all the dwellings, on the earthen floors, on mats, on bunks, lay silent, inert people. Their faces were bathed in sweat. The village was like a submarine at the bottom of the ocean: it was there, but it emitted no signals, soundless, motionless.''

2) ''They raise the president. Doe sits propped by a soldier's boots, swaying, his earless head flowing with blood. Johnson simply doesn't know what to do next. Order that his nose be cut off? His hand? Leg? He has clearly run out of good ideas. The whole thing is beginning to bore him. 'Take him away!' he commands the soldiers, who carry him off for further tortures (also filmed). Doe lived for several hours more, and died from loss of blood. When I was in Monrovia, …

1) ''One day I summoned my strength and set off on a walk from hut to hut. It was noon. In all the dwellings, on the earthen floors, on mats, on bunks, lay silent, inert people. Their faces were bathed in sweat. The village was like a submarine at the bottom of the ocean: it was there, but it emitted no signals, soundless, motionless.''

2) ''They raise the president. Doe sits propped by a soldier's boots, swaying, his earless head flowing with blood. Johnson simply doesn't know what to do next. Order that his nose be cut off? His hand? Leg? He has clearly run out of good ideas. The whole thing is beginning to bore him. 'Take him away!' he commands the soldiers, who carry him off for further tortures (also filmed). Doe lived for several hours more, and died from loss of blood. When I was in Monrovia, the video showing him being tortured was the hottest ticket in town. However, there were few video cassette players in the city, and, furthermore, there were frequent power outages. To see Doe's torment (the entire film lasted two hours), people had to invite themselves to the homes of their more well-to-do neighbours or go to those bars where the tape was playing nonstop.''