পোল্যান্ডের বিখ্যাত সাংবাদিক রিজার্ড কাপুচিনস্কি দীর্ঘকাল ঘুরেছেন সমগ্র আফ্রিকা মহাদেশে। দেখেছেন রাজায় রাজায় সিংহাসন নিয়ে যুদ্ধে উলুখাগড়াতুল্য জনতার প্রাণ যেতে, দারিদ্র্য, বেকারত্ব আর ঔপনিবেশিক শোষণের অভিশাপ কতটা গভীর ও দগদগে ঘা তৈরি করেছে আফ্রিকার দেশে দেশে তার প্রত্যক্ষদর্শী হয়েছেন খোদ কাপুচিনস্কি।

রিজার্ড কাপুচিনস্কি আর দশজন ফরেন করেনপনডেন্টদের মতো নন। সবাই তো দেশের বাইরে সংবাদ সংগ্রহ করতে যায়৷ রাজা-গজা না হোক নিদেনপক্ষে কোতোয়ালের সাথে সংযোগ রেখে নিজের আ্যসাইনমেন্টটি সম্পন্ন করে বগল বাজাতে বাজাতে ফিরে আসেন৷ কিন্তু কাপুচিনস্কি পারতপক্ষে উচ্চমহলের সান্নিধ্যে পেতে চাইতেন না৷ তাই আফ্রিকাকে তিনি দেখেছেন সাধারণ মানুষদের সাথে মিশে, তাদের নিত্যদিনের জীবনযাপনের প্রতি উৎসুক থেকে বুঝতে চেয়েছেন ইউরোপের সাথে গ্রেট আফ্রিকার তফাতটা কোথায়।

লাইবেরিয়া, রুয়ান্ডা, ইথিওপিয়া, তাঞ্জানিয়া, ইরিত্রিয়া, কঙ্গো, জিম্বাবুয়েসহ আফ্রিকা অনেকগুলো দেশকে, সেই দেশের রাজনৈতিক উত্থান-পতনকে, সাধারণ মানুষের আনন্দ-বেদনার কাব্যকে লিখেছেন বুকভরা দরদ এবং মনুষ্যত্বের মিশেলে৷

আমি কাপুচিনস্কির লেখার একজন অনুরাগী। তাঁর 'Shah Of Shah', 'Travels with Herodotus' - এর মতো অনবদ্য লেখনীর সাথে 'Shadow Of The Sun' বইটির তুলনা করলে আমি আগেই দুটোকেই এগিয়ে রাখব। এই বইটির একটি দুর্বলতা হলো লেখা মাঝেমধ্যে ঝুলে গিয়েছিল। কিছু বর্ণনা প্রয়োজনের চেয়ে বেশি মনে হচ্ছিল। সর্বোপরি কাপুচিনস্কির সিগনেচার স্টাইলের শতভাগ আমি পাইনি।

বি.দ্র. যারা এখনো কাপুচিনস্কি চর্চা শুরু করেননি, তারা বড় কিছু মিস করছেন৷ দেরি করবেন না কাপুচিনস্কির যেকোনো বই নিয়ে পড়তে শুরু করুন। শেষ না করে রেহাই পাবেন না।

This is insightful prose written by a Polish journalist who spent years traveling around Africa (beginning in the 1950s). It is a collection of essays that follow Kapuscinski's time spent in Africa; during coups, wars, racial tensions, hunger, starvation, sickness, and more. Though I didn't love the parts of the book that seemed highly dramatized, what I really liked about this is that Kapuscinski gets into the experience, living it and detailing it. He's not a removed journalist. In fact, this book reads like a great collection of stories. He talks about the racial tensions of that time, the distinctive culture of each country in Africa, the political climate, the people, the food, the terrain, and his own vulnerabilities. There is some sun, even with the shadow.

It is a book filled with details, vivid descriptions, dialect, and history, narrated with storytelling ease. It is the type of book which intertwines serious journalism with storytelling--very appealing.

Книжка написана дуже легко і приємно, з уважністю до деталей, вдалими порівняннями і зі щирим співчуттям до Африки та африканців. Як і в попередніх працях Капусцінського, найбільше сподобались ті частини, де він дає слово звичайним людям або розповідає з власного досвіду. Натомість, викликають сумніви узагальнення про споконвічну природу африканців і несумісність африканського та європейського "типів мислення", плюс згадані вже в інших рецензіях хибні факти про "єдину книгарню на всю Ефіопію" тощо. Читати "Гебан" однозначно варто, просто слід мати на увазі неминучу обмеженість репортерського досвіду, навіть якщо це величезний досвід Капусцінського.

Sa mạc, cát, nóng, nghèo, đói, chiến tranh, nô lệ.
Không có hồi kết.

"Nghịch lý của thế giới chúng ta: nếu tính chi phí vận chuyển, dịch vụ, lưu kho và bảo quản thực phẩm, thì chi phí của một bữa ăn (thường là một nắm ngô) cho người trong một trại tị nạn nào đó, ví dụ như ở Sudan, còn cao hơn giá một bữa tối trong tiệm ăn đắt tiền nhất Paris."

9/10

Novi književni heroj - pesnik, novinar, putopisac, bokser amater, poliglota, koji je bio hapšen 40 puta, preživeo 27 revolucija i državnih udara i 4 smrtne kazne.
Možda bi i najbolji žanr za ove putopise bio magijski realizam - prihvatanje afričke svakodnevice prepune života, gladi i smeha i njenog relativnog protoka vremena bez nametanja evropskih okvira.

Najviše mi se dopao deo o smrti slonova: slonovi nisu imali prirodnih neprijatelja sve do dolaska kolonizatora koji su ih desetkovali zbog slonovače. I gde naći još slonovače, kad niko nikad nije video mrtvog slona?

Tajna koju su Afrikanci godinama krili od belaca (jer je slon za njih sveta životinja) jeste da se groblje slonova nalazi na dnu jezera. Kada ostareli slon ode da se napoji po poslednji put, njegove onemoćale noge više nemaju snage da ga izvuku iz mulja na obali - jedino što mu preostaje jeste da nastavi dalje ka dnu jezera, kao da ga zemlja vuče nazad sebi.

Na samom kraju putopisa, posle bliskog susreta sa slonom, jedan mladi Tanzanijac kaže Kapušćinjskom da je to duša Afrike koja uvek poprima oblik slona, jer njega nijedna druga životinja ne može pokoriti. Ni lav, ni bivol, ni zmija.

“Questo non è un libro sull'Africa, ma su alcune persone che vi abitano, sui miei incontri con loro, sul tempo trascorso insieme. È un continente troppo grande per poterlo descrivere. È un vero e proprio oceano, un pianeta a parte, un cosmo eterogeneo e ricchissimo. In realtà, a parte la sua denominazione geografica, l'Africa non esiste.”

"L'Africa è tutta in movimento, in cammino, dispersa: gli uni scappano dalla guerra, altri dalla siccità, altri ancora dalla carestia. Scappano, vagano, si perdono.”

“Dalla nascita fino alla morte l'africano è sempre al fronte, sempre in lotta contro la natura ostile del suo continente; e il fatto stesso di esistere, di sopravvivere, è già di per sé la sua vittoria più grande.”

N.B.: Questo grande libro-reportage di Ryszard Kapuściński (1932-2007) riporta la sua esperienza africana dal 1957 al 1998, anno della pubblicazione. Per elementi di conoscenza più recenti, ammesso e non concesso che qualcosa laggiù sia cambiato, occorrono altre letture.

Goodreads changed my experience with this book. For much of the time I was reading it, I was mesmerized by the writing, flabbergasted by some of the information about Africa, and convinced I was encountering the continent in a nuanced and subtle and authentic manner. I planned to give a copy to my husband for his birthday and to recommend it to my book group.

Curious about what other readers thought, I looked at some of the almost 500 reviews of it on goodreads, and it was there that I came across one reader's reference to John Ryle's 2001 review of the book in the Times Literary Supplement (http//www.richardwebster.net/johnryle.html). Persuasive and beautifully crafted, that review points out numerous errors of fact within Shadow of the Sun -- errors that Ryle argues betray Kapuściński to be more mythmaker than journalist. Apparently some readers have argued that some of his errors don't matter. To me they do. When Kapuściński tells us, for instance, that the only bookstore in all of Ethiopia is on the university campus there -- and that it was completely empty when he visited it -- and that this is the situation in most of Africa, it makes a profound impression me. When Ryle, the scholar, tells us that on his last visit, "there were at least a half-a-dozen bookshops in Addis Ababa, all with books for sale, in many languages," I have to conclude that Kapuściński was either disgracefully ignorant or downright deceptive in crafting his "tropical baroque" (Ryle's term) fables. The long list of other errors in Ryle's review are similarly damning.

It's such a shame. Kapuściński may have been fearless and intrepid and he certainly wrote like a master. But now he's filled my mind with unforgettable images of Africa that I cannot trust.

Africa and Kapuscinski. Kapuscinski's Africa.

Burning hot continent, swept by waves of revolution, war, man slaughter but also of unbearable beauty. A place of utmost complex diversity there's no generalization can capture it.

Honestly, Africa had been outside my radar before reading this. But the gift and curse of Kapuscinski's writing is that it drew me in, dragged me to the unknown and made me pause to think. My world is getting larger, vaster and richer. I am a bit relieved that he had written only a score of books; he'd made me a full time traveler otherwise.

five stars

"La gente non muore di fame perchè il mondo non ha abbastanza cibo: di cibo ce n'è in abbondanza, quanto se ne vuole. Ma tra chi ha fame e i magazzini stracolmi si erge un ostacolo insormontabile: il gioco politico. In Africa chi ha le armi ha il cibo, chi ha il cibo ha il potere. Questo è un mondo di gente che non discetta sulla trascendenza e l'essenza dell'anima,sul senso della vita e sulla natura dell'esistenza. Siamo in un mondo dove l'uomo striscia nel fango alla ricerca di un chicco di grano per soppravvivere fino al giorno dopo.

Prima di tutto che cos'è Ebano? Ebano è molto di più di un semplice diario di viaggio in (quasi) tutti i paesi dell'Africa. Ebano è l'insieme delle esperienze del reporter polacco Kapuściński unite alle riflessioni dell'autore, a fatti storici rielaborati e a studi sociali.
Iniziato nel 1957 e pubblicato per la prima volta nel 1998 questo saggio raccoglie tutta l'esperienza di Kapuścinśki in Africa dove verrà messo a dura prova senza tuttavia mai scoraggiarsi, in effetti il reporter si ammalerà di malaria, verrà ferito da un guerrigliero, rischierà di essere ucciso prima da un enorme serpente e poi da un elefante e si perderà nel Sahara. Ma in fondo continuerà a viaggiare e a scrivere i suoi diari senza mai lamentarsi perché lui da reporter vuole vivere come un africano e infatti abiterà in bidonville schiacciato insieme a decine di africani,in case di fortuna con muri di fango e ma anche in alberghi con centinaia di insetti.
E man mano che si prosegue i diari si snodano dando anche dello spazio per la storia dell'Africa, con uno sguardo lucido Kapuściński affronterà i grandi temi della storia dell'Africa dal colonialismo fino a Idi Amin, da Haile Selassie al genocidio in Ruanda, dai bambini soldato protagonisti di ogni conflitto in Africa fino alla fame che divora il continente.
Dipingendo i due volti dell'Africa: quello vivace e ricco di positività e quello dominato dalla violenza e caratterizzato dall'inquietudine.
Il punto di forza di questo saggio è che Kapuściński non annoia e spesso riesce a descrivere fatti storici in modo semplice ed essenziale. Come quando nella conferenza sul Ruanda sintetizza perfettamente il genocidio in poche frasi:"Il numero delle vittime è controverso. Alcune fonti parlano di mezzo milione, altre di un milione. Nessuno potrà mai saperlo con esattezza. La cosa più spaventosa è che degli uomini fino a ieri innocenti hanno assassinato altri uomini totalmente innocenti senza un motivo,senza necessità. Ma anche se, invece che di un milione,si fosse trattato di un solo innocente, non sarebbe forse sufficiente per dimostrare la presenza del diavolo e per dire che, nella primavera del 1994 il diavolo si trovava in Ruanda?".
Ebano è davvero una lettura interessante (naturalmente l'argomento deve interessare).
Va anche sottolineata l'importanza di questo documento dato che ogni storia raccontata è importante, infatti in molte zone dell'Africa l'analfabetismo è diffusissimo e non esistono  testimonianze scritte. Tutto è tramandato per via orale per cui ogni fatto viene modificato negli anni fino a cambiare totalmente la vicenda iniziale.
Ogni aspetto della società africana viene analizzato sotto l'occhio attento del reporter, che spesso però non riesce ad interpretare usi e costumi che sono troppo rarefatti per un occidentale quasi incomprensibili.
Kapuściński è un ottimo narratore e questo saggio può essere a tratti anche illuminante, perché qui in occidente dell'Africa se ne parla troppo poco e i luoghi comuni sul continente sono davvero troppi.
Purtroppo però neanche il reporter polacco ha risposte su come salvare il continente: in Africa la situazione è troppo delicata e tutt'altro che semplice.
Lo consiglio davvero anche perché dopo la lettura del libro si esce arricchiti, e in grado di "capire" meglio la società africana.

I found this book boring. It is travel writing but nothing really happens. Mundane details are written about in great detail.

“Dawn and dusk—these are the most pleasant hours in Africa. The sun is either not yet scorching, or it is no longer so—it lets you be, lets you live.”

The Polish Kapuściński was a foreign correspondent in Africa for 40 years and lent his name to an international prize for literary reportage. This collection of essays spans decades and lots of countries, yet feels like a cohesive narrative. The author sees many places right on the cusp of independence or in the midst of coup d’états. Living among Africans rather than removed in a white enclave, he develops a voice that is surprisingly undated and non-colonialist. While his presence as the observer is undeniable – especially when he falls ill with malaria and then tuberculosis – he lets the situation on the ground take precedence over the memoir aspect. I read the first half last year and then picked the book back up again to finish this year. The last piece, “In the Shade of a Tree, in Africa” especially stood out. In murderously hot conditions, shade and water are two essentials. A large mango tree serves as an epicenter of activities: schooling, conversation, resting the herds, and so on. I appreciated how Kapuściński never resorts to stereotypes or flattens differences: “Africa is a thousand situations, varied, distinct, even contradictory … everything depends on where and when.”

Along with Patrick Leigh Fermor’s A Time of Gifts and the Jan Morris anthology A Writer’s World, this is one of the best few travel books I’ve ever read.

Originally published on my blog, Bookish Beck.