Customer Reviews
awesome - By: Kharms, 25 Jul 2008 
Read thisin Siberia recently. Awesome. K's descriptions of Africa went oddly well with snow & ice...
Vivid sketches of African life - By: jacr100, 22 Jul 2008 Few people were better qualified to relate an outsider's understanding of the essence of Africa than Kapuscinski, a journalist who spent four decades covering assignmentsin the continent that he loved. The Shadow of the Sun represents a compilation of vignettes that either detail critical momentsin African history - the rise & reign of dictators, numerous coups d'etat that befell them, genocides - or gently demonstrate how an African's mentality is not as rigid as our own: how time to him is a much looser concept, how he prefers community over individual, how he has different notions of culpability & cause & effect. That may sound crassly generalist but as narrated by Kapuscinski is not so: part of the book's resonance comes from its unifying themes, the ironic recognition that Africans, so often divided by tribalist politics, are a coherent people.
Yet although these universal themes appear, the scenes Kapusckinski draws simultaneously recognise the great variety of Africa; as he saysin the foreword, "only with the greatest simplification, for the sake of convenience, can we say `Africa'". So we witness the midnight rituals of the paranoid Amba, who believe that witches live among them; the unattached, nomadic lives of Tuareg & Somali pastoralists; doomsaying sermonsin evangelical sectsin Nigeria; the obscene wealth of dictators & corrupt politicians. He relates each sketch through characters & communities, rather than wildlife, or landscapes, or metaphors of suffering, & this makes his tales richer: we see & hear Africa through Africans' voices & experience.
When I'd finished reading this book I was reminded that Africa is an incredibly demanding country, & that much there seems designed to wear a traveller down: public transport that only leaves when it is full to bursting; irrepressible heat; disease; con men or beggars at every corner; grinding bureaucracy; an unwillingness to repair what's broken. But at the same time I felt that I'd been naive to get annoyed by all these things. Everyday people were suffering much more than I was, yet while I was cursing, smiling faces greeted me everywhere. As Kapusckinski puts it: "their life is endless toil, a torment they endure with astonishing patience & good humour." His message is: get out there, meet & talk to Africans, understand how they see you, do your best to understand what life is like for them. It's a hugely important principle, & I'll have this book with me next time I'm there.
Ali Mazrui - By: Hasani, 08 Jan 2008 
i absolutely loved the book. though there was one hitch:
in the book, Ryzard refers to the intellectual 'Ali Mazrui' as 'Ugandan'. He is not Ugandan. He is Kenyan. To be specific from the Coastal Province of Kenya. I say this because:
1. i'm kenyan
2. i'm from the coast of kenya
... & more importantly
3. i am a distant relative of Ali Mazrui.
If the error can be corrected it would be great!
An Exerllent resource - By: Edrissa Jarju, 08 Dec 2007 Oncein a while you come across a book both entertaining & loaded with useful information. Shadow of the Sun is one them - I found the author's interspersing of narrative with historical commentary very usefulin understanding the present circumstances of many of the places he visited - it puts everything into context. The author has done an excellent & accessible account of his African experiences.
Africa is a big & complex continent as the author even admits & warns of failure at any generalization attempts. He however falls into this trap in some instances. I found some of his attempts at accounting the 'metaphysical African' completely unrecognizable as an African. For examplein one of the chapters, he found himselfin a Nigerian churchin the Delta & goes on to explore African religions. He concludes that they incompatible with Christianity. He observed that Africans do not feel guilt & that to them, as long as a crime or an evil deed is undiscovered, it remains an innocent/normal action. I found that to be completely untrue. How else can one explain the forgiveness of bad thoughtsin the practice of the traditional African religions I am aware, that includes am sure, the area of Nigeria he found himself. There are a few similar instancesin the book, but overall, this author has an extraordinary interaction with Africansin a way most Europeans don't. He is an excellent observer & very detailin his accounts.
This is a great read & I am looking forward to reading more of his books
Sobering travel book - an antidote to brochure-style writing - By: Jezza, 27 May 2007 Great book by a great writer. Curiously I read this at the same time as Braudel, & wondered a lot about how Africa might have developed differently if it hadn't beenin the shadow of Europe. Would it have had its own industrial revolution? No answers here, but lots of food for thought.
