(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
RYSZARD KAPUSCINSKI goes under the designation Polish journalist and author, best known for books such as "The Emperor – The Fall of a Dictator, the Shah", "The Football War" and "Empire".
The 69-year-old has – despite outstanding efforts on the journalistic world stage – not yet been honored with a title on the School of Journalism's syllabus. It probably does not matter, because there everyone will mostly just be sports journalists, it is said.
In Norwegian these days, the book "Ebony" is available in Norwegian, in Aschehoug's new series Spor consisting of magnificent travelogues with classic ambitions.
The author himself has lived in Africa for several years since he first arrived in the continent in 1957. Like most journalists who are doing well in the world, Kapuscinski has stayed away from official itineraries, palaces, prominent people and big politics. You get their version of reality with you whether you want to or not. By contrast, Kapuscinski likes to sit down with random truck drivers, wander around the nomads in the desert and be a guest of the farmers of the tropical savannah, which he writes in the introduction to the book, which first came out in 1998:
"Their lives are a tear and a torment, but they carry it with toughness and astonishing mood."
The book "Ebony" is therefore not a book about Africa, but about some people the author has met on his way to the continent that cannot be described:
"It's a true ocean, a planet of its own, a disparate, swarming rich cosmos. Just as a gross simplification, for the sake of convenience, we are talking about Africa. In reality, apart from the geographical name, Africa does not exist ”.
"Ebony" is a journey of 30 chapters, from 1957 to the present day, from Ghana to Eritrea, via Rwanda, Somalia, Liberia, Uganda and Zanzibar, among others. Kapuscinski identifies with those who suffer, because – as he says – he himself has experienced hunger, cold and oppression. Kapuscinski has experienced 27 revolutions, and been sentenced to death four times. In 1966, he was almost burned alive by Nigerian rebels, it is said.
Although the author insists that the book is about everyday people and their small challenges, "Ebony" is a strong political book about decolonization, corruption, child soldiers and ethnic cleansing, such as in "A Lecture on Rwanda", a text that should be of interest to all educationalists, both inside and outside the journalism schools:
"When it was all over, and the frightened, now defeated Hutu fled to Zaire, where they roamed their lousy habengut in a headscarf, people from Europe, who saw these endless ranks on the television screen, could not understand what power drove the emaciated wanderers, what made these skeletons go on and on, where in disciplined columns, without stopping and resting, without food and drink, without a word or smile, disciplined, obedient and empty-eyed, trampled beyond its ghostly path of guilt and torment. "
