A Passage To Africa

Product Information

This is a balanced and ultimately optimistic trip through Africa's recent history by a man who grew up there as a child and has reported on it's triumphs and disasters as an adult - and the moral issues that reporting can throw out. George Alagiah writes about his experiences as a television reporter during the war in Somalia, Africa in the 1990s. He won a special award for his report on the incidents described in this passage.

hunt’ and ‘tramped’- predatory language shows the profession as a predatory nature it is animal like and barbaricThe title itself is significant. The noun ‘Passage’ is ambiguous; of course the obvious meaning would be that the following is an extract, a piece of writing. But it could also be interpreted as a path, a way, a journey to Africa. Also the use of the word ‘to’ imply that the passage is not a mere informative work on Africa, but a dedication to the country.

Pathos and pity is evoked in the reader by the next paragraph, its impact strengthened by the use of names as the plight of two daughters and their mother is described. The anaphora in ‘no rage, no whimpering’, the dash followed by adjectives such as ‘motionless, simple and frictionless’; all are used to diminish death, as if it is a matter of no importance or significance, an everyday occurring which is inevitable. Seeing death up close on a daily basis, Alagiah feels that it is rather life which is the difficult part, as in seen by his description of the girl’s existence as a ‘half-life’ and her death as ‘deliverance’ as if life is a punishment, something to be saved from. Note the contrast between the two quotes mentioned above. Whilst the first set of adjectives are harsh, the second contains much gentler and softer description. It is almost as though Alagiah is contrasting the harshness of the incidents with the human empathy that he feels.He points out how the reporters wipe their hands after holding the clammy hands of a mother who had just wiped vomit from her child’s mouth.

wonderful book! so well-written, funny and erudite. It gives a wonderful overview of some of Africa's most harrowing histories. I was really impressed with the chapter on Mandela. There are no sacred cows and lots of villains in this book. Makes us all look at ourselves a little harder. The writer gives the names and ages of the children to emphasize their youth at the time of death, and to drive the circumstances home to the reader. The writer also creates pity by describing the old woman “the smell of decaying flesh”. With this quote George Alight is able to engage the reader as they are imagining the smell of the decaying flesh. One way the writer creates horror is by describing the “ghost village” as if people are dead; however they are alive (barely). Also he creates horror by using words such as “festering wound the size of my hand”. The beginning of the passage is a one sentence introductory paragraph starting with a series of adjectives in rapid succession: ‘thousand, hungry, lean, scared and betrayed faces.’ Showing the turmoil of emotions the author felt, unable to pin down the description of the faces in one word, it also evokes at once the curiosity of the reader a well as lays the ground work for the setting: a general picture of death and disease form in one’s mind. The use of the noun ‘faces’, not names, not people, but ‘faces’ shows the impersonal detachment of the author. They aren’t human beings to him; they are just faces, just surfaces and expressions. This is emphasized in the ending of the sentence: ‘…but there is one I will never forget.’ Along with informing us about a meeting which was so exceptional that the author cannot forget it, it also implies that the rest of the death and suffering he sees around him are very much forgettable and don’t really affect him.Even in these moments of desperation and impoverishment, the people are ashamed of the predicament that was forced upon them, they are ashamed of being weak. This makes George think, if helplessness makes them ashamed what should people like him, who are healthy and in search of suffering to make money out of it feel about their actions as they carry on without lending the people a helping hand? A Passage To Africa | Context The passage describes the journalists as 'ghoulish' while searching for 'striking pictures', showing how they may not be searching for them for the right reasons.

like a ghost village’- simile suggests its almost soulless and depressing and barely alive emphasises poverty

The text revolves around post-war violence and its effect on people and how the world media, greedy for the news of suffering hunt the people down for the stories and pictures that can be gained from them. It talks about how violence and war do not end with overthrowing the king, and how it has many lingering effects on the nations and their people. Through vivid images created through intricate descriptive language. LITERARY DEVICES AND NARRATIVE TECHNIQUES hungry, lean scared and betrayed faces’- list of adjectives creates an image of suffering, links to the end when trying to make the reader feel guilt. Tributes will rightly be paid to a fantastic journalist and brilliant broadcaster – but George was the most decent, principled, kindest, most honourable man I have ever worked with’ Jon Sopel