Ryszard Kapuściński, a legend of Polish and world reportage, is often described as “a man endowed with an absolute feel for information, atmosphere, and events.” He possessed a remarkable capacity for observation — for seeing what others cannot see — and the reporter’s instinct that drew him wherever something was happening. He could observe and analyse his surroundings perfectly; he swiftly became part of the environment he was observing, and through his neutrality was able to assess what he saw with full objectivity. Ryszard Kapuściński: profession — reporter.

He was born on 4 March 1932 in Pinsk, in the Polesie region (present-day Belarus). From 1952 to 1956 he studied at the History Faculty of Warsaw University. After graduating he returned to Sztandar Młodych (he had written there even before sitting his school-leaving exams). Work at the newspaper was a true school for the pen of a young and talented journalist. His gifts as a reporter were noticed early. His reportages from Nowa Huta pleased the authorities of the time (he was awarded the Gold Cross of Merit as a reward). Shortly afterwards he was sent on a journey to Beijing, but returned prematurely — during the unrest of 1956 — thereby demonstrating solidarity with the Sztandar Młodych editorial board. He was punished by expulsion from the paper. Soon after he became head of the domestic section at Polityka. The weekly provided him with a platform; Kapuściński travelled widely and wrote prolifically. His domestic reportages brought him great popularity, but real fame came with his dispatches from Congo, torn apart by civil war, in 1958. The journey to Africa truly awakened Kapuściński’s passion for reporting; he began to understand that what interested him most was “the fascination with countries awakening to life, new continents where everything is still in the making, where poverty and hunger intertwine with hopes for a better tomorrow.”

The literary debut of an already well-known and respected reporter was The Polish Bush in 1962 — a cycle of reportages on domestic themes. That same year he became an employee of the Polish Press Agency (PAP). It was under PAP’s banner that he was sent to Africa for as long as six years. His time on the Black Continent was a period of particularly intensive and demanding reportorial work. The continent was undergoing painful transformations: governments changed, rebellions and uprisings erupted. Wherever much was happening, Kapuściński was there. He had an extraordinary ability to foresee events, to anticipate and get ahead of what was about to occur — a capacity born of his thorough knowledge of African affairs and his true reporter’s instinct. There was even an anecdote in which employees of a diplomatic mission spoke with admiration of how Kapuściński had arrived and, after four days of moving around the city, knew better what was happening there than they did, despite their long presence on the ground. He was everywhere others feared to go, and already at that time he said of himself that he wrote only about what he had personally seen and lived through. He frequently risked his own life and health — without question one of the reasons for his enormous popularity with readers. The direct fruits of that journey were the books Black Stars (1963) and If the Whole of Africa (1969).

In 1968 he returned to Poland to convalesce after malarial meningitis and tuberculosis. Unable to stay still, he soon set off for the Caucasus, travelling through the southern republics of the USSR. The result was A Kirghiz Dismounts (1968). That same year he departed for South America for five years, serving successively as permanent correspondent in Chile, Brazil, and Mexico. There, as in Africa, he witnessed bloody unrest and coups d’état. The fruits of these observations were Christ with a Rifle on His Shoulder (1975) and The Soccer War (1978). Kapuściński was extraordinarily restless, always seeking new subjects. He interrupted his stay in South America with a return to Poland, only to go back to Mexico a few months later. In 1974 he visited Asia and Africa; in 1975 the Middle East; in 1975–76 Angola, reflected in Another Day of Life (1976). Particularly important books from this period are The Emperor (1978) and Shah of Shahs (1982). In these books Kapuściński surprised everyone with his approach to reportage. By fusing the qualities of reportage with those of the novel, he revealed himself as a superb writer. The books made a worldwide impact, bringing him the highest acclaim. The Emperor in particular attracted extraordinary attention — a book exposing the inner workings of the court of Emperor Haile Selassie. The figure of the emperor lays bare the universal mechanisms of totalitarian order. The book’s high quality was reflected in thirty translations (including Japanese and Farsi). A 1979 theatrical adaptation was received with rapture in Toronto, Amsterdam, Oslo, and Budapest.

The 1980s were a period of rest and respite. Kapuściński seemed tired of covering revolutions and coups. From reporter he became a columnist, a writer, a poet, a thinker. Expressions of this are the poetry collection Notes (1986) and Lapidarium (1990) — a cycle of aphorisms and reflections on life. But the “reportorial breathing space” did not last long. In 1993 he published Imperium, an account of journeys through the former southern republics of the USSR, describing the changes that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union and comparing them with the image of those republics from 1968. Imperium portrays contemporary Russia with great precision and presents Georgia, Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, and other southern republics as countries of rich culture and tradition. His next book, Ebony (1998), returned to the African theme. In 2000 the fourth volume of the Lapidaria series appeared — Lapidarium IV. In autumn 2000 a photographic album, From Africa, was published, containing photographs from Kapuściński’s African journeys. Lapidarium V followed in November 2002, and in 2003 Autoportrait of a Reporter.

In 2004 Travels with Herodotus appeared, and in 2006 two poetry volumes: Laws of Nature and The Other.

Ryszard Kapuściński died on 23 January 2007.

Author: Maciej Skórczewski

source: kapuscinski.info