Gdyby-Cala-Afryka on kapuscinski.info

If the Whole of Africa… — Book Reissue

Wed, 07 Sep 2011 00:00:00 +0000

The book If the Whole of Africa… comprises 15 texts from the years 1962–1966, written by Ryszard Kapuściński during his work on the African continent.

“In Africa I was not looking for adventure, I did not hunt elephants, I did not dig for diamonds,” writes Kapuściński in the preface. “I was a correspondent of the Polish Press Agency and I had to write about what I heard or saw there, about what was happening there. And much was happening. I spent nearly six years in Africa in its most turbulent and restless period — full, moreover, of hopes, though sometimes overly easy ones. It was a turning point between two epochs: colonialism was ending, independence was beginning. That change, that upheaval, that revolution — I tried to describe it.”

"Reports from African Wanderings" — Review of "If the Whole of Africa"

Wed, 20 Oct 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Author: Jerzy Prokopczuk. Source: Nowe Książki, no. 10. Date of publication: 31 May 1969.

In the preface to the book the author wrote: “The reportages collected in this book constitute accounts of my African wanderings. In Africa I was not looking for adventure, I did not hunt elephants, I did not dig for diamonds. I was a correspondent of the Polish Press Agency and I had to write about what I heard or saw there, about what was happening there. And much was happening. I spent nearly six years in Africa in its most turbulent and restless period — full, moreover, of hopes, though sometimes overly easy ones. It was a turning point between two epochs: colonialism was ending, independence was beginning. That change of reality, that upheaval, that revolution — I tried to describe it. That is how the reportages came into being. I did not write them with a book in mind. Not even with publication in mind. In the years when I was making these notes, a number of the views they contain belonged to the highly controversial, not to say heretical. But I cared about one thing: to write how it really was — for that is, after all, the ambition, the ambition of the reportorial brotherhood.”

If the Whole of Africa. Polish Editions and ISBN.

Wed, 20 Oct 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Below is a working list of Polish editions of Ryszard Kapuściński’s “If the Whole of Africa”. ISBN numbers are included only where they could be confirmed in reliable bibliographic or bookselling sources.

Polish Editions

First Edition Year of publication: 1969 Publisher: Czytelnik Print run: 8,000 copies ISBN: no confirmed number

Second Edition Year of publication: 1971 Print run: 15,000 copies Notes: map of Africa from 1967 ISBN: no confirmed number

Press Serialisation of "If the Whole of Africa"

Wed, 20 Oct 2010 00:00:00 +0000

The reportages collected in “If the Whole of Africa” were also published in the weekly Polityka.

• 1963 no. 12, p. 7. Parliament in Session. Tanganyika.

• 1963 no. 29, 30. Africa at the Round Table. [Conference of heads of government in Addis Ababa.]

• 1963 no. 34, 35. Africa at the Round Table: Unity Is a Process of Creation. Unity or Greatness.

• 1963 no. 37, 38. Africa at the Round Table: Revolutionaries and Reformers. Dialogue.

Ryszard Kapuściński on "If the Whole of Africa"

Wed, 20 Oct 2010 00:00:00 +0000

“If the Whole of Africa” is a collection of my essays and articles written for the “Special Bulletin” in the years 1962–66. In those days a news agency correspondent had to write about everything; selection took place at headquarters. Some material went to the official press, radio, and television, and some to the “Special Bulletin.” There you could write the whole truth. I was sometimes asked what my relations with the censor were at that time. I answered that I was my own censor. During the years of the “Cold War” the international situation was tense, and the slightest pretext — some criticism of local authorities or local conditions — often meant being expelled from the given country. That is why I had to be very careful about what I wrote. The dispatches that went into the “Special Bulletin” could, after some time, be collected and published as a book. “If the Whole of Africa” was published by Czytelnik during my absence from Poland. It was very well received. It was, in fact, the first book in our literature that attempted to look at Africa not as adventure, not as exoticism, but as a society, a culture, a religion, a system of customs and political systems. It was an attempt at a deeper analysis and reflection on African reality.