Depression in Africa (page 129-148)

In this two chapters Kapuscinski tells us a lot about his personality and the difficulties of living in Africa. In the first chapter he proves how adventurous (we could even say crazy) he is. He is aware there is a civil war in Nigeria, and that the UPGA, which were treated unfairly by the central government, are very angry and want to take revenge. But this doesn't stop him, he gets in a car and drives right into the most dangerous place. "I was driving along a road where they say no white man can come back alive" (page 130). Kapuscinski acted very irresponsibly, but he is a brave man and came back alive. He was stopped by two roadblocks and he paid a fee, but on the third one he was out of money and had to quickly drive by. This was an admirable stupidity. There is no valid reason why he got himself into this, but he was very lucky and brave getting out of it.

In the next chapter, Kapuscinski tells us even more about himself when he describes how depressing life is in Africa. He is a very strong man who lived through sicknesses and survived them. He also survived "...the disease of loneliness, the disease of the tropical depression" (page 138). He also analyses the changes in a white man when he is living in Africa. "In the tropics the white feels weakened, or downright weak, whence comes the heightened tendency to outburst of aggression" (page139). But even though he accepts how hard this is, our reporter is a fighter who didn't give up and lived five years in this continent.

Later, when he returned to Warsaw, he informs us that he is not a desk man, and that he prefers adventures over having a stable job. But he and his boss are both OK with that, "He tolerated my adventures and my pathological lack of discipline" (page 141). In this quote we can also see that Kapuscinski is not an unconscious man like Meursalt. He knows what he is doing even if it is absolutely insane, and he enjoys what he does, and that I admire a lot.