A Dispute Over A Judge Ends In The Fall Of A Government (Page 121-128)

When Kapuscinski left Algeria, he found himself with many more revolutions in Africa. First, there was a conspiracy against the president of Conakry, Sekou Toure. The reporter had arrived there on his way to Accra, and found himself with a tense ambiance. Then when he got to Accra, Nkrumah, the president had a press conference and there were body searches and a lot of security. The police even checked a mechanical pencil Kapuscinski had in his pocket. This obviously created an environment of fear and distrust. You can notice that the government is afraid that something might happen because the neighbor countries were all going through a difficult moment. He then left Accra driving, his next stop was Lome, the capital of Togo. There he heard about the revolution going on in Congo.

Then he got to Cotonou, Dahomey where a revolution was taking place in that moment. He was warned not to stay there, but by what we have seen of this character, we can tell he is an adventurous man that doesn't mind dangerous situations, instead he seems to be looking for them. What was going on in Dahomey was that the president and vice president were fighting for who chose a judge for the Supreme Court. The situation became so bad that they stopped communicating, and this paralyzed the country. So Colonel Soglo which was a powerful man that had once made a coup forced both of them to quit and had to choose a new president.

Kapuscinski was amazed of the horrible situation in all these countries. It was unbelievable how he saw so much chaos in such a short amount of time and distance, and he concludes in a way that makes you even more amazed of the depressing moments the Africans are going through by listing what he just went through. And by saying: "Everywhere there was an atmosphere of tension, everywhere the smell of gunpowder" (page 127).