They were used as slave labour. Halfway through their captivity, Olga's ten-year-old brother William was put into the men's camp, where he suffered terribly cruelty that scarred him for life. February 2022 marked 80 years since the Fall of Singapore and at last Olga is ready to tell the story of her years as a child prisoner of war.

Yet memories of camaraderie also live on within the book. Inmates of the camp, for example, held clandestine meetings, where they worked on sewing a quilt - the ‘Changi Quilt’ as it is now known and displayed in the Imperial War Museum in London, as an emblem of courage and faith. As Olga says, “We always felt the end of the war would come, we lived for it, from month to month and tried never to lose hope.” But the bleak memories are not without the occasional glimmer of goodness. The beautiful birthday card that one of her fellow prisoners made for her. The Japanese guard who would throw cans of evaporated milk over the fence to the prisoners so that babies could have some nourishment. Most touchingly, Henderson recounts the quilt the girls made in secret for their Girl Guides leader for a birthday present. The quilt is now part of the Imperial War Museum's collection. Kapuściński first went to Africa in 1957 and, over the next forty years, returned whenever he could. PoWs themselves - those whose self-preservation were foremost to those who were kind and willing to sacrifice for others

Rimane bloccato nel deserto per un guasto meccanico e prova le allucinazioni e il delirio da disidratazione, si muove con mezzi pubblici sovraffollati, oppure fa l’autostop, arriva in posti sperduti, rischia la vita

Ebanovina: Moj afrički život nije knjiga koja ima zaplet, za razliku od nekih drugih memoara i romana. Glavna tema ove knjige je Afrika, i to ne bilo koja Afrika – već ona svakodnevna. Kroz različite decenije i najrazličitija mesta na ovom kontinentu, Kapušćinjski na neverovatan način dočarava svakodnevnicu svih ljudi koji žive ovde. Kako bi bio siguran da su njegova iskustva autentična, on je godinama živeo u siromašnim delovima različitih gradova i sela, gde je iskusio kako je to kad ti upadnu u stan i pokradu sve što imaš, kako je to izboriti se sa kobrama, ali isto tako upoznajemo brdo likova kroz mini epizode, kao što je moj omiljeni lik – gospođa koja poseduje samo lonac. Naime, ova epizoda je iz nekog razloga bila izuzetno emotivna, iako je opisana u svega nekoliko paragrafa. Ipak, piscu nije potrebno više od dva paragrafa da izuzetno opiše tu emociju i atmosferu koja tamo vlada. Ovaj momenat konkretno govori o ženi koja, kao što sam rekao, poseduje samo svoj lonac, i na taj način zarađuje novac za sebe i za svoje dete. Ona svakoga dana kuva proso koji prodaje kao male obroke, i na taj način zarađuje novac. U trenutku kada joj budu ukrali lonac ona će shvatiti da više nema način da zaradi svoj novac – što je momenat u kome zaista shvatamo koliko smo srećni što imamo to što imamo, posebno jer su ovakve stvari izuzetno česte u ruralnim delovima Afrike. Only with the greatest of simplifications, for the sake of convenience, can we say Africa. In reality, except as a geographical term, Africa doesn't exist.” I liked the author for his attitude while he was on the road. He wanted to see and write about not the tourist Africa, but the real one. This is from a couple of paragraphs RK included as a sort of foreword: Dystopian Fiction Books Everyone Should Read: Explore The Darker Side of Possible Worlds and Alternative Futures

Published originally in Polish in 1998, this translation is from 2001. The essays here cover almost all of the continent of Africa, and RK shows the reader the history of many countries, the character of many people, and the spirit of Africa itself. This is probably Kapuscinski's best known book, and is his highest rated book on GR. Not without reason. This is 5 stars for me, and this was confirmed by about a third of the way through. The Shadow of the Sun by Ryszard Kapuscinski is many thing, too many things in fact & rendered over far too great a period of time to be completely coherent, though much of the writing, especially the pieces written about Africa later in the author's career, are quite compelling. The population of Africa was a gigantic, matted, crisscrossing web, spanning the entire continent and in constant motion, endlessly undulating, bunching up in one place and spreading out in another, a rich fabric, a colourful arras.” - Ryszard Kapuscinski, The Shadow of the Sun

Three years of captivity followed. Three years of disease, malnutrition, deprivation and oppression. Olga and her friends bravely raided the vegetable plot; “dodging the searchlights” and sometimes enduring severe punishments. She stood alongside the other women and children through the ordeal of Tenko in the blazing sun. They were used as slave labour. Halfway through their captivity, Olga’s ten-year-old brother William was put into the men’s camp, where he suffered terrible cruelty that scarred him for life.

In the Shadow of the Rising Sun

Kaupuscinski spent forty years as a foreign correspondent, reporting from all over the world. This from a biographical paragraph in this book: Most fundamental, however, are the political weaknesses of the system. It is in the basic political inheritance of America, reflected in the very design of the Constitution and the long dominance of Jeffersonian individualism over Hamiltonian statism, that we must locate the roots of American impotence in the face of Japan's challenge. without stretching this story out any longer, suffice it to say that I ended up showering him with so many naira that we were simply unable to part. Omenka's voice was always trembling with emotion, and with tears in his eyes he would swear his everlasting devotion and fidelity '

Novi književni heroj - pesnik, novinar, putopisac, bokser amater, poliglota, koji je bio hapšen 40 puta, preživeo 27 revolucija i državnih udara i 4 smrtne kazne. Ipak, osim malih epizoda sa lokalnim stanovništvom koji na neki način predstavljaju glavne sporedne likove, glavni lik jeste Afrika sa svom svojom florom, faunom i kulturom. Kroz ovih tristotinak strana saznaćemo na koji način lavovi love, gde slonovi umiru, kako se ubijaju kobre na koje meštani naleću svakodnevno, kao i to u šta veruju i kako se dele. Zaista jedan neverovatan način da upoznamo kulturu koja nam nije toliko bliska.Najviše mi se dopao deo o smrti slonova: slonovi nisu imali prirodnih neprijatelja sve do dolaska kolonizatora koji su ih desetkovali zbog slonovače. I gde naći još slonovače, kad niko nikad nije video mrtvog slona? Ovvio che tocca partire dalla storia della colonizzazione europea, arrivare alla fine della stessa, e poi le rivolte che sembrano accendersi come fiammiferi, che l’Occidente è sempre pronto a “impacchettare” ad arte. Kapuściński era bianco ed europeo nell’epoca in cui la gente d’Africa si stava liberando dei bianchi europei, li scacciava, si riappropriava del potere e del paese. In February 1942, ten-year old Olga Morris and her family were living in Singapore when the city fell to the invading Japanese army. Kapuściński cominciò a viaggiare in Africa alla fine degli anni Cinquanta e ha continuato a farlo con il suo inconfondibile stile per qualche decennio in avanti, scrivendo pezzi su vari argomenti e diverse nazioni del continente nero, evitando gli stereotipi, le tappe obbligate e i luoghi comuni, fermandosi ad abitare nei sobborghi più poveri, ammalandosi di malaria cerebrale e tubercolosi, curate negli ambulatori locali, rischiando la morte per mano di miliziani, raccontando la vita della gente: semplicemente mischiandosi, incontrando e condividendo con la gente comune, senza però snobbare quella più celebre.