A Passage to Africa by George Alagiah (2002)
Read: January 2011
Scotty and I do like our news reporter biographies so we picked this up in a charity shop over the summer. Also it's focused on Africa which is another reason to buy and read and hoard!
I grabbed this off the shelf when we were packing a few things to head over to Flossie's to observe curfew. The first day of reading it I didn't get far - we've got the TV on all day streaming news about Tahrir Square - because of keeping an ear and eye open for what is happening. This book takes a little more concentration that the last one. Once into the swing of reading it I got through it in about four or five days I think.
My favourite sections were in the latter half and were about the revolution in Zaire. This was obviously fascinating to read with everything that is going on around us at the moment here in Egypt. Also in general the feeling of being a reporter and so out of place in the country you are reporting in (and sometimes living in, in the case of South Africa for Alagiah). There were definitely parallels that I could draw with today here in Egypt where all westerners are being suspected of being journalists and are therefore being treated with suspicion that they are propagating the uprising that is taking place.
I did enjoy the early parts of the book where Alagiah talks about his family when he was growing up and their journey when they left Ceylon for Africa. How amazing it was to have your first flight be that when you leave your home country, but five flights later you are only just arriving at your new home. Alagiah also talks about his own children in the book (who, according to my mother, now attend my old secondary school). They are growing up as ex-pats in South Africa and it sounds like an amazing time for them to have been there and such a unique and valuable experience for them to have had
I was really interested to read the sections talking about Rwanda. I found the film Hotel Rwanda amazing and have since been interested in the stories of this terrible time. The story Alagiah tells of his translator being accused of genocide and he suddenly not knowing who to believe is fascinating as he becomes aware that his impartiality as a reporter isn't as strong as his humanity for the man who is now a friend.
Read: January 2011
Scotty and I do like our news reporter biographies so we picked this up in a charity shop over the summer. Also it's focused on Africa which is another reason to buy and read and hoard!
I grabbed this off the shelf when we were packing a few things to head over to Flossie's to observe curfew. The first day of reading it I didn't get far - we've got the TV on all day streaming news about Tahrir Square - because of keeping an ear and eye open for what is happening. This book takes a little more concentration that the last one. Once into the swing of reading it I got through it in about four or five days I think.
My favourite sections were in the latter half and were about the revolution in Zaire. This was obviously fascinating to read with everything that is going on around us at the moment here in Egypt. Also in general the feeling of being a reporter and so out of place in the country you are reporting in (and sometimes living in, in the case of South Africa for Alagiah). There were definitely parallels that I could draw with today here in Egypt where all westerners are being suspected of being journalists and are therefore being treated with suspicion that they are propagating the uprising that is taking place.
I did enjoy the early parts of the book where Alagiah talks about his family when he was growing up and their journey when they left Ceylon for Africa. How amazing it was to have your first flight be that when you leave your home country, but five flights later you are only just arriving at your new home. Alagiah also talks about his own children in the book (who, according to my mother, now attend my old secondary school). They are growing up as ex-pats in South Africa and it sounds like an amazing time for them to have been there and such a unique and valuable experience for them to have had
I was really interested to read the sections talking about Rwanda. I found the film Hotel Rwanda amazing and have since been interested in the stories of this terrible time. The story Alagiah tells of his translator being accused of genocide and he suddenly not knowing who to believe is fascinating as he becomes aware that his impartiality as a reporter isn't as strong as his humanity for the man who is now a friend.
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