Kapuściński - master of reportage

[Bonobo]

I like Kapuściński`writing, especially the Emperor, a great study of abnormal tyranny and its fall.


Ryszard Kapuściński (March 4, 1932 - January 23, 2007) was a Polish journalist whose dispatches in book form brought him a global reputation. Also a photographer and poet. Much of Kapuściński's work is considered to ascend to the heights of literature.

Third World reportage and other work

During the years from 1954 to 1981 Kapuściński was a member of Polish United Workers' Party. In 1964, after honing his skills on domestic stories, he "was appointed by the Polish Press Agency (PAP) as its only foreign correspondent, and for the next ten years he was 'responsible' for fifty countries."[1] Since 1965 he traveled around the developing world and reported on wars, coups and revolutions in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas; including the Football War a "bloody, scarcely believable conflict that Honduras and El Salvador waged in 1969 over a pair of soccer games."[1] When he finally returned to Poland, he had lived through twenty-seven revolutions and coups, been jailed 40 times and survived four death sentences.[2] In the English speaking world, Kapuściński is best known for his reporting from Africa in the 1960s and 1970s, when he witnessed first-hand the end of the European colonial empires on that continent. Italian journalist Tiziano Terzani and Ryszard Kapuściński shared the same vision of journalism.[3]
[edit] Author

From the early 1960s onwards, Kapuściński published books of increasing literary craftsmanship characterized by sophisticated narrative technique, psychological portraits of characters, a wealth of stylization and metaphor and unusual imagery that serves as means of interpreting the perceived world. Kapuściński's best-known book, The Emperor, concerns itself with the decline of Haile Selassie's anachronistic regime in Ethiopia. Shah of Shahs, on the fall of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran, and Imperium, about the last days of the Soviet Union, have enjoyed similar success.[3]

Kapuściński was fascinated not only by exotic worlds and people, but also by books: he approached foreign countries first through literature, spending months reading before each trip. He was skilled in listening to the diverse people he met, but he was also capable of "reading" the hidden sense of the scenes he encountered: the way the Europeans moved out of Angola, a discussion regarding alimony in the Tanganyikan parliament, the reconstruction of frescoes in the new Russia—he turned each of these vignettes into a metaphor of historical transformation. This tendency to process private adventures into a greater social synthesis made Kapuściński an eminent thinker, and the volumes of the ongoing Lapidarium series are a fascinating record of the shaping of a reporter's observations into philosophical reflections on the world and people.

In Poland, Kapuściński was also known as a poet. In November, 2007, Biblioasis published Kapuściński's selected poems in English, I Wrote Stone, bringing this aspect of Kapuściński's work to an English audience for the first time.

[edit] Praise, honours and critiques

Salman Rushdie wrote about him: "One Kapuściński is worth more than a thousand whimpering and fantasizing scribblers. His exceptional combination of journalism and art allows us to feel so close to what Kapuściński calls the inexpressible true image of war".[4]

Although he was frequently mentioned as a favorite to win the Nobel Prize in literature, it was never awarded to him. In a 2006 interview with Reuters, Kapuściński said that he wrote for "people everywhere still young enough to be curious about the world." This quote from Kapuściński may be the most important. Introducing him into college level courses provides another view to those students about the world of the Cold War and the role of dictators, "revolutions" and the US and Soviet's attempts to influence the world. He died on January 23, 2007, following a grave illness.[5] Since his death he has been offered many epitaphs in the press, such as, "The master of modern journalism",[6] "Translator of the World" and "The Greatest Reporter in the World",[7] "Herodotus of our times",[8] "Third World chronicler".[9][10] His work has been criticised, however, for factual inaccuracies and for the image he creates of Africa.[11]
[edit] Criticism and collaboration with SB

Specific elements of Kapuściński's writings have been questioned.[12]

In May 2007, the Polish edition of Newsweek magazine revealed that Kapuściński worked for the Communist Polish secret service from 1965 to 1972 or 1977, and that he had reported on several of his colleagues.[13] In an article in Slate Magazine, writer Jack Shafer decried the general belief that Kapuściński was a genius, calling him a fabulist who did not adhere to the basic rules of journalism.[14] As part of his criticism, Shafer cited a compendium of Kapuściński's misinformation and exaggeration by anthropology professor John Ryle.[15] His condemnation was rebutted by Meghan O'Rourke in Slate five days later; O'Rourke contended that Kapuściński's invention of petty details to reveal a larger truth did not make him a bad journalist












Kids of War

[Bonobo]

Poland's ace reporter Ryszard Kapuscinski accused of fiction-writing

New book claims journalist repeatedly crossed boundary between reportage and fiction-writing

Ryszard Kapuscinski in 2003. In the 1960s and 70s he was his agency's only foreign correspendent. Photograph: AFP

He has been voted the greatest journalist of the 20th century. In an unparalleled career, Ryszard Kapuscinski transformed the humble job of reporting into a literary art, chronicling the wars, coups and bloody revolutions that shook Africa and Latin America in the 1960s and 70s.

But a new book claims that the legendary Polish journalist, who died three years ago aged 74, repeatedly crossed the boundary between reportage and fiction-writing – or, to put it less politely, made stuff up.

In a 600-page biography of the writer published in Poland yesterday, Artur Domoslawski says Kapuscinski often strayed from the strict rules of "Anglo-Saxon journalism". He was often inaccurate with details, claiming to have witnessed events he was not present at. On other occasions, Kapuscinski invented images to suit his story, departing from reality in the interests of a superior aesthetic truth, Domoslawski claims.

Domoslawski told the Guardian: "Sometimes the literary idea conquered him. In one passage, for example, he writes that the fish in Lake Victoria in Uganda had grown big from feasting on people killed by Idi Amin. It's a colourful and terrifying metaphor. In fact, the fish got larger after eating smaller fish from the Nile."

He added: "Kapuscinski was experimenting in journalism. He wasn't aware he had crossed the line between journalism and literature. I still think his books are wonderful and precious. But ultimately, they belong to fiction."

On another occasion, the writer reported vividly on a massacre in Mexico in 1968. Although he was travelling in Latin America at the time, Kapuscinski did not witness it, despite asserting "I was there", Domoslawski alleges.

The biographer, a correspondent with Gazeta Wyborcza, Poland's largest paper, said he did not want to debunk Kapuscinski, whom he described as "my mentor". Instead, he said, he sought to start a debate over the relationship between truth and fiction, a biographer and his subject, and how far modern Poland remained haunted by its communist past.

"I think my book is fair. The strange thing is I was writing with sympathy about Kapuscinski. I wrote it with big empathy," he said. Kapuscinski's widow's, Alicja, however, has violently objected to the biography, entitled Kapuscinski Non Fiction. Last week she sought an injunction in Warsaw's district court, arguing that the work damaged her late husband's reputation. (Four previous biographies painted him in an entirely flattering light.)

The court rejected her request. It pointed out that she knew Domoslawski was writing a biography and even allowed him to use Kapuscinski's private archive. She has now appealed to the high court.

Domoslawski said he was baffled by her attempts to ban the book. The biography includes only 17 pages that dwell on Kapuscinski's erotic relationships with women and examines claims that he collaborated with Soviet intelligence.

Born in Pinsk, in what is now Belarus, Kapuscinski embarked on a career in journalism after university in Warsaw. In 1964 he became the only foreign correspondent of the Polish Press Agency, and for the next 10 years he was "responsible" for 50 countries. He travelled across the developing world during the final stages of European colonialism, witnessing 27 revolutions and coups.

He kept two notebooks – one for recording mundane facts used in reports relayed to Warsaw by telex, and another for impressionistic observations. These were to form the basis for his highly acclaimed books, among them The Soccer War, about the 1969 conflict between Honduras and El Salvador over a pair of football matches, and The Emperor, a brilliant study of the extraordinary and deranged Haile Selassie of Ethiopia. He also published Imperium, arguably the best study ever written on the fall of the Soviet Union.

Kapuscinski achieved worldwide fame only in his mid-40s, when his works were translated into numerous languages and he was hailed by critics for his miraculous synthesis of private experience with wider historical patterns. Back at home Poles voted him journalist of the century.

Today Domoslawski said that Kapuscinski had not only delved into fiction on many occasions, but had also mythologised his extraordinary life. "In part of his literary work he was creating a legend of himself. I can understand the reasons. If you come from a small country whose culture and language are not understood abroad, you make your message stronger."

He said he got to know Kapuscinksi during the last nine years of the writer's life. Domoslawski travelled extensively during the 1990s in Latin America, an area in which he and Kapuscinski had a strong common interest. The idea of writing a biography only came to him after the journalist's death, he said.

"I would hesitate to call him my friend, since other people are entitled to say they were better friends than I was, but Kapuscinski always treated me as a kind of disciple," he said.