A Passage To Africa

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He is writing reflectively and his attitude towards the events seems to have changed since he originally reported on the event. This seems most clear in the final line, when he discusses his regret at not knowing the man’s name. It suggests that his purpose and empathy level is different now that it was then. language

The simple one sentence sixth stanza ‘And then there was the face I will never forget’ implies the great significance of the meeting it alludes to , how important it must have been for the author.A simile is when you compare one object with another. A simile uses the words ‘as’ and ‘like’ to compare.

through my notes and studied the dispatch that the BBC broadcast, I see that I never found out what the man’s name was. Yet meeting him was a seminal moment in the gradual collection of experiences we call context. Facts and figures are the easy part of journalism. Knowing where they sit in the great scheme of things is much harder. So, my nameless friend, if you are still alive, I owe you one. George Alagiah is a BBC newsreader. He used to be a reporter and he was sent to Africa to cover the events that unfolded in the 1990s in Somalia. At this time, there was a civil war and the people encountered many difficulties.The village is called a ghost village bringing emphasis to how empty the village is devoid of people, peace and slowly dying. While recounting the case of Amina, the use of her name make the readers more affected by her plight, the name reminding the readers, that this is a story of a person, with feelings and pain just like everyone else. George also gives details about the situation to provide more context, like the mud floor that tells us how impoverished the population there is. The child dies without any sound, “ No rage, no whimpering, just a passing away” thus reminding the readers how helpless the people are, too starved to even make a sound or move. “No rage”, again emphasising that they are beyond the point of anger and resistance, even if they want to resist and change things around them they are simply denied any chance to do so by the structures and nature around them, no one to lend a hand and no one to listen. In vivid and evocative prose and with a fine eye for detail, Alagiah’s viewpoint is spiked with the freshness of the young George on his arrival in Ghana, the wonder with which he recounts his first impressions of Africa and the affection with which he dresses his stories of his early family life. The repetition of 'smile' in these paragraphs shows his fascination with it, then when his translator explains the smile it is revealed that smile was an 'apology' for being in such a bad conditions, as though 'you had done something wrong.' This makes the reader feel pity, and shame themselves because the man feels that he has to apologise for himself, despite having done nothing wrong. At this point, Alagiah marks a shift. He was the ‘ observer‘, but becomes, in a parallel sentence construction using polyptoton, ‘ the observed‘. He’s no longer the ‘ active‘ watcher of ‘ passive‘ sufferers, at a safe distance, but part of the scene. The distance of the initial antithesis is reversed and he’s now uncomfortably close. Note the contrast between the two quotes mentioned above. Whilst the first set of adjectives are harsh, the second contains much gentler and softer description. It is almost as though Alagiah is contrasting the harshness of the incidents with the human empathy that he feels.

Immediately the introduction shows where the focus of the passage will turn to, the 'one I will never forget', which interests the reader about why he will never forget this face.The beginning of the passage is a one sentence introductory paragraph starting with a series of adjectives in rapid succession: ‘thousand, hungry, lean, scared and betrayed faces.’ Showing the turmoil of emotions the author felt, unable to pin down the description of the faces in one word, it also evokes at once the curiosity of the reader a well as lays the ground work for the setting: a general picture of death and disease form in one’s mind. The use of the noun ‘faces’, not names, not people, but ‘faces’ shows the impersonal detachment of the author. They aren’t human beings to him; they are just faces, just surfaces and expressions. This is emphasized in the ending of the sentence: ‘…but there is one I will never forget.’ Along with informing us about a meeting which was so exceptional that the author cannot forget it, it also implies that the rest of the death and suffering he sees around him are very much forgettable and don’t really affect him. The very beginning of the excerpt speaks of the condition of the people of Somalia, calling them “a thousand hungry, lean, scared and betrayed faces” emphasising how they were betrayed by the people who were supposed to protect them or pretend that they will protect them. The author even throws shade at his own venture inside the land in search of more terrible sights, calling it a ghoulish hunt, portraying the inhumane greed of the media world that prides itself on being the first to uncover stories and venture in search of suffering and monetises them.

The height of pity is reached in the eighth paragraph when Alagiah describes how the people, defeated by death, crushed by its oppression and helpless in its absolution still refuse to give up whatever shard of dignity they have left: the woman covers herself up, the man does not let go of his gardening hoe. These people are graceful even in their defeat. Among these is the face Alagiah catches sight of, the face that smiles. It is a face, not a man, not a name, simply a face; as were those faces that he saw and forgot that were mentioned before. But the smile is what makes it special, something unearthly in its beauty. He cannot pin down what the smile means, he describes it in negative sentences, it is not one of greeting or joy. He wonders at it as it has moved him to a feeling much ‘beyond pity and revulsion.’ passage to Africa’- ambiguous title, could mean anything like a journey to Africa or more likely a dedication to Africa (his purpose is to serve Africa in some way) George Alagiah is describing a visit to Africa. He is discussing the horrors that he saw on his visit and how they have haunted him since. contextIn the penultimate paragraph, the journalist shows his resolution to 'write the story of Gufgaduud with all the power and purpose I could muster', due to his guilt and to due to his feeling that this is the only way in which he can answer the question of how one should react to other people's' suffering. The writer suggests that the only way to react to it is spreading awareness and portraying the situation as powerfully and unflinchingly as he can. Finally, he uses a short fragment paragraph ‘ And then there was the face I will never forget ’. This builds tension, because out of all Alagiah has seen which he says eventually becomes numbing, he uses the absolute ‘ never forget ’ to indicate how much this affected him. In this section, he builds suspense using rhetorical questions ‘ What was it about that smile?’ as he seeks to uncover the mystery of why this one man affected him so much. This man is the only one who speaks directly to us – albeit through a translator ‘ he’s embarrassed to be found in this condition ’. Alagiah becomes connected to the subject, personally, where normally, he says he’s ‘ inured‘. Emotive Language is any language that makes you feel something for a person or situation. It is an umbrella term and there are many different devices that create emotive language: hunt’ and ‘tramped’- predatory language shows the profession as a predatory nature it is animal like and barbaric