From A Passage to Africa

George Alagiah writes about his experiences as a

television reporter during the war in Somalia, Comment [S1]: Already presented with a history of violence
Africa in the 1990s. He won a special award for his
report on the incidents described in this passage.

I saw a thousand hungry, lean, scared and betrayed Comment [S2]: Emphasizes ‘betrayed’. They were left behind by people who had
faces as I criss-crossed Somalia between the end of failed to protect them from horrors. We let them down by not helping.
1991 and December 1992, but there is one I will never Comment [S3]: Polysendeton. Never-ending cycle of suffering. Emotive words
forget. used. Impression of people crowding together out of sight. Pain is alluded to.
Comment [S4]: Draws reader in. One person stands out amongst ‘thousands’
I was in a little hamlet just outside Gufgaduud, a
village in the back of beyond, a place the aid agencies Comment [S5]: Far away from the newspapers and knowledge. As if they were
had yet to reach. In my notebook I had jotted down stuffed away dismissively
instructions on how to get there. ‘Take the Badale
Road for a few kilometres till the end of the tarmac,
turn right on to a dirt track, stay on it for about forty-
five minutes — Gufgaduud. Go another fifteen
minutes approx. — like a ghost village.’ … Comment [S6]: Isolation is accentuated. An inexplicable loneliness evokes pathos.
However note that the author’s need for the worst images to publish is the only
In the ghoulish manner of journalists on the hunt for reason he comes here
the most striking pictures, my cameraman … and I Comment [S7]: The village too has lost its soul. No life and freedom. The villagers
tramped from one hut to another. What might have lack a will to live. Impression that although they are still alive, they are empty shells,
appalled us when we'd started our trip just a few days apathetic. Silent shadow imprints that will eventually fade away and be forgotten.
before no longer impressed us much. The search for Comment [S8]: Similar to the villagers the news industry would so readily dismiss.
the shocking is like the craving for a drug: you require Heartless and feeding off the despair of other humans- cold
heavier and more frequent doses the longer you're at Comment [S9]: Doesn’t care for their suffering and pain. Only wants the pictures
it. Pictures that stun the editors one day are written off whereas the context remains ignored. Background.
as the same old stuff the next. This sounds callous,
Comment [S10]: Jaded. Depicts the apathetic news industry’s only aim to gain
but it is just a fact of life. It's how we collect and
emotional stories without receiving the emotional impact themselves. Ignorant +
compile the images that so move people in the mechanical
comfort of their sitting rooms back home.
Comment [S11]: Desensitized to suffering. Greed: what they already have is not
enough. They have seen too much of it thus are immune to it. Suggests that they are
There was Amina Abdirahman, who had gone out that addicted to finding the worst pictures, experiences have hardened them.
morning in search of wild, edible roots, leaving her two
young girls lying on the dirt floor of their hut. They had Comment [S12]: Dismissive attitude is shocking to the reader. Although it subtly
implies that this is also our attitude towards the Somalis- accusing us.
been sick for days, and were reaching the final,
enervating stages of terminal hunger. Habiba was ten Comment [S13]: Contrast between the different worlds. We will never get to
years old and her sister, Ayaan, was nine. By the time intimately immerse ourselves in the Somali lifestyle. We take our comfort for granted
Amina returned, she had only one daughter. Habiba and soon forget the fleeting images the news industry churns out. Reminds us of our
ignorance and superficiality.
had died. No rage, no whimpering, just a passing
away — that simple, frictionless, motionless Comment [S14]: Poverty and desperation. Ironic- she goes in search of food but
deliverance from a state of half-life to death itself. It her daughter dies of hunger. These people have to be content with their meager
share- injustice
was, as I said at the time in my dispatch, a vision of
‘famine away from the headlines, a famine of quiet Comment [S15]: Chance to have a normal childhood has be stolen from them.
suffering and lonely death’. Loss of freedom and innocence. Destruction of her vivacity and vitality.
Comment [S16]: Sense that she is relieved to pass away. Now she is free from
There was the old woman who lay in her hut, earthly bonds, sadness, despair and suffering. Looks forward to death as it is what
abandoned by relations who were too weak to carry rescues her. Shocks reader as conditions are reversed: Death is better than Life
her on their journey to find food. It was the smell that Comment [S17]: The world does not care for her death.
drew me to her doorway: the smell of decaying flesh.
Where her shinbone should have been there was a
festering wound the size of my hand. She’d been shot
in the leg as the retreating army of the deposed
dictator … took revenge on whoever it found in its
way. The shattered leg had fused into the gentle V-
Comment [S18]: Represents mutilation of her soul by experiences. Provokes
shape of a boomerang. It was rotting; she was rotting. emotional response
You could see it in her sick, yellow eyes and smell it in
the putrid air she recycled with every struggling breath Comment [S19]: Repetition of rotting emphasizes her struggle for survival. Her
dirtiness and pitiful state is striking. Hopelessness is accentuated and sense that se
she took. isn't quite human anymore
And then there was the face I will never forget.

My reaction to everyone else I met that day was a

Comment [S20]: Honesty. Revealing what everyone knows but no one admits. We
mixture of pity and revulsion*. Yes, revulsion. The
feel guilty at his subtle accusation as we should have been sympathetic not revolted.
degeneration of the human body, sucked of its natural
vitality by the twin evils of hunger and disease, is a Comment [S21]: It is not a visible and tangible enemy. The fact that it is inner as
disgusting thing. We never say so in our TV reports. well makes it more frightening.
It’s a taboo that has yet to be breached. To be in a Comment [S22]: IT is deemed as too disgraceful. Maybe by avoiding the issue they
feeding centre is to hear and smell the excretion of can pretend it doesn’t exist
fluids by people who are beyond controlling their Comment [S23]: Pitiful impression as they have lost their dignity. Survival instinct
bodily functions. To be in a feeding centre is dominates and this makes them more animalistic
surreptitiously* to wipe your hands on the back of your
Comment [S24]: We fell guilt at our behavior. However, social rules and
trousers after you’ve held the clammy palm of a stereotypes still influences us. Alagiah doesn’t want to dirty himself.. Distance-shying
mother who has just cleaned vomit from her child’s away thus we can relate to him and are uncertain of his connection to the Somalis
mouth.
Comment [S25]: Tragic. We could bear it if they were mere animals, but because
they are humans this image of ‘utter despair’ is horrifying as we feel connected to
There’s pity, too, because even in this state of utter them somehow through the author.
despair they aspire to a dignity that is almost
Comment [S26]: Her embarrassment is surprising. Even though it is not necessary
impossible to achieve. An old woman will cover her she wants to reassure herself of her humanity, sanity and identity. Keeping in contact
shriveled body with a soiled cloth as your gaze turns with what they used to be.
towards her. Or the old and dying man who keeps his
Comment [S27]: Modal verb. He cannot avoid his fate.
hoe next to the mat with which, one day soon, they will
shroud his corpse, as if he means to go out and till the Comment [S28]: Futile hopes. Evokes pathos as it contrasts with what we know
soil once all this is over. will happen. A proud people has been reduced to a pitiful state yet still manages to
dredge up some dignity, a superficial imitation of earlier times. Their determination to
remain humane deserves praise.
I saw that face for only a few seconds, a fleeting
meeting of eyes before the face turned away, as its Comment [S29]: Transient and ephemeral moment. The small moment has a big
owner retreated into the darkness of another hut. In effect on him as it inspires him to pursue answers
those brief moments there had been a smile, not from Comment [S30]: Animalistic impression
me, but from the face. It was not a smile of greeting, it
Comment [S31]: Repetition suggests his preoccupation with the simple gesture.
was not a smile of joy — how could it be? — but it was HE needs to define it and because of its unpredictability it becomes more memorable.
a smile nonetheless. It touched me in a way I could Highlights contrast between two worlds.
not explain. It moved me in a way that went beyond
Comment [S32]: Usually we associate smiling with happiness this unexpected
pity or revulsion. smile makes the people seem more mysterious and more extraordinary than the
media portrays them to be.
What was it about that smile? I had to find out. I
Comment [S33]: Its uniqueness makes it impossible to put into words. It
urged my translator to ask the man why he had transcends normal emotions and it changes the author . Suddenly he becomes the
smiled. He came back with an answer. ‘It's just that he subject –development.
was embarrassed to be found in this condition,’ the
Comment [S34]: Short sentences emphasize a clarity the author has now gained.
translator explained. And then it clicked. That's what
His understanding is a contrast to earlier on. Resolution of a problem.
the smile had been about. It was the feeble smile that
goes with apology, the kind of smile you might give if Comment [S35]: Apologizing for being revealed amidst poverty and despair. He
you felt you had done something wrong. was an honorable man and wants to hang on to that belief and memory. Tries to
ignore personal issues as he only cares about the image he presents. A realization for
readers, these people are still human and some are better than we are.
Normally inured* to stories of suffering, accustomed
to the evidence of deprivation, I was unsettled by this Comment [S36]: Unusual, the man has no reason to smile. Reminds the author
that there are others still suffering in abandonment.
one smile in a way I had never been before. There is
an unwritten code between the journalist and his Comment [S37]: Scientific approach. They are being watched by us yet now there
subjects in these situations. The journalist observes, is a reversal of roles. The agreement has been broken and the author is grateful for it.
the subject is observed. The journalist is active, the Comment [S38]: Concept of unity. Implies that there is nothing separating us at
subject is passive. But this smile had turned the tables all. Each story of suffering must be given the same importance, urgency and
on that tacit agreement. Without uttering a single commitment. We should learn humility as Alagiah points out that we are not anymore
word, the man had posed a question that cut to the ‘human’ than the poverty stricken Somalis
heart of the relationship between me and him, Comment [S39]: We can come in and out of their world but they cannot. However,
between us and them, between the rich world and the there remains a universality about this statement that everyone is equal despite our
poor world. If he was embarrassed to be found contrasts.
weakened by hunger and ground down by conflict, Comment [S40]: Poses to the reader a question. We should reevaluate our views
how should I feel to be standing there so strong and of the poor and be as ashamed and embarrassed as Alagiah when we find out that we
confident? are not superior to others. In some ways they are stronger than us and enduring, they
still retain dignity which we may have lost already should our roles be reversed.
I resolved there and then that I would write the story
of Gufgaduud with all the power and purpose I could
muster. It seemed at the time, and still does, the only Comment [S41]: ‘I’ is repeated. Determination. The experience has been
adequate answer a reporter can give to the man's imprinted into his mind.
question. Comment [S42]: Short paragraph accentuates the effect on the reader. The author
is inspired to share his memories and humanity of the Somalis. His approach is
I have one regret about that brief encounter in revolutionary in the apathetic media world. Yet, he is not striving to evoke pathos for
Gufgaduud. Having searched through my notes and the people but to encourage us to help them out of goodwill not out of pity. This
studied the dispatch that the BBC broadcast, I see recount is his part in the process and the reader develops with him.
that I never found out what the man's name was. Yet Comment [S43]: A universal story. The man symbolizes every story of ignored
meeting him was a seminal moment in the gradual suffering in the world. The reader will never et a chance to know and see him although
collection of experiences we call context. Facts and he has given us change and a chance to help others.
figures are the easy part of journalism. Knowing where Comment [S44]: Profound experience. It went against everything he was taught
they sit in the great scheme of things is much harder. and believed in. Changes his mission and purpose in life to helping these people
So, my nameless friend, if you are still alive, I owe you instead of just reporting on them.
one. Comment [S45]: Touching gesture. He still remembers the moment though others
would have already moved on. He is thanking the man and giving him the respect he
George Alagiah deserves. He made the author realize the humanity of his subjects. Unlike endings of
other news articles. Stands out.
*revulsion: disgust
*surreptitiously: secretly
*inured: hardened

Genre: Autobiography (extract)

Audience: General adult

Purpose:

 Evoke pathos for Somalis

 Isolated
 Resignation
 Suffering
 Powerlessness
 Harsh conditions in the
village- atmosphere of death,
decay and abandonment
 Violence
 Recounting the impact the experience has
had on him
 Initially revulsion, pity and
disgust
 Later he re-evaluates and
questions his beliefs
 Connection between Alagiah
and the villagers- unity
 Reveals how the news industry/news crew
really work:
 View people as subjects
 No real connection between
the two parties
 Trying to hunt for the most
shocking images to captivate
readers
 Makes us question the difference between us
and the Somalis
 We are the same as the Somali
people- concept of unity explored
 They aren’t objects of pity: they are
people too
 Evoking a sense of guilt- we have
been viewing them as sub-human &
undignified