A Passage To Africa

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The journalist observes, the subject is observed. The journalist is active, the subject is passive. But this smile had turned the tables on that tacit agreement. Without uttering a single word, the man had posed a question that cut to the heart of the relationship between me and him, between us and them, between the rich world and the poor world. If he was embarrassed to be found weakened by hunger and ground down by conflict, how should I feel to be standing there so strong and confident? 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 This shows the difference between our normal world and the one affected by the famine. The fact that he writes about the terrible things in Somalia and there are people who don’t care what is happening increases the pity. George Alight successfully increases the pity in the extract by telling us how much he has seen. He talks about a mother and her two starving children and the mother loses one of her daughter because of hunger and that happens while she was out looking for food.

He lists incidents that he has seen over the years that will forever be in his head. It is as though he is traumatised by all he has seen, from a mother with her children to an old woman. structurethrough 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 writes about his experiences as a television reporter during the war in Somalia, Africa in the 1990s. He won a special award for his report on the incidents described in this passage.

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. 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: His cynicism is again shown in how he refers to the famine which permeates the place as ‘a famine away from the headlines,’ as if all of the desolate scenes around him are not gruesome enough anymore to act as material for news. The ghastly horror of slow death does not hold the strength to leave an impact on anyone. 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. I first read this book soon after it was published but it was no hardship to re-read it when it was chosen by my reading group!I saw that face for only a few seconds, a fleeting meeting of eyes before the face turned away, as its owner retreated into the darkness of another hut. In those brief moments there had been a smile, not from me, but from the face. It was not a smile of greeting, it was not a smile of joy — how could it be? — but it was a smile nonetheless. It touched me in a way I could not explain. It moved me in a way that went beyond pity or revulsion.

The narrator's tone changes in the next paragraph, returning to the face which he only saw for 'a few seconds', showing his fascination about the juxtaposition of a 'smile' in this landscape. The narrator cannot understand it, saying only what it was 'not' a smile about, but unable to understand why it is there. 'It touched me in a way I could not explain', showing his confusion both about why he is touched and for why the smile happened in the first place. There is contrast between things he shows very vividly in the first half and things which he cannot explain (as they are emotional) in the second half. I saw a thousand hungry, lean, scared and betrayed faces as I criss-crossed Somalia between the end of 1991 and December 1992, but there is one I will never forget.no longer impressed by us much’- apathetic shows the profession is insensitive but because the public crave this type of news Even in these moments of desperation and impoverishment, the people are ashamed of the predicament that was forced upon them, they are ashamed of being weak. This makes George think, if helplessness makes them ashamed what should people like him, who are healthy and in search of suffering to make money out of it feel about their actions as they carry on without lending the people a helping hand? A Passage To Africa | Context

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. He then talks about an old woman abandoned by her family when they went in search of food as none of them was strong enough to carry her. The woman’s leg was bent like a boomerang after being shot by the forces of the despot. He locates her due to her rotting flesh and the smell it gave out, she was still alive with : 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.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. Alagiah lists incidents that have remained strong in his mind. He finishes the piece with the haunting image of a man. Despite the fact the image is haunting, the man was ‘smiling’.. It is as though it is a contradiction to the emotion Alagiah was feeling. examquestions In this story “From Passage to Africa”, George Alagiah creates sense of pity by using emotive language. In the extract you can see that he uses extract when he says “hungry”, “scared”. This shows that he is using emotive language to engage with his readers. George Alagiah creates also creates pity when he uses words such as “hut”, “dirt floor”. This shows the difference between our normal world and the one affected by the famine. The fact that he writes about the terrible things in Somalia and there are people who don’t care what is happening increases the pity.