The Emperor, by Ryszard Kapuscinski
The Emperor: Downfall of an Autocrat
by Ryszard Kapuscinski
Translated by William R. Brand and Katarzyna Mroczkowska-Brand
Penguin Classics, 192 pages. 1983, reprinted 2006.
At one point Ryszard Kapuscinski was the only Polish journalist reporting in the entire continent of Africa. He wrote during a time of significant upheaval, when peoples were shaking loose their colonial shackles with grand visions in the 1960s and 70s — often to succumb to sinister dictatorships. His news articles arrived in Poland through phone calls, spotty telegraph connections, and all manner of inventive communication. These pieces were informative, but Kapuscinski’s lasting legacy may be found in his insightful reportages, which he nicknamed ‘journalism by foot’. These pieces allowed him to share more personal observations that were not fit for the daily news.
Colossal Stature
Kapuscinski is at his best with The Emperor, his 1974 reportage about the 44 year rule of the Ethiopian monarch Haile Selassie. Selassie was a diminutive ruler of colossal stature. His army defeated the Italians under Mussolini. He kept lions at his palace, feeding them scraps of meat, and maintained a dozen opulent palaces throughout the country. He modernized Ethiopia’s infrastructure and drew his country into global politics, traveling the world with his elaborate retinue.
But the Emperor’s closest confidants suggest that he was a brutal ruler of exceptional cunning. He encouraged a culture of corruption and kept secrets, striving to maintain his power at all costs. When Ethiopia was wracked by famine, he refused to even criticize the noblemen who had horded foodstuffs, preferring loyalty over justice. Such shortcomings eventually led to the downfall of Haile Selassie’s regime by a coup d’état in 1974. He spent his final days in power in an office stuffed with hard cash and a few hundred million dollars collecting interest in overseas bank accounts.
Yo Deji,
Great review; just want to give you a heads up re: the word “Rastafarianism.” You might want to re-phrase that sentence (see below).
From Wiki:
Rastafari say that they reject “-isms”. They see a wide range of “-isms and schisms” in modern society, for example communism and capitalism, and want no part in them. They especially reject the word “Rastafarianism”, because they see themselves as “having transcended -isms and schisms.” This has created conflict between some Rastas and some members of the academic community studying Rastafari, who insist on calling this faith “Rastafarianism” in spite of disapproval this generates within the Rastafari movement. Nevertheless, the practice continues among scholars. However, the study of Rastafari using its own terms has occurred.
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