BBC: Poland’s most celebrated journalist and non-fiction writer, Ryszard Kapuscinski, has died in Warsaw, aged 74, after a heart operation.
I first discovered Kapuscinski after being given a copy of The Shadow of the Sun by my good friends Alan Wiig and Brynna Jacobson shortly before I embarked on my first voyage to Senegal in 2002. His depictions of West Africa resonated with me and my experience 50 years after he wrote them.
While I’m hardly an expert on Africa, it remains one of my favorite books on the continent, and one of my favorite travel books of all time. I wish that one day I could become half the writer that he was.
Rest in peace, Ryszard. You will continue to be an inspiration to me, and to many future generations of journalists.
