A Passage To Africa

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It was rotting; she was rotting' changes 'it' from 'she' to show how broken and dehumanized she is by the famine, she has no basic no human rights. This also shows how we dehumanize those across the world who are suffering, and, like the writer, need reminding that they too are human. wonderful book! so well-written, funny and erudite. It gives a wonderful overview of some of Africa's most harrowing histories. I was really impressed with the chapter on Mandela. There are no sacred cows and lots of villains in this book. Makes us all look at ourselves a little harder. The title itself is significant. The noun ‘Passage’ is ambiguous; of course the obvious meaning would be that the following is an extract, a piece of writing. But it could also be interpreted as a path, a way, a journey to Africa. Also the use of the word ‘to’ imply that the passage is not a mere informative work on Africa, but a dedication to the country. 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 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. The writer also creates pity by describing the old woman “the smell of decaying flesh”. With this quote George Alagiah is able to engage the reader as they are imagining the smell of the decaying flesh.

There was the old woman who lay in her hut, abandoned by relations who were too weak to carry her on their journey to find food. It was the smell that drew me to her 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. A Passage To Africa is a moving, touching account of what George Alagiah felt and experienced in a small town in Africa, and the beauty and intensity of emotion lies, not only in the message behind it, but also in every word of every sentence in this article. 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.The passage describes the journalists as 'ghoulish' while searching for 'striking pictures', showing how they may not be searching for them for the right reasons. From a Passage to Africa How does the writer, Alight, use language to inform the reader about the harsh realities of being a journalist? In this story “From Passage to Africa”, George Alight 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 Alight creates also creates pity when he uses words such as “hut”, “dirt floor.

abandoned by relations who were too weak to carry her on their journey' - creates sympathy for her, as a reader thinks of their own family abandoning them, and the way in which she's been abandoned by the world. Yet it doesn't blame the family, because they have to find food for themselves, so cannot care for her. This shows the extreme choices people have to make in this famine. 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.Supplemental understanding of the topic including revealing main issues described in the particular theme; 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 writer also creates pity by describing the old woman “the smell of decaying flesh”. With this quote George Alight is able to engage the reader as they are imagining the smell of the decaying flesh. One way the writer creates horror is by describing the “ghost village” as if people are dead; however they are alive (barely). Also he creates horror by using words such as “festering wound the size of my hand”.

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. 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: There’s pity, too, because even in this state of utter despair they aspire to a dignity that is almost impossible to achieve. An old woman will cover her shriveled body with a soiled cloth as your gaze turns towards her. Or the old and dying man who keeps his 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 soil once all this is over. 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. languageIn 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. 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?” Paragraph 5 describes an 'old woman' who has a wound which hasn't been treated and who is rotting in her house, unable to find food for herself. It is the list of 3 adjectives that create the pity and empathy that we feel for the situation. Another example is: