"Africa does not exist."

    Following is the foreword by the author of the book I am beginning.  The book is The Shadow of the Sun by Ryszard Kapuscinski.  He was Poland's first Africa correspondent and reported from Africa at the time of their emerging independence.   

  " I've lived in Africa for several years.  I first went there in 1957.  Then, over the next 40 years I returned whenever the opportunity arose.  I traveled extensively, avoiding official routes, palaces, important personages, and high-level politics.  Instead, I opted to hitch rides on passing trucks, wander with nomads through the desert, be the guest of peasants of the tropical savannah.  Their life is endless toil, a torment they endure with astonishing patience and good humor.
         This is therefore not a book about Africa, but rather about some people from there--about encounters with them, and time spent together.  The continent is too large to describe.  It is a veritable ocean, a separate planet, a varied, immensely rich cosmos.  Only, with the greatest simplification, for the sake of convenience, can we say "Africa."  In reality, except as a geographical appellation, Africa does not exist."
-R.K.