These gleanings from old notebooks tell how Mr Kapuscinski rumbled in buses and cattle trucks through the landscapes where most Africans live.

ECONOMIST: African memoir: Bus rides | The

Things got worse and Mr Kapuscinski watched the degradation.

ECONOMIST: African memoir: Bus rides | The

Mr Kapuscinski went to Africa as a journalist, but goodness knows what the Polish Press Agency made of his copy, since his true vocation is that of a Literary Traveller, a dispenser of fine sensibilities and finer prose.

ECONOMIST: African memoir: Bus rides | The