' Only with the greatest of simplifications for the sake of convenience can we say Africa In reality except as a geographical term Africa doesn't exist' Ryszard Kapuscinski has been writing about the people of Africa throughout his career In astudy that avoids the official routes palaces & big politics he sets out to create an account of post-colonial Africa seen at once as a whole & as a location that wholly defies generalised explanations It is both a sustained meditation on themosaic of peoples & practises we call ' Africa' & an impassioned attempt to come to terms with humanity itself as it struggles to escape from foreign domination from the intoxications of freedom from war & from politics as theft