Polskie i afrykańskie historie przygodne. O początkach reportażu Ryszarda Kapuścińskiego
Polish and African Casual Histories. On the Beginnings of Ryszard Kapuściński’s Report

Summary/Abstract: The text presents the shaping of Ryszard Kapuściński’s writing in his important years 1959–1961 – from quitting the daily “Sztandar Młodych” (“The Banner of Youth”) up to his leaving for Africa as a press correspondent for the Polish Press Agency. It is the time of his work for the later famous weekly “Polityka” in the reports section, numerous reporter’s trips to the Polish province and two first African trips, namely to Ghana in 1959 and to Congo in 1960. At this time Kapuściński writes texts later collected into two books "Polish Bush" (1962) and "Black Stars" (1963), both of which gain readers’ immense attention and critics’ interest. Kapuściński’s reports belong to the first after Stalinist period to acquaint the Polish readers with the current world history, and the relation is true, free of ideological simplifications. Home reports are characterized by connections with the then existentialist interests of Polish prose and belong as much to journalism as to literature thus livening up a discussion on the relationship between those two writing domains.

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