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 Reporter delves into African tragedies A Review by Monique Bos Aidan Hartley, a fourth-generation descendent of British colonists, grew up in Kenya, Tanzania, and other parts of Africa. After attending Oxford, he returned to the continent he considers his home and began working for the Reuters news agency. During his time as a reporter, he witnessed wars, famine, genocide and other atrocities. His memoir, “The Zanzibar Chest,” seems to be his way of coming to terms with, or perhaps simply reflecting further about, the mind-numbing horrors he experienced. Juxtaposed against his chronicles of life in cities such as Nairobi, Dar es Salaam and Mogadishu is the story of his father’s friend Peter Davey. Both young men were posted to Arabia in the 1940s and struggled with their role as agents of the British government, recognizing the pitfalls of European colonialism. Hartley’s examination of Davey’s life and tragic death contrasts with his own experiences as a correspondent often dispatched to cover assassinations, coups and other tumultuous situations. He and his peers regularly encounter danger, yet the deaths of several colleagues in Somalia in 1993 — the same period as the events publicized in “Black Hawk Down” — highlights the genuine precariousness of their lives. Still numbed from Somalia, Hartley travels into Rwanda in 1994 to document the genocide and ethnic cleansing there. He describes in stark detail mass graves, ruined villages, starving refugees and cholera epidemics. Almost more offensive than the violence is Reuters’ attitude to the situation: Reporters are told to stop covering the genocide altogether because it is costing rather than making the company money. Hartley indicts the Western world, as well as Reuters, for a combination of willfully ignoring and failing to grasp the extent of the problems in Africa. The United Nations, however, is the focus of his harshest criticism. He shows them as inept, often too lazy or naïve to question cunning leaders, prone to political pressures, and inclined to make token gestures in situations to whose resolution they have no long-term commitment. Hartley offers no great conclusions and arrives at no ultimate catharsis. After retiring from the news industry, he realizes he can’t return to any semblance of “normal life,” and ultimately he and his wife move to a Kenya farm to live in peace, raise their children and contribute to Africa’s future. “The Zanzibar Chest” is a difficult read, both because of the intense subject matter and because of Hartley’s sometimes disjointed writing style. However, it also is an articulate, informed and compassionate guide for anyone interested in developing an understanding of Africa’s complex history and issues. |
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