The Cobra’s Heart- A randomly picked Penguin

The ransom selector on the Book Buddy app picked this book to read. It is part of the 20 books in the Penguin Great Journey’s set.

The Cobra’s Heart is a short work of literary travel writing rather than a novel. It is drawn from Kapuściński’s longer book, The Shadow of the Sun, and recounts his experiences as a journalist travelling through Africa during the period of the early 1960s when many countries were gaining independence. O

The central episode takes place in 1962. Kapuściński and his companion Leo drive from Dar es Salaam toward Kampala to report on Uganda’s independence. They become lost on the vast Serengeti plain, pass through an enormous herd of buffalo and spend the night in an abandoned hut—where Kapuściński discovers a deadly Egyptian cobra beneath his bed. Their struggle with the snake gives the book its title.

(The snake episode is very frightening.)

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The first paragraph of the book drew me in.

More than anything, one is struck by the light. Light everywhere. Everywhere, the sun. Just yesterday, an autumnal London was drenched in rain. A cold wind, darkness. But here, from the morning’s earliest moments, the airport is ablaze with sunlight, all of us in sunlight.

Reading this in our winter gloom was just what I needed on the day I read it.

I found the book really interesting but had to look up a few things as I’m not that familiar with African geography or history on the whole. So these are the things I learned .

Vocabulary: Women are pounding maniac and baking taro bulbs. Manioc cooking is the preparation of the starchy, edible root of the manioc plant (also called cassava or yuca) into safe, tender, and flavorful dishes

Flavor: Cooked taro has a dense, starchy texture and a mild, nutty, slightly sweet taste.Preparation: People roast, bake, boil, or steam them just like potatoes.

I might need to put these on the list with the gooseberries I wrote about in a previous post.

Kente cloth – is a brightly colored, hand-woven textile made of silk and cotton strips that originated with the Asante and Ewe people of Ghana. Resembles a basket weave.

Djellabah- Design: It features full, long sleeves and a distinctive pointed hood called a qob, which historically protected wearers from harsh desert sun, wind, and sand.

Then I needed to look up a couple of geographic areas on the map. Google was helpful with this, i saw how big the Serengeti desert is and I looked up Murchison Falls in Uganda. So powerful and beautiful. i also needed to see where the Gulf of Guinea is. I’m really enjoying what these little books toss up to research. I wonder what more I’ll learn in the books to come.

And I’m sharing one last quotation that made me laugh. The men wanted to get on a bus to get to their next destination.

We climb into the bus and sit down. At this point there is a risk of culture class, of collision and conflict. It will undoubtedly occur if the passenger is a foreigner who doesn’t know Africa. (This takes place in 1962.) Someone like that will start looking around, squirming, inquiring, ‘When will the bus leave?’

‘What do you mean, when?’ the astonished driver will reply. ‘It will leave when we find enough people to fill it up.’

It left more than 2 hours later.

It is now time to get back to Book Buddy and see what Penguin anniversary book I’ll be reading next.

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LIFE

I’ll leave you with a photo of this sad sack. Ollie had a pea sized tumour removed from his bottom eye lid area. It has been sent to pathology but the vet believes it will be ok. In the meantime Ollie is enjoying feeling sorry for himself.