The Soccer War: The dispute of Power all over Africa

The first chapter ends with Ben Bella´s story and do we know if his story is going to appear again? that´s something that Kapuscinski has kept for himself and later on in the book it may appear. I also think that the disguise that Kapuscinski is doing with Ben Bella´s story will later on come in great portions of suspense and a great development for the book.

As we keep on reading we realize that as the author travels, he starts seeing the really poor and crude part of Africa. After being in Algiers, he flies to Accra and from there he starts a journey through many African Countries. One of them is Dahomey, and he describes the vast poverty that Africa is facing at that time “Dahomey is a poor, underdeveloped country. To lift Dahomey out of poverty will require enormous effort concentrated energy and education. But nobody is even working.” (pg. 123). As we know Africa is still the poorest continent in the whole world, so it is easier for us readers to associate the situation that the narrator is telling us. And most importantly, the author is risking his life. In the moment, Africa is passing through many civil wars because guerrillas such as the FLN in Algeria. In dahomey the situation is different because the goverment is completely divided. "So Dahomey had two presidents, two heads of state. Such a situation cannot go on for long."(pg. 124).
This contradiction in the powerful classes of Africa is hwhat is causing the disturbance and also the civil wars.

Also in this chapter we see how Kapuscinski cheats death becasue this is a very hostile environment and well let´s face it, he seems to be a white guy, with nothing to do in this civil wars of Africa. “I had to experience everything for myself.” (pg. 130) He experienced everything with a lot of apreciation but once he almost got killed for appreciating a lot. “I wanted to live, but life was abandoning me. I wanted to live, but I did not know how to defend my life. My life was going to end in inhuman torment.”(pg. 134). This happens when in Nigeria they almost end his life in flames. Here we see how military movements like UPGA try to cause terror or send messages of power by killing people. This is what the lack of demanding power is doing to Africa, it´s tearing apart it´s country, it´s culture.