I first read this book soon after it was published but it was no hardship to re-read it when it was chosen by my reading group! The title itself is significant. The noun ‘Passage’ is ambiguous; of course the obvious meaning would be that the following is an extract, a piece of writing. But it could also be interpreted as a path, a way, a journey to Africa. Also the use of the word ‘to’ imply that the passage is not a mere informative work on Africa, but a dedication to the country. It was rotting; she was rotting' changes 'it' from 'she' to show how broken and dehumanized she is by the famine, she has no basic no human rights. This also shows how we dehumanize those across the world who are suffering, and, like the writer, need reminding that they too are human.

He points out how the reporters wipe their hands after holding the clammy hands of a mother who had just wiped vomit from her child’s mouth. The writer gives the names and ages of the children to emphasize their youth at the time of death, and to drive the circumstances home to the reader. hungry, lean scared and betrayed faces’- list of adjectives creates an image of suffering, links to the end when trying to make the reader feel guilt. Normally inured to stories of suffering, accustomed to the evidence of deprivation, I was unsettled by this one smile in a way I had never been before. There is an unwritten code between the journalist and his subjects in these situations. Alagiah lists incidents that have remained strong in his mind. He finishes the piece with the haunting image of a man. Despite the fact the image is haunting, the man was ‘smiling’.. It is as though it is a contradiction to the emotion Alagiah was feeling. examquestionsis like the craving for a drug’- simile shows that people always want more- adrenaline rush and people crave it always have and always will always someone to use that drug available Pathos and pity is evoked in the reader by the next paragraph, its impact strengthened by the use of names as the plight of two daughters and their mother is described. The anaphora in ‘no rage, no whimpering’, the dash followed by adjectives such as ‘motionless, simple and frictionless’; all are used to diminish death, as if it is a matter of no importance or significance, an everyday occurring which is inevitable. Seeing death up close on a daily basis, Alagiah feels that it is rather life which is the difficult part, as in seen by his description of the girl’s existence as a ‘half-life’ and her death as ‘deliverance’ as if life is a punishment, something to be saved from.

In vivid and evocative prose and with a fine eye for detail, Alagiah’s viewpoint is spiked with the freshness of the young George on his arrival in Ghana, the wonder with which he recounts his first impressions of Africa and the affection with which he dresses his stories of his early family life. It is the list of 3 adjectives that create the pity and empathy that we feel for the situation. Another example is: In paragraph 3 the writer tells us that they have seen so much horror that they can't appreciate it any longer. One of Britain’s most respected television journalists, with a reputation built up over many years of covering world events’ Guardian The text revolves around post-war violence and its effect on people and how the world media, greedy for the news of suffering hunt the people down for the stories and pictures that can be gained from them. It talks about how violence and war do not end with overthrowing the king, and how it has many lingering effects on the nations and their people. Through vivid images created through intricate descriptive language. LITERARY DEVICES AND NARRATIVE TECHNIQUESThe narrator's tone changes in the next paragraph, returning to the face which he only saw for 'a few seconds', showing his fascination about the juxtaposition of a 'smile' in this landscape. The narrator cannot understand it, saying only what it was 'not' a smile about, but unable to understand why it is there. 'It touched me in a way I could not explain', showing his confusion both about why he is touched and for why the smile happened in the first place. There is contrast between things he shows very vividly in the first half and things which he cannot explain (as they are emotional) in the second half. abandoned by relations who were too weak to carry her on their journey' - creates sympathy for her, as a reader thinks of their own family abandoning them, and the way in which she's been abandoned by the world. Yet it doesn't blame the family, because they have to find food for themselves, so cannot care for her. This shows the extreme choices people have to make in this famine. There’s pity, too, because even in this state of utter despair they aspire to a dignity that is almost impossible to achieve. An old woman will cover her shriveled body with a soiled cloth as your gaze turns towards her. Or the old and dying man who keeps his hoe next to the mat with which, one day soon, they will shroud his corpse, as if he means to go out and till the soil once all this is over. Paragraph 7 moves from a direct presentation of the suffering to how he experienced it, and how it is shown on TV and in reports to audiences across the world. This is particularly moving for the reader as it describes in harsh terms a particularly terrible situation which readers can see in their own lives.

In this story “From Passage to Africa”, George Alagiah creates sense of pity by using emotive language. In the extract you can see that he uses extract when he says “hungry”, “scared”. This shows that he is using emotive language to engage with his readers. George Alagiah creates also creates pity when he uses words such as “hut”, “dirt floor”. This shows the difference between our normal world and the one affected by the famine. The fact that he writes about the terrible things in Somalia and there are people who don’t care what is happening increases the pity. The very beginning of the excerpt speaks of the condition of the people of Somalia, calling them “a thousand hungry, lean, scared and betrayed faces” emphasising how they were betrayed by the people who were supposed to protect them or pretend that they will protect them. The author even throws shade at his own venture inside the land in search of more terrible sights, calling it a ghoulish hunt, portraying the inhumane greed of the media world that prides itself on being the first to uncover stories and venture in search of suffering and monetises them. He is writing reflectively and his attitude towards the events seems to have changed since he originally reported on the event. This seems most clear in the final line, when he discusses his regret at not knowing the man’s name. It suggests that his purpose and empathy level is different now that it was then. language

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Alagiah finishes his testimony on a note of optimism, which sadly seems somewhat unfounded when one looks at the present situation in almost all of these countries. From a personal perspective, as one living in South Africa these past ten years, it's especially saddening to see that his hope for the future of this beautiful country, put on a positive and inclusive road by Nelson Mandela, has since succumbed to the twin blights of corruption and governmental mismanagement. His cynicism is again shown in how he refers to the famine which permeates the place as ‘a famine away from the headlines,’ as if all of the desolate scenes around him are not gruesome enough anymore to act as material for news. The ghastly horror of slow death does not hold the strength to leave an impact on anyone. One way the writer creates horror is by describing the “ghost village” as if people are dead; however they are alive (barely). Also he creates horror by using words such as “festering wound the size of my hand”.