A Passage to Africa

Question 1

What type of text is ‘A Passage to Africa’

Answer 1

a book extract from an autobiography

Question 2

what is the purpose of the text ‘A Passage to Africa’

Answer 2

to emotionally challenge the ignorant western world and highlight the deprivation and suffering in developing countries

Question 3

what tone is used in the text ‘A Passage to Africa’

Answer 3

a personal and reflective voice of a journalist
- the tone develops and ends in an epiphany to show his journey
- critical tone
- sympathetic tone
- curious tone
- tone of realisation
- passionate tone

Question 4

what are the key themes and ideas in the text ‘A Passage to Africa’

Answer 4

• acknowledges shame for a lack of empathy from the western world
• the horror of the suffering/ cruelty of life
• a determination for change

Question 5

highlight some structural points in the text ‘A Passage to Africa’

Answer 5

• initial sense of mystery of the ‘one’ face he ‘will never forget’, entices the reader
• the description of the remote village may be symbolic of how detached the western perspective is
• 3 anecdotes of increasing suffering to keep the reader engaged as the slowly become desensitized by the effects throughout the text much like the people who live there.
• delayed climax of ‘that face’

Question 6

highlight some language points in the text ‘A Passage to Africa’

Answer 6

• complex sentences to highlight remoteness (hyperbolic ‘back of beyond’ / simile ‘like a ghost village’)
• Simile ‘like a drug’ – desensitised – needs increasingly extreme examples of suffering to provoke response
• irony of ‘comfort’ to stress ignorance
• tricolon ‘ Simple, frictionless, motionless’ How common death is, desensitized
• Sensory emotive language ‘ festering’ ‘putrid’ ‘rotting’ ‘sick’ ‘yellow’ ‘clammy’
• Rhetorical questions and disjointed sentences –‘what was it about that smile?’ ‘how could it be?’ to reflect his initial confusion
• First person pronouns repeated ‘ I resolved’ ‘I would write’ ‘purpose I could muster’ – to stress his new found determination
• Oxymoron ‘nameless friend’ – irony of how a stranger has had such an impact on him.
• Colloquial expression ‘I owe you one’ to highlight his bond to this man – a dramatic contrast to the remote nature of the village exaggerated earlier.