Rainer Hackel

Blackout in Paradise

A Travel Report from Ghana

Translated from German by Richard Browning

Abstract / Rezension


Rainer Hackel, who has travelled for the last 20 years to Ghana, in his captivating travel report, mediates insight into the fascinating and contradictory life styles of this West African country. He experienced the colour­ful and lively street markets, mengeled among the magical West African daily life and met famous personalities such as Kofi Annan. Dr. Hackel also questions the inte­rest of Westerners in the unspoiled Africa and ask the question about the actuality of »Negritude« established by Leopold Senghor.

»After a certain latent period, admittedly surprised, it revealed itself to me as some­thing beautiful, this picture of an Africa of which I had a completely different impression, in view of the flood of terrible news re­ports about this continent, that leads one to believe that everything is collapsing in mise­ry and filth in every possible form and belief schattered by hopelessness, but certainly not a picture of a dionysisch Africa, namely, as the winners in life or as a perfect form of creation and diversity«.

Dr. Jörg Villwock,
Professor of New German Literature, Goethe-University in Frankfurt am Main,Germany
Ernst Cassirer


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