The Soccer War

One of the many short stories in this collection, The Soccer War explains the war between Honduras and El Salvador in 1969, kicked off by a series of 1970 Football World Cup qualifying matches. It is an interesting story, but a slightly misleading title for this book.

Until I started reading, I didn't realise it was short stories (or reportage pieces), although to be fair they are of a similar theme, often interconnected or consecutive, and apparently in a linear timeline. The theme is described in the blurb on the back of this edition this way: “In 1964, Ryszard Kapuściński was appointed by the Polish Press Agency as its only foreign correspondent, and for the next ten years he was ‘responsible' for fifty countries... By the time he returned to Poland he had witnessed twenty-seven revolutions and coups. The Soccer War is Kapuściński's story, his eye-witness account of the emergence of the Third World.”

Starting in Ghana, we follow Kapuściński's career path to Congo, Tanganyika (now part of Tanzania), then Algeria, Dahomey (now Benin), and Nigeria. Moving on to The Americas, Kapuściński commences in Chile before we are immersed in The Soccer War. Next we are in Damascus, Syria, where we discuss the Israel / Palestine problems; followed by Greek Cyprus, invaded by the Turkish. We end in Ethiopia and Somalian disputed territory - another warzone.

As much as I enjoy Kapuściński's writing, I feel I can never trust him 100%, due to some divergences with truth in other books. That said, this book appears free from controversy, and reads legitimately.

Kapuściński demonstrates time and again that he happily walks toward danger in the course of carrying out his work. Whether it is narrowly avoiding being doused in benzene and set on fire at a roadblock in Nigeria; disorientated and scrambling through the bush, mid-war, with a Honduran soldier who is intent on collecting the boots of dead soldiers for his family; or panicking alone in his tent after being stung on the face by a scorpion in Ethiopia: “Scorpions sting people like mosquitos. Those who took a heavy dose of venom died. From here to the nearest hospital was two days on the road. Lie down, said Marcos. They left me alone in my tent.”

There are some hard-hitting short reportage stories in this book, which is well worth seeking out.

4 stars.