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. The repetition of 'smile' in these paragraphs shows his fascination with it, then when his translator explains the smile it is revealed that smile was an 'apology' for being in such a bad conditions, as though 'you had done something wrong.' This makes the reader feel pity, and shame themselves because the man feels that he has to apologise for himself, despite having done nothing wrong. From a Passage to Africa How does the writer, Alight, use language to inform the reader about the harsh realities of being a journalist? In this story “From Passage to Africa”, George Alight 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 Alight creates also creates pity when he uses words such as “hut”, “dirt floor. hunt’ and ‘tramped’- predatory language shows the profession as a predatory nature it is animal like and barbaric

passage to Africa’- ambiguous title, could mean anything like a journey to Africa or more likely a dedication to Africa (his purpose is to serve Africa in some way) He compares reporting to addiction. It is as though they are always wanting something more controversial and more repulsive.It also seems as though the profession is bad for him: much like a drug.

The 'shattered leg had fused into the gentle V-shape of a boomerang', using a simile to make the image much more clearly for the reader. One of Britain’s most respected television journalists, with a reputation built up over many years of covering world events’ Guardian The passage describes the journalists as 'ghoulish' while searching for 'striking pictures', showing how they may not be searching for them for the right reasons.

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. George Alight successfully increases the pity in the extract by telling us how much he has seen. He talks about a mother and her two starving children and the mother loses one of her daughter because of hunger and that happens while she was out looking for food. 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.Paragraph 5 describes an 'old woman' who has a wound which hasn't been treated and who is rotting in her house, unable to find food for herself.

The simple one sentence sixth stanza ‘And then there was the face I will never forget’ implies the great significance of the meeting it alludes to , how important it must have been for the author. Finally, he uses a short fragment paragraph ‘ And then there was the face I will never forget ’. This builds tension, because out of all Alagiah has seen which he says eventually becomes numbing, he uses the absolute ‘ never forget ’ to indicate how much this affected him. In this section, he builds suspense using rhetorical questions ‘ What was it about that smile?’ as he seeks to uncover the mystery of why this one man affected him so much. This man is the only one who speaks directly to us – albeit through a translator ‘ he’s embarrassed to be found in this condition ’. Alagiah becomes connected to the subject, personally, where normally, he says he’s ‘ inured‘. The journalist observes, the subject is observed. The journalist is active, the subject is passive. But this smile had turned the tables on that tacit agreement. Without uttering a single word, the man had posed a question that cut to the heart of the relationship between me and him, between us and them, between the rich world and the poor world. If he was embarrassed to be found weakened by hunger and ground down by conflict, how should I feel to be standing there so strong and confident? At this point, Alagiah marks a shift. He was the ‘ observer‘, but becomes, in a parallel sentence construction using polyptoton, ‘ the observed‘. He’s no longer the ‘ active‘ watcher of ‘ passive‘ sufferers, at a safe distance, but part of the scene. The distance of the initial antithesis is reversed and he’s now uncomfortably close. 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. examquestionsGeorge Alagiah is describing a visit to Africa. He is discussing the horrors that he saw on his visit and how they have haunted him since. context enervating’ choice of language shows the life is drained away from the Somalien people through hunger