Down and Out

Just finished reading Orwell’s ‘Down and Out in Paris and London’. It’s a quick and easy read, and enjoyable writing too. I do wish the two parts – Paris and London – had been better sown together, though I understand they were written at slightly different times. Still, I would have been personally interested in more comparative discussion.

Otherwise, the book raised a number of interesting points including the humiliation of being the object of charity. Have we yet heard the voice of the Ethiopian or the Central African on what it feels like to be given hand-outs? Would their perspective be the same as that given by Orwell or are cultural outlooks vastly different when it comes to being the recipient of gifts, including with conditionality?

It’s true that Orwell was far from a typical tramp, and indeed perhaps not even a ‘genuine’ tramp. So perhaps in the same way in Africa we need a writer to try to come alongside the poor to be a bridge to these experiences.

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