Abstract

The subject of the given paper (Ryszard Kapuściński’s utopias) is analysis the importance of the period in Polish history from 1956 to 1980 (many accounts from Africa and Latin America were written in this period) and Ryszarda Kapuściński’s interest in socialist ideas which is present in his works in the way that it shows the influence of the writer’s early fascinations on the concept of utopia based on socialist ideas yet not being socialism. This utopian vision develops through subsequent works, beginning with the Emperor, through Szachinszach, ending on his unfinished book about Idi Amin. Each of the books belonging to the unfinished trilogy devoted to the most significant rulers in Africa criticized a certain model of ruling which was based on tyranny and, at the same time, was a set of clues which direction we must choose.