binyavanga wainaina how to write about africa

It was a sub-Saharan Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and confirmed Wainaina's voice as one authentic articulation of his complex 'Africa rising' generation – often, like him, the sons and daughters of post-independence pioneers, who strove and suffered under cold-war-backed dictatorships – richly playful, combative, highly educated in post-colonial history and not suffering fools, particularly those bearing imposed solutions from the west. Wainaina provided another answer to his satirical corrective three years ago with an inspired first book, part memoir, part reportage, called One Day I Will Write About This Place.

Wainaina wrote this piece for Granta magazine in 2005, and it subsequently became a kind of calling card for him, leading indirectly to visiting lectureships in America (he was until recently director of the Chinua Achebe Center for African Literature and Languages at Bard College, a post that came with a fine house by a lake in upstate New York) as well as star-turn invites to the global literary festival circuit (he lived for a winter in Hay-on-Wye, while studying for a masters in creative writing, and was anointed Field Marshal of Africa by the self-appointed local 'king'). Whichever angle you take, be sure to leave the strong impression that without your intervention and your important book, Africa is doomed…' Africa is to be pitied, worshipped or dominated. If you are a woman, treat Africa as a man who wears a bush jacket and disappears off into the sunset. If you are a man, thrust yourself into her warm virgin forests. An AK-47, prominent ribs, naked breasts: use these…' Critically, he suggested, 'Africa is the only continent you can love – take advantage of this. 'Never,' he went on, 'have a picture of a well-adjusted African on the cover of your book, or in it, unless that African has won the Nobel prize. 'Always use the words 'Africa' or 'Darkness' or 'Safari' in your title,' Wainaina advised, to begin with. It was the perfect anti-primer for any would-be 'dark continent correspondent', skewering every cliche under the vast, red, setting savannah sun: Binyavanga Wainaina made his name with a short and celebrated satire called ' How to Write About Africa'.

Binyavanga wainaina how to write about africa