2 Responses to How (not) to write about Africa

1. normanc25 says:

   March 14, 2012 at 6:32 pm

   Wainaina is also to be found at slightly greater length in the Granta volume ” African short stories” of 2011 where his tale is built around contemporary tourism on the Mombassa coast, with characters who have a considerable awareness of modernity and the effects of globalisation.
   A number of other contributions to this ( somewhat uneven) collection write directly and sometimes disturbingly against the cliches Wainaina warns of in the Granta essay you cite

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2. fitzbillygoat says:

   March 15, 2012 at 4:48 pm

   In light of the Kony2012 video, I did a re-read of this piece a couple of weeks ago. You can also find a video version here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDWlMX2ToSc

   Interesting to note that the video has the title of your post without the parenthesis. Perhaps apocryphal, but I have heard that this (and the direct address of the video to an ‘innocent’ white child) was an attempt by the publicists to try and appeal to Western viewers. Ironic. Wainaina revisited the piece himself. You can find the second piece at: http://www.bidoun.org/magazine/21-bazaar-ii/how-to-write-about-africa-ii-the-revenge-by-binyavanga-wainaina/

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