Award winning writer Binyavanga Wainaina gives aspiring journalists 'tips' on 'How to write about Africa' "...In your text, treat Africa as if it were one country. It is hot and dusty with rolling grasslands and huge herds of animals and tall, thin people who are starving. Or it is hot and steamy with very short people who eat primates. Don't get bogged down with precise descriptions. Africa is big: fifty-four countries, 900 million people who are too busy starving and dying and warring and emigrating to read your book. The continent is full of deserts, jungles, highlands, savannahs and many other things, but your reader doesn't care about all that, so keep your descriptions romantic and evocative and unparticular..."
Me, myself and I
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self has essentially no meaning except in distinction to some other, and so
the relevant question becomes where to draw the borderline between the two.
In ...
21 minutes ago
1 comments:
The article you are quoting from, appears in the new edition of Granta Magazine - View From Africa.
I'm afraid Wainaina was being ironic in writing these 'tips' - he is sending up European writers and Journalist who have made careers out of being 'Africa Specialists', when all they do is peddle generalisations & stereotypes of the Continent.
The piece is therefore not to be taken as a straightforward 'advice' to African journalists - no. It should be read more like 'how NOT to write about Africa.' Just thought I'd mention this.
mw
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