How to Write About Africa

[sanguinity]

(In addition to the regular 50 books challenge, I'm going to do 50 short-works, too. Not because I'm an overachiever -- which would be a fair charge -- but because I SUCK at finishing anthologies, yet I still want to point in awe at some of the amazing pieces in said anthologies-I-never-finish-reading. Also, sometimes I run across amazing stuff in anthologies that I don't feel otherwise qualify for the comm. Plus, you know, other stuff.)

(So to kick off, here's a piece I ran across while surfing links for the del.icio.us account...)

1. How To Write About Africa, by Binyavanga Wainaina, published in Granta 92, 2005.

It begins:

Always use the word 'Africa' or 'Darkness' or 'Safari' in your title. Subtitles may include the words 'Zanzibar', 'Masai', 'Zulu', 'Zambezi', 'Congo', 'Nile', 'Big', 'Sky', 'Shadow', 'Drum', 'Sun' or 'Bygone'. Also useful are words such as 'Guerrillas', 'Timeless', 'Primordial' and 'Tribal'. Note that 'People' means Africans who are not black, while 'The People' means black Africans.

Never 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. An AK-47, prominent ribs, naked breasts: use these. If you must include an African, make sure you get one in Masai or Zulu or Dogon dress.

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...

If you can't tell from the excerpt, it's a scything and brutal enumeration of the racist and colonialist tropes that appear in writing about Africa. 'Tis very hard not to quote the whole thing at you, it's so freakin' spot on. (The bit about the gorillas and elephants!) (And one's personal ability to eat bugs!) (And how Africa would be doomed without your book!) (And the proper use of Nelson Mandela quotes!)

Full text is at the title link. Go read it. Seriously.

Comments

[erinlin.livejournal.com]

Dear God the whole treating Africa like it was one country thing drives me right up the wall.

[puritybrown.livejournal.com]

I know, right? And "African" as one language. When there are over 250 languages spoken in Nigeria alone. I remember watching the special features for The Lion King (which has its problematic elements anyway), and the feature on the African composer who had helped with the music had me thinking "this is not quite right... something here is bothering me..." and then one of the white Americans said "...and he translated the lyrics into African!" and I was all "...oh, that's what's bothering me."

[evilprodigy.livejournal.com]

Oh, this is scathing and brilliant. Thanks so much for the link.

[ebony14.livejournal.com]

Lovely and satirical. Thank you for sharing.

[lovecraftienne.livejournal.com]

OMG that's wonderful. Thank you. Makes me want to write a book set in Africa just to try and get it right. :)

[bibliofile.livejournal.com]

I have often liked what Granta publishes (but that's a different post).

[deifire]

Love it!

Though I'm now going to take a moment to mourn all the minutes of my life I've wasting reading, or at least starting to read, that book.

[sanguinity]

Personally, it made me feel much better about mostly never having been able to finish that book -- all the hours I didn't waste! ;-)

[influencethis.livejournal.com]

Could you clarify which book you mean? I'm trying to pick up text clues but I'm still confused, and if it's a horrible book I'd like to avoid it.

[sanguinity]

I can't speak for deifire, nor what titles s/he was thinking of, but this isn't so much about a specific title as it is about most popular books about Africa. Heart of Darkness, Out of Africa. Anything that hits the top of the NYT list probably reads like this, as well as many/most magazine articles, many films, etc.

[annwfyn.livejournal.com]

This is brilliant! Thank you so much for this.

[oyceter]

I love this short piece so much! It and Sherman Alexie's poem on how to write about Native Americans, bwahahaha.

[sanguinity]

How to Write the Great American Indian Novel

In the Great American Indian novel, when it is finally written,
all of the white people will be Indians and all of the Indians will be ghosts.

[b-writes.livejournal.com]

I loved that! (Though it says a lot about where I live and who I hang out with that I had to remind myself that most people in the continental US would think eating goat meat was weird and 'exotic.')