Critcal Article Review-Binyavanga Wainaina's "How to Write About Africa"

    I read “How to Write About Africa” by Binyavanga Wainaina. The entire article was a satirical instruction guide for writing a book about Africa. The author’s words were crude and almost making fun of how people view Africa and how they need to help the continent and somehow revigorate their lives in the process. Though their words are harsh-they are also humorous and provide this image of what we typically see in books, advertisements, films etc about the nation, which is usually the same thing done over and over again. I think the author makes a very good point at how people not only picture Africa but also what they write about it. Everything about the culture from its geography, food, domesticity, tribal living, the people, and the myriad of problems associated and plaguing the society as a whole is included, but pretty much only what people want to hear/what they already know. It talks about including certain characteristics that are crucial to “your book’s success” supposedly such as talking about how much you love Africa and how your amazing liberalist ideals and outlook on life helped save the savaged nation from doom-as if your actions alone changed the continent and it’s people forever. It also mentions to write about Africa as if it were a country instead of fifty-four individual countries and not to mention all the beautiful landscapes and geography because all readers care about are the dying, warring, starring, and abused lives of Africa but at least that way, as Wainaina puts it,is-because you care. The writer must have the good guy have traits such as being poor or having a complex domestic life, the bad guy must have his/her own certain qualities, the woman must have disfigured genitialia and sagging faces that made you want to write a book about them and show them as if every woman in Africa looks like that. The best part about Binyavanga Wainaina’s article is that it makes you reflect on stories that other writers and artists have told about Africa and everything the author writes about in this piece is inherently true in all of the New York Times Bestsellers and Hollywood blockbusters. I tried to think of stories that broke his assumptions or judgements on what people write about when they visit or are inspired by Africa (besides Heart of Darkness) and it was very difficult. There might be stories out there that differ from what the author believes to be evident in every anecdote about Africa ever, but the majority seems to be all the same. In terms of Heart of Darkness, I think Conrad did differ away from this a little bit by showing just one Westerners adventure through the continent and how it did not focus on the poverty or the starvation or disease. It is interesting to hear today all the backlash about how racist or insensitive Conrad was being but it also causes people to see something different. Conrad had a clear story he wanted to tell and though it wasn’t strictly about Africa, he still managed to show the brutality and the honest cruelty the nation was facing. People can have different opinions on the matter but it does not change the fact that Wainaina makes an exceptional point. In the end, it is all about what we care.