How to Write About Africa

The essay How to Write About Africa is from the book One day I will Write About this Place by Binyavanga Wainaina.  Wainaina is a Kenyan author, as regular as Meg Cabot or John Green, who has been awarded in the past for his works.  It is a satirical piece on what to do and what not to do when writing about Africa.  Binyavanga wrote this piece with the goal of directing people away from the typical stories of Africa where every man is a Warlord and ever child is emaciated and waiting for someone to save them.  Another purpose for his writing might be to tell people how to speak or act in Africa with decorum.  How to Write about Africa was written for a memoir in 2005 after Wainaina had enough of reading about an Africa so different from the world he knew.  The intended audience for this essay was people who need to learn to properly write about any country other than their own without an ethnocentric lens.  It could also have been written for people curious about Africa or looking for a guide to writing about it.  Starting with the title, How to Write About Africa, Wainaina is sending a distinct message: this is not your typical story about Africa.  The very name of his essay implies that not only will he be writing about how other people incorrectly depict Africa but that he will use humor to do so.  By starting off the essay with humor he lightens the mood of what could easily be turned into a condescending rant.  Instead of jumping down the throats of people who stereotype Africa he establishes an almost friendly ease that allows you to read with more comfort.  Wainaina uses biting sarcasm throughout the essay to tease people who write incorrectly about Africa.  For example he says, “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’.”  This quote is also an example of how how Wainaina parodies African writing.  In this case the subject of the joke would be people who think of Africa as one country with one kind of people and one history.