Discussion

Binyavanga,
I am not a writer, but I can read. When I started this article I started thinking, 'DAH this isn't anything like I remember Africa. You are dang gum right though, that is how people write.
Subadar

Africa is NOT LIKE THIS! I live in Africa and it is not really not like this. As long as people keep on writing and speaking so negative about Africa it will be hard for The People to get out of that poverty and violence mindset. Speak life not death! African

i think this is fantastic article. although i have never been to 'Africa', i think it takes pieces such as this to make you realize that you as well as many others are ignorant of how much not just popular culture and media make generalizations about massive, complex communities (if they are at all), but states and other entities as well. I thought the passage toward the end about the nightclub where "mercenaries, evil nouveau rich Africans and prostitutes, guerrillas and expats hangout", was hilarious relevant, as countless media outlets and popular culture figures, let alone many anthropologists, portray this as an average scene within the continent. Although i feel this writer does take an almost overly pessimistic tone, i feel the intention was there simply to emphasise the many problems and generalizations many people, at least the one's that i know, go through when referring to 'Africa'. I am guessing the writer acknowledges that some situations of concern are prevalent in some parts of 'Africa' (although not EVERYWHERE as it commonly seems to be described), but one problem i find with the position the writer has taken seems that according to them there isn't anyone who doesn't think like this when describing 'Africa', although i am sure the writer would probably think otherwise, it isn't mentioned. Although i have lots of other things to say about this article, i will stop due to tiredness, in general i thought this was an interesting, thought provoking and well written piece, keep it up Binyavanga!

Okay so can someone do us a favour and forward this article to every Western publisher? Excellent stuff Binyavanga - I got referred to your piece after I blogged about Oprah's foreword to a book of African photography. Check it out - it's laugh out loud funny: "The first time I set foot on African soil, I knew I had returned home. It was a powerful experience coming back to the land of bones. It felt like a return to myself."

More here:

http://mynewsblogs.24.com/ViewComments.aspx?mid=1403b365-ab78-4064-8882-b687df0fa3b2&blogid=24eaaf4b-337f-4c7d-9ea7-148e346575a5

How about (Wainaina) try to to avoid the broad brush stereotyping and generalization that you're criticizing in others? How about recognize that some things do change over time, some people are involved in good work, some writers do avoid stereotypes, and some partnerships span continents (Even from Africa (not the country, specifically Kayanga, Karagwe, Kagera, Tanzania) to North America (not the country, specifically Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America)? http://amizadeeric.blogspot.com/

watched this TED talk today and found it quite enlightening... felt it was along the same vein of Wainaina's essay and wanted to share...
Chimamanda Adichie: The danger of a single story
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story.html

A knee slappingly good piece that accurately depicts the expatriate/foreign/non-black African perspectives, depictions and writings about Africa and things African. Excellent stuff Binyavanga!

This article is quite annoying. Firstly, it might apply to near post-colonial days but very people who write about Africa actually do any of the things the author is parodying. Secondly, people often write about Asia as a whole, or Latin America as a whole.

It is annoying, but I think I understand the point.

If nothing else, Africa the continent is so poorly represented in the media.

I work for an NGO. I suppose some of my colleagues are guilty of some of this type of writing.

Then again, how much does the world get to hear - or the US media audience anyway - about the ongoing war and genocide in DR Congo? If it weren't for Hotel Rwanda, I'm not sure I'd even know a million people were brutally murdered there. Now I've been to Kigali, visited the memorial, and spent time in South Kivu in the DRC.

I hope what Binyavanga is doing is poking a little fun.

This white NGO expat man for one definitely feels like he's found his calling when it comes to victims and refugees of conflict throughout the African continent.

Maybe I'm just a sap.

I think this is fantastic. I understand the criticisms and yes a lot has changed in the way Africa is viewed and written about but not that much. I'm from a little country that has found a small degree of fame in the Number 1 Ladies Detective Agency series and let me tell you that is a VERY romantisized version of life in Botswana.
It's true some partnerships do span continents, like the fact that where ever you're from in Africa you get asked the same questions about pet lions, mud huts and if you know this guy who lives in Kenya. If we have to endure this 1st world ignorance (and shame how could they know. They only have easier access to information and education than the rest of the world.) then we should be allowed to poke fun at them from time to time. I believe humour is the best way to highlight social problems. We are also doing our bit to spread enlightenment to the west. http://www.stuff-about.com/2010/03/educating-west-part-1.html
So thank you Binyavanga, I really enjoyed this article.

P.S. CharleyS, this does NOT negate the work you and other NGO workers do or the reasons you do it.

Thank you for this amusing satire.

I loved this piece. Every word of it is spot-on, and it lets no one off the hook. I was laughing right along until bits and pieces started to hit home, even for a Good Leftist like me (particularly the bit about blaming "the West" in vague terms). Thank you for this. I'm forwarding it to everyone I know who lives/works/goes to any region in Africa. We all need to read it! This is the most perfect take-downs of many of the bigotries that we bring with us to Africa that I've ever seen.

@SparkingJem: I tried to watch the Number One Ladies Detective Agency series, and I just...could not finish it. I started it thinking, "Okay, at least this doesn't reinforce stereotypes about the suffering of a monolith where there are flies on every child's eyelids." But, yeah, it's so...bland, the series. And romanticized, as you say. With African-Americans as the biggest stars of the series.

Another thing I might add to this:

"If you are writing a screenplay, be sure to keep a distinguished African-American actor in mind for the lead role. African-Americans can play leaders like Nelson Mandela--or despots like Idi Amin. Either type of role ensures a de facto Oscar nomination. Dialect coaches can teach African-American actors the all-purpose African Dialect accent that is useful for playing the role of any black African."

I just heard Jennifer Hudson was slated to play Winnie Madikizela-Mandela.

Okay, so I thought about this a bit longer and wrote this:

"Screenplays about Africa are in fashion these days. Just remember: You can only write movies about great African statesmen (such as Nelson Mandela) or evil despots (such as Idi Amin). No one in the United States wants to see a move about Yoweri Museveni. Why? Because moral ambiguity, mixed administrative records, and dealings with the World Bank are boring. American studios can only sell movies about African heroes or African villains. Even if you find the moral ambiguity in the biography of a Mandela or an Amin striking, you must write your characters either as total heroes or total villains. Anything deeper will be confusing to the Western audience.

When writing your screenplay, keep in mind that you should write your film with a distinguished African-American actor in mind for the lead role. Nothing says Oscar bait like an African-American playing one of these great African heroes or villains. Besides, you will never get your film into the studio without a big Hollywood star behind the project. In order to prepare for the role, the African-American can simply meet with a dialect coach who can teach him the Standard African Dialect that African-Americans use to portray African characters. The dialect training is so standard that the same dialect may be used for every African-American who ever plays the part of an African in any part of the world.

While your movie must center around the trials of a great African hero/villain, the story should be told through the eyes of a white person or white people--think the South African rugby team or that guy who narrated "The Last King of Scotland." Americans will not be able to relate to a movie in which African people are granted full human subjectivity or allowed to participate in reflection or deep thought."

Part 2 (I was too long to include it all in just one):

"If your screenplay centers upon a big human disaster like the Rwandan genocide, refrain from including anything that could be understood as commentary on political or economic circumstances. African human disasters can only be explained to a Western audience through the lens of the "ancient hatreds" theory. That is, conflicts in Africa happen because of the "ancient hatreds" that certain tribal groups have had for one another since the dawn of humanity. If you are not dealing with a conflict that can be described as "ethnic" in any terms, then you must play up the involvement of African criminal syndicates (especially those run by Nigerians) and warlords in the conflict. Furthermore, the story must include a clear Moral Message; this means that one side of the conflict must be designated as unqualified "evil" and the other as unqualified "good." Again, moral ambiguity is confusing and upsetting and to be avoided at all costs.

Speaking of Nigerians: Nigerians are the Quintessential African Villain. Do not include any Nigerians who are "good" or morally ambiguous or complex in any way. Avoid giving your African characters depth in general, but make your Nigerians even more one-dimensional than the rest. Nigerians are to Western films about Africa what Italian-Americans are to Mafia films. Thugs, drug runners, criminals. Always ruthless. No Nigerian women may figure into your story unless they are prostitutes. In general, it's taboo to depict African cannibalism--unless, of course, you are depicting Nigerians. It is a-okay to write Nigerians as cannibals (Just see "District 9" for an example.)."

And also this:

"If you are an African-American academic, make your work/documentary centered on your own personal journey. Be sure to spend copious amounts of time at former slave trading posts thinking about the involvement of black Africans in the slave trade. Indulge your own private conflict about What It All Means for you as a Descendant of Africa and of the transatlantic slave trade. If your feelings throughout the Journey motivate you to take an antagonistic attitude toward the Africans you are studying, all the better. There is, after all, nothing to be said about Africa beyond What it Means for African-Americans. It might even get you a cushy post as head of the W.E.B. DuBois Center for African and Africana studies at Harvard University. Just check out the career of Henry Louis Gates."

P.S. My mistake, I need to reword this:

"While your movie must center around the trials of a great African hero/villain, the story should be told through the eyes of a white person or white people--think the South African rugby team or that guy who narrated "The Last King of Scotland." White Americans will not be able to relate to a movie in which black African people are granted full human subjectivity or allowed to participate in reflection or deep thought."

And, finally, I would like the writer to know that the place in Beira, Mozambique that I was told to avoid because of the "shady elements" said to hang out there was *actually*... In point of fact, the name of the place was the Tropicana.

Kristin -- your comments are honest and insightful. I enjoyed them as much if not more than the piece itself. Together, they do something that neither would by itself. Much appreciated.

My people would say "lwkm"- laugh wan kill me... People I meet go "oh you from Africa, when i visited, i saw so and so" and I'm thinking "really?? I have never even been there... I need a visa to enter that part of Africa.Africa is a continent not a country... Jeez" this is a very very very very interesting and on point article...
Thank you..

Kristin you are soooo correct too.

Well, there are certainly lots of movies like this and, yeah, the Forsyths and La Carrés have a lot of this. But, gee, there’s lots of good, and decently-known literature that violates some or all of these rules, starting with African literature.

When I was a boy, I wanted to live in Africa and go to Mars. One down, one to go – but still hopeful about Mars. I spent two of the best years of my life in Benin, upcountry, teaching schools with the Peace Corps. First, to immediately follow a few of the rules myself: Africa had a very definite feminine feel to me, from the moment I walked off the plane at Roberts Field on the way to Benin, until the minute I left Algeria for Paris two and a half years later. I have been back since. Africa still feels deeply feminine to me. Sorry.

Secondly, the constant presence of lovely bared breasts, at least in West Africa, in my field of view was one of my favorite things about living there. One of the female volunteers, another male friend and I went to the market for beans and rice one night toward the end of our stay and were served by a beautiful woman with very shapely bare breasts, causing Jerry and me to stare. Sarah reprimanded us, asking if we weren’t tired of the sight after two years. The answer was an insistent ‘no.’ Again, sorry.

It’s the news media that have the real problem seeing anything like an Africa that really exists. I remember a few years back when CBS Radio News announced that “The Pope arrived in Lomé, Togo today to the beat of tribal drums.” I called the national news desk after the broadcast and asked the guy on the phone “Which tribes?” “Huh?” “Which tribes were playing drums for the Pope? – Ewe? Mina?” “Huh?” “What makes the drums TRIBAL? What does TRIBAL mean in that sentence?” Etcetera. It became clear that ‘tribal’ just meant ‘primitive.’

I had a similar dialogue of the deaf with a newsman a few years later about the fact that in South Africa the death throes of apartheid were called “black-on-black tribal violence,” while the simultaneous breakup of Yugoslavia was never described as “white-on-white tribal violence,” as it clearly was, if either term had any meaning.

A shortlist of books that typefy such writing would be useful.
C'mon someone... Name and shame.

This articles are really so good i am not speak because i speech less in this article. The Africa really so good country and read the this country people are so lovable.
http://www.remarkableatvs.com

I especially love the irony of the ad for Craig Smith's 'Habibi' appearing on the right hand side, a tome which uses the equivalent of all these tropes and SO many more, but regarding 'The Middle East' (no, he never gets more specific than that. Yes, the poor women are hopelessly opressed. No, there is mention of the modern Arab technological states, only 'back in the day'. Yeah...)

I spent the last year living in Nairobi and arriving I feelt just like any of those protagonists mention, though maybe sligthly more naîve. I was going to save Africa, or atleast a part of it.

Luckely for me I also brought along a few books by Kapuzinski, which aided in a more nuanced prespective.

But being back in Sweden I'm finding it hoplessly difficult to change the common perception and therefore rejoyce in anyone who's able to point out this amazing stupidity. This truely made my evening, thanks.

Haha..funny.

What's your point though? Is this a call for censorship?

Or are you maybe saying only (well-off) Africans can write about Africa?

You know, literature functions like a mirror. If you don't like what you see in the mirror, don't start yelling at the mirror. That's silly. The only way is to change who or what is standing in front of the mirror.

This comment has been removed by the moderators.

I understand that Africa isn't like this everywhere. Some of this is a bit exaggerated to make it more entertaining.

People, please remember this is a creative writing article meant for entertainment.

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This is ridiculous, over 40% of people living in sub saharan Africa DO live in absolute poverty, corruption IS endemic in all but the most stable regimes, and a significant amount of the problems in sub saharan Africa CAN be traced back to colonialism.
Obviously generalizations about Africa are damaging, and the image we have in the West of Africa as an impoverished hell hole does nothing but impede development, but that isn't to say we should ignore all the problems the country faces for the sake of being liberal and enlightened.
Clearly many countries in sub saharan Africa have a lot of very similar problems which need to be addressed;
poverty, corruption, conflict and misuse of natural resources to name but a few. We shouldn't ignore the development gap for the sake of political correctness, we should be studying the specific problems faced by specific countries and working with Africans to help them to solve them. There is a lot we don't know in the West, but we do know how to create stable and long lasting institutions and how to use market capitalism to our advantage. We should be adapting that experience to Africa's unique circumstances if we want to help the continent to stabilize, which we should because an unstable Africa is a danger to the rest of the world.

Liked the piece overall.

The point being made about China is muddled. European media has left and now Africa does deals with the even more malleable Chinese media? Doesn't sound quite the cause for celebration.

Good 'attitude' to the piece but just lacked some coherence for me. Our human rights work can help but definitely room for concerns about its true effects are.

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@Kristin, I could not agree with your side of the argument more. Avoiding the "shady elements" is very important. haha

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