How to Write About Africa

(Paperback)

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A trailblazing collection of writing from Binyavanga Wainaina's extraordinary life, featuring an introduction from his long-time friend, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Binyavanga Wainaina was a seminal author and creative force, remembered as one of the greatest chroniclers of contemporary African life. This ground-breaking collection brings together, for the first time, Binyavanga's pioneering writing on the African continent including many of his most critically acclaimed pieces, such as the viral satirical sensation How to Write About Africa. Writing fearlessly across a range of topics - from politics to international aid, cultural heritage and redefining sexuality - this is a remarkable illustration of a writer at the height of his power.

Reviews

[A] Kenyan writer and LGBT activist who made a revolutionary impact on literature from and about the African continent -- Margaret Busby * Guardian *
Barbed, playful, inventive . . . African literature would never be the same . . . An outsize figure on the literary landscape, his omnivorous brilliance matched by ambition and vision on a continental scale -- Anderson Tepper * The New York Times *
A collection of brilliant writing - essays, stories, journalism, and even recipes. I admire Wainaina's humour, flamboyance and intelligence and the way he skewers the usual stereotypes about Africa -- Deborah Levy * Times *
[An] award-winning Kenyan writer whose humorous, incisive books and essays explored themes of post-colonialism, gender and sexual identity . . . with wit and humour he took apart the paternalism of certain writers who talk of Africa as one country * Independent *
He was an intellectual . . . Someone who could have become the Edward Said of Africa or the James Baldwin of our time -- Leila Aboulela
An uncompromising commentator . . . [Binyavanga Wainaina] shines a light on his continent without clich -- Nesrine Malik * Guardian *
[A] barrier-shattering presence in African literature * Washington Post *
Unflagging in his generosity, unflinching and direct in his criticism, [Binyavanga] produced work in his short life that will have impact longer lasting than those whose time here is twice as long -- Ellah Wakatama Allfrey
A trail-blazing Kenyan legend * Al Jazeera *
Hilarious, worldly, biting, flippant, and meaningful -- Achal Prabhala * Africa is a Country *
[A] Kenyan literary icon . . . [Binyavanga Wainaina's] work continues to challenge stereotypes and prejudices about Africa * The Stream *
[Binyavanga Wainaina's] writing dances beyond the borders of language, lineage, genre, containment . . . [His] imagination hops, skips and jumps, in that space of infinite possibilities and worlds waiting to be made and unmade * Bubblegum Club *
Everything that made Binyavanga so great was there on the page - his righteous passion, his biting wit, his eye for hypocrisy, his arch turn of phrase -- Matt Weiland
Cutting and incisive, witty and confrontational, and deeply revealing -- Remy Ngamjie
Wainaina's sharp wit and penetrating analysis . . . shows off his talent for withering satire * Publishers Weekly *
Both an ode and an introduction to one of the continent's most inimitable literary geniuses -- Edith Amoafoa-Smart * Africa is a Country *
Provocative . . . A lively selection of work that well represents the scope of this fine author * Kirkus *
How to Write About Africa gathers vivid, powerful essays and fiction by the late Kenyan icon * Open Country *

Author Bio

Binyavanga Wainaina was a Kenyan author, activist, journalist and 2002 winner of the Caine Prize for African Writing. His debut book, a memoir entitled One Day I Will Write About This Place, was published in 2011. In April 2014, Time magazine included Wainaina in its annual Time 100 as one of the 'Most Influential People in the World'. He died in 2019.