If You’re Teaching Writing about Africa. . .

. . .you might find this wry commentary by Binyavanga Wainaina interesting.  This piece was published in 2009 and maybe we–writers and readers–are well beyond this kind of thinking.  And maybe not. I have found the essay useful in class to remind all of us how easy it is to fall into facile stereotypical thinking about this culture, or for that matter, any culture. And for some of us it’s summer and time for some material that is not read for only pragmatic or pedagogical purposes.  Here’s the link, followed by another by the same writer that appeared in the New Yorker; the writer explains the impulse that caused him to create the essay:

https://granta.com/how-to-write-about-africa/

https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/binyavanga-wainainas-africa