There’s a lot to learn from Binyavanga works

Binyavanga Wainaina.

This week, we lost Binyavanga Wainaina, a great Kenyan. He was 48. His works will live on as part of the Kenyan canon. Binyavanga was one of those rare prophets that having been recognised away from home, sought not to bask in international fame but to stay at home and remake his own society. He came home and founded Kwani? in 2003, through which many more talented Kenyans have been able to enter the literary and artistic scene. In his writings he offered deeply thoughtful meditations on the Kenyan (African) condition – how we view ourselves and how we are viewed by others.

Most people around the world remember him for a satirical piece he wrote for Granta titled “How to Write About Africa.” In it, he mocks the tired tropes that are constant features of non-African (and even African) writings about Africa and Africans. We are a people that dance a lot, are starving, are sick, live in war-torn societies, are mindlessly happy. We also have animals, and sunsets. The whole place is alive, even the inanimate objects. It’s an Africa straight out of travel diaries in 1601. In the piece Binyavanga was not advocating for a sugar-coated view of the continent and its peoples. Instead, he wanted the world to understand that Africa and Africans are multi-dimensional. The piece became “viral” for its vivid illustration of just how badly Africa and Africans are misunderstood.