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How to write about Africa : collected works / Binyavanga Wainaina ; edited by Achal Prabhala.

By: Contributor(s): Material type: TextTextPublisher: New York : One World, 2022Edition: First editionDescription: x, 347 pages ; 25 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9780812989656
  • 0812989651
Uniform titles:
  • Works
Subject(s): Genre/Form:
Contents:
The First Story -- Binguni! -- Away in South Africa and England -- A Foreigner in Cape Town -- Food Slut -- Cured of England -- Discovering Home: Essays -- Circumcision -- Discovering Home -- Joga of Mathare Valley -- Hair -- Travels through Kalenjinland -- I Hate Githeri -- Who Invented Truth? -- Inventing a City -- She's Breaking Up -- Writing Kenya: Short Stories -- All things Remaining Equal -- Hell is in Bed with Mrs Peprah -- An Affair to Dismember -- According to Mwangi -- Ships in High Transit -- Out in Africa: Essays -- The Continental Dispatch -- Beyond River Yei -- The Most Authentic, Blackest, Africanest Soccer Team -- A Continent of Satire -- How to be a Dictator -- How to be an African -- The Senegal of the Mind -- How to Write about Africa.
Summary: "Binyavanga Wainaina was a pioneering voice in African literature, an award-winning memoirist and essayist, and a gatherer of literary communities. Before his tragic death in 2019 at the age of forty-seven, he won the Caine Prize for African Writing and was named one of Time's 100 Most Influential People. His wildly popular essay "How to Write About Africa," an incisive and unapologetic piece that exposed the harmfully racist ways Western media depicts Africa, with implicit bias and subjective clichés, changed the game for African writers and helped set the stage for a new generation of authors, from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie to Yaa Gyasi. When Wainaina published a "lost chapter" of his 2011 memoir as an essay called "I Am a Homosexual, Mum," which imagines coming out to his mother, he became a voice for the queer, African community as well, adding a new layer to how African sexuality is perceived"-- Provided by publisher.
Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Main Library NonFiction 814.6 W141 Available 33111011321318
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

From one of Africa's most influential and eloquent essayists, a posthumous collection that highlights his biting satire and subversive wisdom on topics from travel to cultural identity to sexuality

"A fierce literary talent . . . [Wainaina] shines a light on his continent without cliché."-- The Guardian

"Africa is the only continent you can love--take advantage of this. . . . Africa is to be pitied, worshipped, or dominated. Whichever angle you take, be sure to leave the strong impression that without your intervention and your important book, Africa is doomed."

Binyavanga Wainaina was a pioneering voice in African literature, an award-winning memoirist and essayist remembered as one of the greatest chroniclers of contemporary African life. This groundbreaking collection brings together, for the first time, Wainaina'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." Working fearlessly across a range of topics--from politics to international aid, cultural heritage, and redefined sexuality--he describes the modern world with sensual, emotional, and psychological detail, giving us a full-color view of his home country and continent. These works present the portrait of a giant in African literature who left a tremendous legacy.

The First Story -- Binguni! -- Away in South Africa and England -- A Foreigner in Cape Town -- Food Slut -- Cured of England -- Discovering Home: Essays -- Circumcision -- Discovering Home -- Joga of Mathare Valley -- Hair -- Travels through Kalenjinland -- I Hate Githeri -- Who Invented Truth? -- Inventing a City -- She's Breaking Up -- Writing Kenya: Short Stories -- All things Remaining Equal -- Hell is in Bed with Mrs Peprah -- An Affair to Dismember -- According to Mwangi -- Ships in High Transit -- Out in Africa: Essays -- The Continental Dispatch -- Beyond River Yei -- The Most Authentic, Blackest, Africanest Soccer Team -- A Continent of Satire -- How to be a Dictator -- How to be an African -- The Senegal of the Mind -- How to Write about Africa.

"Binyavanga Wainaina was a pioneering voice in African literature, an award-winning memoirist and essayist, and a gatherer of literary communities. Before his tragic death in 2019 at the age of forty-seven, he won the Caine Prize for African Writing and was named one of Time's 100 Most Influential People. His wildly popular essay "How to Write About Africa," an incisive and unapologetic piece that exposed the harmfully racist ways Western media depicts Africa, with implicit bias and subjective clichés, changed the game for African writers and helped set the stage for a new generation of authors, from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie to Yaa Gyasi. When Wainaina published a "lost chapter" of his 2011 memoir as an essay called "I Am a Homosexual, Mum," which imagines coming out to his mother, he became a voice for the queer, African community as well, adding a new layer to how African sexuality is perceived"-- Provided by publisher.

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