Binyavanga Wainaina: Changing the conversation on Africa

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When stories from Africa make the front page of Western newspapers, we hear of poverty, HIV/AIDS, malnourishment, and violence. But there’s more to Africa than that, and Binyavanga Wainaina wants to change this stereotypical dialogue.

Binyavanga Wainaina: Changing the conversation on Africa

When stories from Africa make the front page of Western newspapers, we hear of poverty, HIV/AIDS, malnourishment, and violence. But there’s more to Africa than that, and Binyavanga Wainaina wants to change this stereotypical dialogue.

In recent years, much of Africa has developed and progressed at rates that distance the stereotypes about the continent from its reality. Wainaina, Kenyan-born and pan-African, hopes to redefine what, he says, is an incomplete image of Africa.
With the help of technological advancements, he says that Africans are for the first time able to bypass Western correspondents in order to tell Africa’s story from their own perspective.

Wainaina’s satirical essays, “How to Write About Africa” and “How Not to Write About Africa in 2012,” have gained worldwide attention.

He is also the founding editor of “Kwani,” a notable Kenyan literary magazine. Wainaina has also played a crucial role in empowering a new generation of African writers and thought leaders.

Binyavanga Wainaina joined Mike Walter from Nairobi and reminds us to think twice about what we already think we know about of Africa.

Follow Binyavanga Wainaina on Twitter: @BinyavangaW