How to Write About Africa: A Response

I found Wainaina's "How to Write About Africa" to be highly effective and humorous, conveying valid points in the gauze of satire. Several descriptions struck me as particularly comical, because I was most clearly able to connect the image with something I have seen or read about Africa. For example, mentioning a big-hearted woman called "Mama" resonated with me, since it seemed particularly cliche. 

The piece rose issues that I have thought about, which rang true, as well as issues that I had not given as much thought to and that struck me. For example, insinuating that Africa is often treated as one, uniform country, in particular one of starvation and war, I felt to be highly relevant. I believe that many Westerners, or anyone with a knowledge of Africa as a whole, is susceptible to lapsing into this prototype. This I expected and firmly agreed with. However, later the piece discussed the lack of depth of character attributed to African people, which had not before crossed my mind and which I found to be telling. The piece satirically said, "Avoid having the African characters laugh." It dawned on me then that African people, in the eyes of Westerners, are all too often oversimplified-- they are portrayed as miserable people, unprofound people. 

Overall, I agreed with the points made by the article. I also began to wonder, if I were to write a novel about my experience in Africa, how would I write it? Would I, not having previously read and pondered this article, have been trapped by many of the devices listed by Wainaina? I like to hope not. In any case, my experience of travelling to Tanzania enlightened me to the variety of cultures and people in Africa further than my formal education, and it allowed me to make connections to people on another continent who I might have oversimplified otherwise.