In the latest issue of the LRB, Jeremy Harding reviews How to Write about Africa, a posthumous collection of essays and stories by Binyavanga Wainaina, one of postcolonial Africa’s great anglophone satirists. Jeremy joins Tom to talk about Wainaina’s life and work, including the title essay and his ambivalent response to its popularity (‘I went viral,’ he later said, ‘I became spam’); his reporting from South Sudan; the ‘lost chapter’ from his memoir in which he imagines coming out to his parents; and his account of travelling to Senegal to interview the musician Youssou N'Dour, a piece that Harding describes as both ‘beautifully done’ and ‘extremely funny’.
External links:
Binyavanga Wainaina: How To Write About Africa II: The Revenge
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: Jumping Monkey Hill
Binyavanga Wainaina: It’s Only a Matter of Acceleration Now
Binyavanga Wainaina: I am a homosexual, Mum
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