Never have a picture of a well-adjusted African on the cove… - Binyavanga Wainaina

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Never have a picture of a well-adjusted African on the cover of your book, or in it, unless that African has won the Nobel Prize. An AK-47, prominent ribs, naked breasts: use these. If you must include an African, make sure you get one in Masai or Zulu or Dogon dress.

Binyavanga Wainaina

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About Binyavanga Wainaina

Kenneth Binyavanga Wainaina (18 January 1971 – 21 May 2019) was a Kenyan author, journalist and 2002 winner of the Caine Prize for African Writing.

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Alternative Names: Kenneth Binyavanga Wainaina

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Additional quotes by Binyavanga Wainaina

There is an ache in my chest today, sweet, searching, and painful, like a tongue that is cut and tingles with sweetness and pain after eating a strong pineapple.

In your text, treat Africa as if it were one country. It is hot and dusty with rolling grasslands and huge herds of animals and tall, thin people who are starving. Or it is hot and steamy with very short people who eat primates. Don’t get bogged down with precise descriptions.

Cloud travel is well and good when you have mastered the landings. I never have. I must live, not dream about living.

Never have a picture of a well-adjusted African on the cover of your book, or in it, unless that African has won the Nobel Prize. An AK-47, prominent… - Binyavanga Wainaina

About Binyavanga Wainaina

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