Africa is big: fifty-four countries, 900 million people who… - Binyavanga Wainaina

" "
Africa is big: fifty-four countries, 900 million people who are too busy starving and dying and warring and emigrating to read your book. The continent is full of deserts, jungles, highlands, savannahs and many other things, but your reader doesn’t care about all that, so keep your descriptions romantic and evocative and unparticular.

Binyavanga Wainaina

Sources available for members. Sign up free to see where this quote comes from

English

Collect this quote

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.

Also Known As

Alternative Names: Kenneth Binyavanga Wainaina

All quotes from Binyavanga Wainaina Similar Quotes by other Originators

Originators like Binyavanga Wainaina:

Véronique Tadjo Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o Chinua Achebe Karen Blixen Bessie Emery Head

Additional quotes by Binyavanga Wainaina

Readers will be put off if you don’t mention the light in Africa. And sunsets, the African sunset is a must. It is always big and red. There is always a big sky. Wide empty spaces and game are critical.

Among your characters you must always include The Starving African, who wanders the refugee camp nearly naked, and waits for the benevolence of the West.

The Modern African is a fat man who steals and works in the visa office, refusing to give work permits to qualified Westerners who really care about Africa. He is an enemy of development, always using his government job to make it difficult for pragmatic and good-hearted expats to set up NGOs or Legal Conservation Areas.

Africa is big: fifty-four countries, 900 million people who are too busy starving and dying and warring and emigrating to read your book. The contine… - Binyavanga Wainaina

About Binyavanga Wainaina

Also Known As

Advanced Search Filters

Additional quotes by Binyavanga Wainaina

Go Premium