Where African Books Come to Die

In his stinging critique “How to write about Africa”. Binyavanga Wainaina lays bare the hysterical tropes in literature about Africa especially written by foreigners. However, in hindsight, even locals fall victim to these everyday.  The inevitable acacia tree on the cover of the book, guns, doomed love stories, savage local habits and how much saving the continent needs rather than respectful co-operation.

I thought this was limited to books but I have realized that there is a method in not only writing about Africa but selling books in Africa, specifically Kenya.

One. Remembers that Kenyans do not read...
They have no interest in books and if you want to hide the solution to poverty and corruption, hide it in any book, preferably one without pictures and no-one will ever sniff it out.

Also, there are no good Kenyan or even African writers. Meja Mwangi a native of Nanyuki whose books have won international acclaim. Winner of the Lotus Prize for Literature, nominee for the International Dublin Literary Award, and tens of other international awards. Chinua Achebe, Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Binyavanga, Grace Ogot? These are just minor writers and have no competition with literary “greats” like Ben Carson, Michel Crichton, James Patterson and other western writers.

Also to sell books you have to focus on existing stereotypes about Africa, books about Africans not living in the Jungle or Savana or in War will not sell. Urban African dealing with traffic jams and taxation are to be given a wide berth. Identify the stereotypes and ensure any tourist or non-Kenyan who accidentally finds themselves looking for enlightenment at the bookshelves will come out with all their stereotypes reinforced and wrapped in condescending ignorance.

The selection of books in the Chandarana bookshelves is perfect if you have zero interest in reading Kenyan or even African Writers. If you want to read sad stories about Africa written by white people. Stories about rogue animals. Wars and child soldiers. Saving Africa and every single borderline racist trope that has dominated African narratives by outsiders since missionaries discovered Mt Kenya.

For a black Kenyan to make it to the hallowed supermarket bookshelves, they either need to have won a Nobel Prize, been an American president or at least a relative of one. At the least, they need to have been nominated.

On the other hand, Western writers like Clive Cussler and others who churn airport bookstore literature are all over the bookshelves.

Reading has been proven to be a cure for ignorance enough times. However, if the only literature about Africa is framing the continent through the eyes or foreigners, we will keep repeating the same narrative ad infinitum.

The Nakumatt was the same and for some inexplicable reason, most supermarkets I have visited are willing to stock books by foreign writers and barely give Kenyans/Blacks a crack in their shelves. 

So just drift over to Juttsons bookshop just outside the supermarket and look around. They are not exactly crammed with African literature but by comparison with their neighbor, they are the African Literature renaissance.