Great African Reads discussion

We will be reading Discovering Home by Binyavanga Wainaina between the 16-30th of April.

Binyavanga Wainaina, a Kenyan author and journalist was awarded the Caine Prize in 2002.

Who will be joining us for this read?

Some relevant articles by the author:

- How to write about Africa
- How not to write about Africa in 2012 – a beginner's guide
- How to Write About Africa II: The revenge

I look forward to reading this one. I read One Day I Will Write About This Place: A Memoir last year and loved it.

I’ve just started reading this.

Diane- Ahh his memoir, my library has it yay! I need to look it up.

I read half of this story a few days ago and finished reading it just now. I was rather captivated by the diary/ travelog format and fascinating detail of this part of his life. It's hard to imagine being part of a family that speaks so many languages. His portrayals of acquaintances and family members were vivid and entertaining. There are amusing bits such as "Whenever I read something by a white writer who stopped by, or lives in Kenya, I am astonished by the amount of game that appears for breakfast at their patios, and the number of snakes that drop into the baths.... I have seen five or six snakes in my life". There are deeper observations as well. Thanks for bringing this story to me!

Ooooh new story time of the month! I like this "one story at a time" pace :)

Not quite sure what to make of this story...
I read it straight after his other short story which is also in the 2002 Caine Prize book, and I found Ships In High Transit so biting and incisive that Discovering Home felt a bit too sedate and "nice". And considering the second half is all about the languages, why are the all erased from the story (something he doesn't do in Ships)? But I really enjoyed his style of writing though so I will be checking out his other work and articles! (thank you for links and suggestions!)

...And almost last call to read it in the assigned time slot :)
I will get started!

Hmm I'm not sure what to make of this story either. I thought the travelogue/memoir format was great and I loved his observations (""Art galleries in Kenya buy only the expression for which there is demand in Europe and America - the real artists, the guys who are turning their lives into vivid colour, are the guys who decorate matatus.")

George, I loved the bit you quoted in your comment and the couple of lines preceding it: "I know chances are I will see no elephants for the weeks I am here. I will see people. It occurs to me that if I were white, chances are I would choose to see elephants, and this would be a very different story. That story would be about the wide, empty spaces people from Europe yearn to get lost in, rather than the cosy surround of kin we Africans generally seek."

Cam, thanks for mentioning Ships in High Transit. It is available online here in case anyone would like to read it.

Overall this story was enjoyable, but I thought he meandered quite a bit (too much focus on the geographical setting at times). I loved the sarcasm in his articles in the Guardian and Granta and missed that here. Off to read Ships in High Transit next!

Sofia wrote: "Some relevant articles by the author:

- How to write about Africa
- How not to write about Africa in 2012 – a beginner's guide
- How to Write About Africa II: The revenge"

Those articles are brilliant. I hadn't come across them before, but might use them for teaching. His use of just enough sarcasm to clearly make his point across is masterful. Thanks again Sofia!

Cam wrote: "Sofia wrote: "Some relevant articles by the author:

- How to write about Africa
- How not to write about Africa in 2012 – a beginner's guide
- How to Write About Africa II: The revenge"

Those ar..."

You're welcome Cam! I loved these articles and forwarded them to everyone I know!

I enjoyed this. I love Wainaina's writing style and his descriptions of his surroundings. I did many Google searches to visualize the cultural images and objects he described.

I am a bit behind... Finished "Discovering Home" about a week ago while travelling, but did not have the time to connect and comment.

Honestly, I am not sure what to think about this short story. I had problems understanding the story line. The rather misogynous comments and descriptions did not help either. Not my kind of story/writing I guess...

strange disjointed thing... claims to be a short story, but it’s too long and sprawling for that, and lacks the nice red thread. But it’s not long enough to be a short novel- so it’s a weird in-between thing. And what’s the ending about?!