(A Change In) How To Write About Africa?

"Always end your book with Nelson Mandela saying something about rainbows or renaissances. Because you care."

So ends Kenyan author Binyavanga Wainaina's brutal satire "How to Write About Africa."

The piece, which first appeared in Granta a few years ago, viciously lampoons a particular way of seeing (and talking) that been has the dominant narrative about Africa since the days of imperialism.

Wainaina's harping was particularly satisfying for many because of the age of celebrity humanitarianism we've been living through, in which people like Angelina Jolie become spokespeople for the cause d'jour. All too often, this leads to the media's endlessly repetitive characterization of Africa as a dismal place, full of nothing but war, famine and disease.

Yet there is something happening right now, and a new narrative is forming. As more and more people actually spend time in Sub-Saharan Africa, and as the internet allows more and more voices from the continent to stream out, the counter-narrative of a continent bursting with talent and potential is slowly but surely taking hold.

This is the type of story that Malawian windmill maker William Kamkwamba embodies so wonderfully, but he is - thankfully - just one of the most prominent examples of a new generation of African success stories.

(Photo: geoftheref)