On Binyavanga Wainaina

The LRB Podcast

London Review of Books

Society & Culture

4.4 • 581 Ratings

🗓️ 23 October 2024

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In the latest issue of the LRB, Jeremy Harding reviews How to Write about Africa, a posthumous collection of essays and stories by Binyavanga Wainaina, one of postcolonial Africa’s great anglophone satirists. Jeremy joins Tom to talk about Wainaina’s life and work, including the title essay and his ambivalent response to its popularity (‘I went viral,’ he later said, ‘I became spam’); his reporting from South Sudan; the ‘lost chapter’ from his memoir in which he imagines coming out to his parents; and his account of travelling to Senegal to interview the musician Youssou N'Dour, a piece that Harding describes as both ‘beautifully done’ and ‘extremely funny’. Find further reading and external links on the episode page: https://lrb.me/wainainapod Sponsored links: Use the code ’LRB’ to get £100 off Serious Readers lights here: https://www.seriousreaders.com/lrb Find out more about ACE Cultural Tours: https://aceculturaltours.co.uk See Hansel and Gretel at the Royal Opera House: https://www.rbo.org.uk/tickets-and-events/hansel-and-gretel-details Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	This episode of the LRB podcast is sponsored by Serious Readers,
0:04.2	whose reading lights use daylight wavelength technology, replicating the daylight spectrum as
0:08.9	closely as possible, to help you read in comfort for longer, without eye strain, especially
0:13.8	as the evenings are drawing in. Serious readers' lights are recommended by more than 500 opticians,
0:20.2	and they're easy to adjust with a
0:21.6	flexible arm and a dimmer function. Words really stand out on the page with the higher contrasts that
0:28.0	the HD light provides. So if you'd like to make reading enjoyable again with less eye fatigue
0:33.9	during darker evenings, visit www.seriousreaders.com forward slash LRB and use the promo code LRB to get £100 off any HD
0:45.0	light with free delivery in the UK. And there's a 30-day risk-free trial, so if for any reason
0:51.5	you're not happy with it, you can return the light within 30 days for free.
0:55.6	That address again, it's www.serious, a contributing editor at the LRB, whose books include border vigils,
1:28.0	keeping migrants out of the rich world, and mother country, a memoir.
1:32.2	His new book, Analog Africa, will be published in 26.
1:36.8	He has a piece in the latest issue of the paper on Binyavanga Wainana.
1:40.6	It's a review of how to write about Africa, a posthumous collection of essays and stories.
1:46.4	Hello, Jeremy, and thank you for talking to us.
1:49.0	Hello, Tom. Thank you for having me on the podcast.
1:52.8	So we have to begin, I guess, with the piece that gives its title to the book, which made
1:57.7	Wainana famous nearly 20 years ago, but eventually, or even quite soon, became a bit of an
2:03.3	albatross. He took to referring to it as spam, though it is in fact a lot better than that.
2:09.1	And how to write about Africa. How did that piece come about?
2:12.0	The piece came about because Wainana had read an issue of Granta, the Africa issue, and been incensed by what he'd
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from London Review of Books, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of London Review of Books and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.