i wanted to start with the wonderful essay from the great kenyan satirist denyer banca pena who wrote that nine bloodedly good essay, how to read about africa by which he meant of course all of us who write about the continent should stop representing that. he's down with the following. broad brush strokes throughout are good. avoid having the african carrot tears laugh or struggle to educate their kids or just make good mundane circumstances. how could the women except in about europe or america and africa. african characters should be colorful, exotic, larger than life, but empty inside with no dialogue, no complex resolutions in their stories come in no kirks to confuse the cause. perhaps we could start there since it seems to me that your book is precisely what he's advocating in his essay and that is a portrayal of africans as people with their own agency. and idiosyncrasies and a sense of destiny. so what inspired the project in the first place? were you fed up at the way africa was being reported on from what you call poverty point? >> yes. that is the short answer. first and f

i wanted to start with the wonderful essay from the great kenyan satirist denyer banca pena who wrote that nine bloodedly good essay, how to read about africa by which he meant of course all of us who write about the continent should stop representing that. he's down with the following. broad brush strokes throughout are good. avoid having the african carrot tears laugh or struggle to educate their kids or just make good mundane circumstances. how could the women except in about europe or america and africa. african characters should be colorful, exotic, larger than life, but empty inside with no dialogue, no complex resolutions in their stories come in no kirks to confuse the cause. perhaps we could start there since it seems to me that your book is precisely what he's advocating in his essay and that is a portrayal of africans as people with their own agency. and idiosyncrasies and a sense of destiny. so what inspired the project in the first place? were you fed up at the way africa was being reported on from what you call poverty point? >> yes. that is the short answer. first and f