{"id":176431455,"date":"2014-01-25T23:59:31","date_gmt":"2014-01-26T05:59:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/?p=176431455"},"modified":"2014-01-25T23:59:31","modified_gmt":"2014-01-26T05:59:31","slug":"pov-binyavanga-wainaina-and-the-intellectual-bankruptcy-of-the-african-middle-class","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/2014\/01\/25\/pov-binyavanga-wainaina-and-the-intellectual-bankruptcy-of-the-african-middle-class\/","title":{"rendered":"POV: Binyavanga Wainaina and the Intellectual bankruptcy of the African Middle-class"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nTHURSDAY, JANUARY 23<\/span><\/p>\n

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\"Binyavanga<\/a><\/p>\n

Binyavanga Wainaina and the<\/span><\/h3>\n

Intellectual bankruptcy <\/span><\/h3>\n

of the African Middle-class<\/span><\/h3>\n

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by\u00a0Bwesigye bwa Mwesigire<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/span> <\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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\"Author,<\/a>

Author, cultural commentator and satirist Binyavanga Wainaina \/ photo by Allan G.<\/strong><\/span><\/p><\/div>\n


\n<\/em>In the last decade, one of the keywords on the lips of the Africa Rising crowd has been “development”. The African middle-class – along with a huge development industry – is\u00a0 setting the terms of this \u201cdevelopment\u201d, but the central idea seems to be \u2018let\u2019s turn Africa into Europe.\u2019 So, for instance, Europe doesn\u2019t have things like boda-bodas [motorcycle taxis], so let\u2019s get rid of them. And so it is that perfectly convenient local solutions are discarded for grand ideas designed to make Africa (and Africans) more like Europe (and Europeans). This is exactly the kind of Victorian thinking the British brought to Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya, etc. when they colonised us. We unwittingly internalised this thinking and now continue their work for them in the name of “development”, all the while thinking we are being modern, forward-thinking globalized Africans.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Cultural critic Binyavanga Wainaina has posted a series of videos on YouTube talking about this poverty of imagination and asking middle-class Africans to dare to free their imagination. The following is our response to his thesis.<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

On\u00a0the 18th of January 2014, Binyavanga Wainaina, the Kenyan writer celebrated his birthday by publishing a moving personal essay (in\u00a0Chimurenga<\/em><\/span><\/a>) announcing that he has known he was gay since the age of five. His\u00a0Facebook wall<\/span><\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Twitter<\/span><\/a>\u00a0timeline have since been filled with congratulatory messages and occasionally some condemnation of his decision, him, the person, and the fact that he is gay. But Binyavanga was prepared for the discussion. On the 21st, he began publishing a series of videos on YouTube titled\u00a0We must Free our imagination<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n