Manal and Alaa's bit bucket free speech from the bletches

Granta has this cool article bashing How western writers write about Africa

In your text, treat Africa as if it were one country. It is hot and dusty with rolling grasslands and huge herds of animals and tall, thin people who are starving. Or it is hot and steamy with very short people who eat primates. Don't get bogged down with precise descriptions. Africa is big: fifty-four countries, 900 million people who are too busy starving and dying and warring and emigrating to read your book. The continent is full of deserts, jungles, highlands, savannahs and many other things, but your reader doesn't care about all that, so keep your descriptions romantic and evocative and unparticular.

hehehe it's funny because it's true, it's stretching it a bit but what is humor without exaggeration. can't see why one has to face this kind of writing though, Africa has many great writers and they know how to get it right. I don't remember reading a novel or a short story where an african writer (even those who come from the white tribes) romanticized Africa. looking for a not so well known African writer? check out K Sello Duiker's Thriteen Cents