ONE DAY I WILL WRITE ABOUT THIS PLACE — Binyavanga Wainaina
Waymakers all have one common precept. It is that the case for contracting one’s true nature for the purpose of appeasing a largely self-involved society — is insubstantial. No one benefits from this psychic form of Seppuku. Instead, even a mere approximation of our true selves projected in a moody & distracted world — is a courageous execution of free will and a seismic act of self-love.
Binyavanga Wainana’s autobiography “One Day I Will Write About This Place” is an immersive journey through his middle-class upbringing in Nakuru during the period of an emerging Kenyan Democracy.
Here is a coming-of-age story, whilst negotiating otherness, (a status he wears lightly but confidently) amidst the riptide of a changing country, family, and self.
The author carefully tends to the transition from light-hearted childhood adventurism to the unfolding contradictions of adulthood, en route to matured self-knowledge. In there, he also manages astute political commentary about the two countries he has lived in on the continent. i.e. Kenya & South Africa.
The best thing that can be said for this book is that therein is an introduction to, as far as I am concerned, a patently new mechanism for using language. He offers descriptive writing that is beyond vivid but closer to animated, fantastical imagery.
The Book is a performance; a wholly sentient being. I found myself not necessarily reading but living the story. Binyavanga crafts entirely new words; improbable sentences and grafts phrases imaginatively. A risky endeavor that pays off spectacularly well, making this a wonderfully unique text.
“Exuding swimming pool health”, “aerodynamic fitness”
A final reflection of his that I found especially thorough was his analysis of “The Unbearable Privilege of Writing”. Wainaina momentarily departs from his casual references to make the emphatic and serious claim, that writing has the socially critical role of arranging bygone events and reproducing them in a clear chronological, and coherent order. It is a privilege and task he takes quite seriously, evidenced by the bulk of his life’s work with the founding of Kwani?- an African Literary Magazine; that has curated some of the African literary content over the last decade.
“One Day I Will Write About This Place” is a beautifully crafted elastic and evocative piece of literary goodness. Please go read it.
[Join Dangala Book Club here to discuss this and other interesting titles]
Kiwanuka-Okot MJ
October 2023
