I finished reading When A Crocodile Eats the Sun. Andrew Solomon has blurbed the back with what I put above: the unknowability of Africa. Seriously? Have we not moved past Heart of Darkness thinking of Africa yet? Moreover, it makes no sense while applied to his book written by an African about Africa in which he details stuff that happens in Africa to Africans. I am unclear as to how presenting data and stories about Africa contributes to unknowability; in my opinion, it contributes to the opposite, namely knowability.
I have been to Africa twice (Ethiopia and South Africa). Is it different than here? Yes. But I find everywhere is different than here. I even find parts of Canada different than here (Calgary is a lot different than the Maritimes, except for the large number of Maritimers out there working). Was it unknowable? Only in the sense that anything that isn’t your norm is unknowable for everyone. I’m sure if you took some of the people I met in Africa and dropped them here in New Brunswick, New Brunswick would be unknowable to them. Yet we don’t perpetuate the unknowability of Atlantic Canada around the world.
It also implies in the blurb that Philip Gourevitch also wrote about the unknowability of Africa, I am assuming in reference to We Wish to Inform You that Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families, which is also a book where it discusses Africa, specifically the Rwandan Genocide, in a very non Heart of Darkness unknowability fashion.
Are people so blinded they expect Africa to be unknowable? The internet tells me there are over one billion people living in Africa. I bet each one of them knows something about the place they live. Can we stop pretending that Africa is just this impermeable mass when we talk about it? Completely othering and, as I’ve said, it didn’t even apply to this book. Maybe blurbers just skim through. I’ve never blurbed (or been blurbed) so I don’t know.