Writing about Africa

My parents and friends keep urging me to do this. I've spent plenty of time on the continent and I love so many countries and people. But I can't write about it. I don't feel that I can do it justice.
To me, Africa is not the cliche I was raised on. When the charities are raising money to fund their huge administrative overheads, they have to make sure that Africans look as pathetic as possible. You shouldn't see well-adjusted, interesting, complex, evolved, educated Africans on a charity drive [I watched an African spoof commercial once that proposed the collection and distribution of unused African radiators to the poor freezing people in Norway. I laughed my ass off].

But all we see are the stereotypes and I don't know if I have the perception or prose to fight them. Award winning Kenyan author, Binyavanga Wainaina, talked about this far better than I can in his cutting essay, "how to write about Africa".

http://textandcommunity.gmu.edu/2009/resources/how-write.pdf