“Like so many (wildly varying) writers on Africa, Chimamanda Adichie gets the acacia tree sunset treatment. Whether Wilbur Smith or Wole Soyinka, Rider Haggard or Bessie Head, apparently you get the same cover imagery.”
We’re obliged to Simon Stevens, a reader who put together the picture above and pointed out that whoever you are, wherever you’re from, whatever kind of writing you do, if you write a novel “about Africa,” chances are you’re going to get the acacia tree treatment. And the orange sky.
As Jeremy Weate tweeted icily: “Funny that. Nigeria is not known for its acacia trees.”
Edna Mohamed wrote on our Facebook page: “I hope one day we can finally upgrade to baobab trees or something.”
In short, the covers of most novels “about Africa” seem to have been designed by someone whose principal idea of the continent comes from The Lion King.
To read more, click here.
A further irony is that the name Acacia has been taken away from the African acacia trees and awarded to the Australians for their wattles in a strange bit of scientific skulduggery. Click here for more.
