Nana Brew-Hammond and Binyavanga Wainaina

Last night I had the pleasure of visiting the Studio Museum in Harlem to see Kenyan writer Binyavanga Wainaina talk to Ghanaian-American author Nana Brew-Hammond about her first novel Powder Necklace.

Wainaina is the founding editor of the influential magazine Kwani? and the author of the essay How to Write About Africa (quoted in my review of Gods and Soldiers, where an excerpt from his memoir-in-progress was published). Brew-Hammond’s novel focuses on the cultural challenges that face a somewhat spoiled young woman whose mother sends her to Ghana in order to protect her (I gathered) from the same kind of personal behavior that she wants more freedom to indulge in herself.

I joined the authors and several others for a drink afterwards at the pleasant (but pricey) Mobay restaurant on 125th Street, where I also got to talk with Billy Kahora, currently the editor of Kwani?