What is the author's perspective in the memoir, One Day I Will Write About This Place?

Wainaina tells his own story in the first person. The only exception to the use of the first person perspective is a small section of Chapter 25 after Wainaina learns that his mother has died. It is almost as if Wainaina still hurts so much from his mother’s death that he has to distance himself from it even to be able to write about it.

Because he is writing from his own perspective, Wainaina describes the situation in Africa as he encounters it. He does not do a great deal of research about history or political policies to fill in details. Instead, he shares with the reader what he knows from his experience. For this reason, the reader may get caught up in some of Wainaina’s exposition and lose track of where his country stands politically. Some individual research about leaders and important events mentioned by Wainaina might help the reader to understand better the political atmosphere in Wainaina’s story.