BY ISHAAN THAROOR
Often, cliches are cliches because they carry a kernel of truth. But sometimes cliches are cliches because they are lazy and pernicious.
A meme triggered this week by the Africa Is a Country blog exposes the latter. A reader of the blog posted on Twitter a collage of 36 prominent books set in or about Africa, all of which seem to have the same sort of image on the cover: of a drooping, usually solitary acacia tree, suffused in the moody glow of sunset (or dawn, perhaps).