The award-winning Kenyan writer Binyavanga Wainaina (48) died last Tuesday night, in Nairóbi. Wainaina challenged stereotypes of Africa with biting satire and took on prejudice by documenting his life as an openly gay man. The author, essayist, and campaigner, who also championed African literature through the Kwani Trust that he founded with other writers.
A reader of books and places, words and people, Binyavanga structure your world through language. Always on the sidelines and looking inward, had difficulty to fit into the stipulated standards of society. He studied administration in South Africa, but gave up the course, reading voraciously and doing temporary work until he realized that his vocation was, in fact, writing.
His text “Discovering home”, about a family trip to Uganda, won the “Caine Prize for African Writing” in 2002. The important award recognizes the talent and promise of English-speaking African authors.
“One Day I will write about this place “, his memoir was published in 2011, cementing his career as a writer.
In November 2018, the book arrives in Brazil by the Kapulana publishing house. In this work, Binyavanga intertwines his memories of childhood, adolescence and adult life to the contemporary history of the African continent.
Wainaina announced in 2016 that he was HIV positive.