Kenneth Binyavanga Wainaina (1971-2019)

Life and Demise

Kenneth Binyavanga Wainaina was a Kenyan author, journalist and 2002 winner of the Caine Prize for African Writing. Binyavanga was born on 18th January 1971 in Nakuru, Rift Valley Province. He attended Moi Primary School in Nakuru, Mang'u High School in Thika, then Lenana High School in Nairobi. He later studied commerce at the University of Transkei in South Africa, where he ended up living from 1991. He completed his Masters of Philosophy in Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England in 2010.

After his education, Binyavanga worked in Cape Town for some time as a freelance food and travel writer. He also set time aside to do his own writing and in 2011, his debut book, a memoir entitled One Day I Will Write About This Place was published. Three years later, in January 2014, in response to anti-gay laws in Africa, Binyavanga publicly announced he was gay. This was a reinforcement to an essay he wrote and described it as a "lost chapter" of his 2011 memoir entitled, "I am a homosexual, mum". This also reimagined the last day of his mother’s life, where he opened to her about his sexuality beside her deathbed. He took it to social media and tweeted, “I am, for anybody confused or in doubt, a homosexual. Gay and quite happy.”

On 1st December 2016 (World AIDS Day), Binyavanga announced on his Twitter account that he was HIV positive "and happy." Two years later, he took to social media, this time on Facebook, and announced that he would be marrying his long-term partner the following year. The post read, “I asked my love for his hand in marriage two weeks ago, he said yes nearly immediately.”

On 21st May 2019, Tom Maliti, the chairman of the Kwani Trust, confirmed the demise of the literary giant. He passed away at Aga Khan Hospital in Nairobi after a short illness. Later on it was revealed that he succumbed to a stroke, which he battled severally since 2016.

Achievements

• Being a literature enthusiast, Binyavanga was the founding editor of Kwani?, the first literary magazine in East Africa since Transition Magazine. Kwani? became the important source of new writing from Africa. Yvonne Owuor, who wrote for the magazine also ended up winning the Caine Prize for African Writing in 2003.
• In 2003, Binyavanga was given an award by the Kenya Publishers Association for his services to Kenyan literature. He also wrote for various papers and magazines in Africa: The East African, National Geographic, The Sunday Times (South Africa), Granta, The New York Times, Chimurenga and The Guardian (UK).
• As a food and travel writer he collected over 13,000 recipes from around Africa and was an expert on traditional and modern African cuisine.
• Binyavanga was equally courageous as he was controversial. In 2006 he wrote a satirical essay "How to Write About Africa", which was published in Granta magazine. It attracted wide attention and criticism from the western world becoming one his best-known work.
• In 2014, Time magazine named Binyavanga one of its 100 Most Influential People. 
• In 2007, Binyavanga was nominated by the World Economic Forum as a "Young Global leader" - an award given to people for their potential to contribute to shaping the future of the world. To the shock of many, he declined the award. He sighted the nomination would be "a great act of fraudulence".
• He was a renowned writer with an array of publications to his name. They include: "An Affair to Dismember" in 2002; "In Gikuyu, for Gikuyu, of Gikuyu" in 2008;  "A Letter to All Kenyans from Binyavanga Wainaina or Binyavanga wa Muigai'' in 2017 among many others.

References

• Alison Flood, The Guardian (22nd May 2019): Binyavanga Wainaina, Kenyan author and gay rights activist, dies aged 48.
• Al-Jazeera (22nd May 2019): Binyavanga Wainaina, Kenyan author and activist, dies aged 48.
• Tim Adams, The Guardian (16th February 2014): Binyavanga Wainaina Interview:- Coming out in Kenya.
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binyavanga_Wainaina

Need a hand? Contact us.