Binyavanga Wainaina, Kenyan author and gay rights activist, dies aged 48
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Arts & Culture
The Kenyan author was a winner of the Caine Prize for African Writing in 2002, and carried on with his literature, particularly his must read essay, How to Write About Africa. The literary piece is a satirical take on people’s perception of the continent, Africa. Wainaina suggested that writers should always use the word Africa, Darkness or Safari in their titles and not to have a well-adjusted African on the cover of their books, or in it, but an AK-47, prominent ribs, naked breasts etc.; to describe the continent.
Binyavanga Wainaina was named among Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people in 2014 for his involvement in gay rights activism, despite LGBTQ rights being illegal in Kenya and same-sex acts punishable by imprisonment . He was one of Kenya’s first high-profile citizens to come out as homosexual, exposing him at high risk of both arrest and violence. The activist revealed his sexuality in 2014 in an essay he called a lost chapter from his 2011 memoir, One Day I Will Write About This Place. A Kenyan writer and commentator Nanjala Nyabola claims that Wainaina “reopened the possibilities of Kenyan literature,” and challenged the negative stereotypes and views of the Kenyans towards homosexuality.
On 1 December 2016, World Aids Day, Wainaina revealed through a tweet that he was HIV-positive “and happy”. He also told the Kenyan National Radio KBC in 2014 that he decided to come out because of the attention that had surrounded recent laws in Uganda and Nigeria, and to generate a conversation among Africans. He felt the need to put up a “stubborn spirit and refusal to give in,'' and stand against the shame that made people like his friend die in silence. Wainaina’s death came a year after he proposed to his boyfriend and days before a Supreme Court ruling, upholding the law against the recognision of any relationships between persons of the same sex.
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Binyavanga Wainaina, a renowned Kenyan author and activist for gay rights, died in May 2019 at the age of 48 after suffering a stroke.
On 1 December 2016, World Aids Day, Wainaina revealed through a tweet that he was HIV-positive “and happy”. His news was widely accepted; with many fans calling him brave and expressing their pride in his admittance. Wainaina told the Kenyan national radio KBC in 2014 that he decided to come out because of the attention that had surrounded the recent laws in Uganda and Nigeria, as well as to generate a conversation among Africans. He felt the need to put up a “stubborn spirit and refusal to give in,'' as well as standing against the shame that made people like his friend die in silence.