Binyavanga Wainaina: Kenyan writer and gay rights activist dies at 48
Wainaina won the prestigious Caine Prize for African Writing for his short story collection
Nairobi — Binyavanga Wainaina, the award-winning Kenyan writer who challenged stereotypes of Africa with satire and took on prejudice by documenting his life as an openly gay man, has died aged 48. The author, essayist and campaigner — who also championed African literature through the Kwani Trust he founded with other writers — passed away in Nairobi on Tuesday, the organisation's chairman, Tom Maliti, said. Wainaina's 2005 essay, How to Write About Africa, was a pointed and hilarious lesson to would-be journalists and historians. Its compilation of absurd clichés was a call for more nuanced portrayals. "Among your characters you must always include The Starving African, who wanders the refugee camp nearly naked, and waits for the benevolence of the West," Wainaina wrote in satirical instructions to aspiring writers.
"Her children have flies on their eyelids and pot bellies, and her breasts are flat and empty. She must look utterly helpless. She can have no past, no histor...
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