Kenyan writer Binyavanga Wainaina dies at 48

Award-winning Kenyan writer Binyavanga Wainaina has died at the age of 48 in Nairobi after a short illness. Wainaina won the Caine Prize for African writing in 2002 and was famous for his satirical essay ‘How to Write About Africa’. Other works include ‘One Day I Will Write About This Place: A Memoir’ (2012), and […]

Award-winning Kenyan writer Binyavanga Wainaina has died at the age of 48 in Nairobi after a short illness.

Wainaina won the Caine Prize for African writing in 2002 and was famous for his satirical essay ‘How to Write About Africa’. Other works include ‘One Day I Will Write About This Place: A Memoir’ (2012), and ‘Nguva Na Nyoka’ (2016) meaning ‘Sirens and Serpents’ in Swahili.

He was named among Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people in 2014 for his gay rights activism. He was also the founder of the literary magazine, ‘Kwani’.

His brother James Wainaina told the BBC his family wanted to celebrate his life: “We are in a life celebration mood. We’re looking at this from a human level. It’s a human story. Allow that humanness to shine, people are hurting.”

Wainaina suffered a stroke in 2015. In December 2016, Wainaina revealed on Twitter that he was HIV-positive.