Africa Has Lost Binyavanga Wainaina. But His spirit Will Continue To Inspire
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CHIMAMANDA NGOZI ADICHIE WITH BINYAVANGA WAINAINA AT LANNAN FOUNDATION 2011. VIA FLICKR
Africa Has Lost Binyavanga Wainaina. But His spirit Will Continue To Inspire
Binyavanga Wainaina, one of Kenya’s most famous writers, has passed away.
How to write an obituary for a person of such standing? The conventional way would be by starting with the key biographical facts.
Wainaina was born in 1971 in Nakuru, Kenya. He went to school in Nakuru, Thika, and Nairobi. He studied a degree in Commerce in South Africa (University of Transkei) and later an MPhil in Creative Writing in the UK (University of East Anglia).
In 2002 he won the Caine Prize for African writing, with his short story “Discovering Home”. In 2003 he became the founding editor of African literary magazine, Kwani?, and he served as the director of the Chinua Achebe Centre for African Literature and Languages at the Bard College in the US.
