Prize-winning Kenyan writer Binyavanga Wainaina has died in Nairobi after a short illness at the age of 48.
He won the Caine Prize for African writing in 2002 and was best known around the world for his satirical essay How to Write About Africa.
Wainaina was also named among Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people in 2014 for his gay rights activism.
He “demystified and humanized homosexuality” author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie wrote at the time.
Wainaina was one of the first high-profile Kenyans to openly declare he was gay and “he felt an obligation to chip away at the shame” that people felt about being gay, Adichie added.
In 2014, his personal life took centre stage when he told the world he had known he was gay since he was five.
A year later, he suffered a stroke. The next year, in 2016, he announced he was HIV-positive on World Aids Day. In 2018, against all odds, he said he would marry his boyfriend in South Africa.
Wainaina will not have his wedding. But he leaves behind an LGBT community in Kenya, many of whom were emboldened by his bravery.
Wainaina suffered a stroke in 2015.
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.”
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