Renown Kenyan author and gay rights activist Binyavanga Wainana has passed on
The author died on Tuesday May 21 at 10PM after a stroke.His family confirmed that the author had passed on.
The 48-year-old founder of literary magazine Kwani was a vocal gay rights activists and was set to marry his boyfriend this year.
During his Ted Talk in 2015 he said that he had suffered nine short strokes after holiday in Cuba. He had an operation that had a pipe inserted.
He was set to do a documentary on homosexuality and always asked Kenyans to speak on the issue
The 2002 winner of the Caine Prize for African Writing was named by the Time 100 among the “Most Influential People in the World” in 2014.
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He first suffered a stroke in 2016.
Binyavanga as a writer had many accolades having written close to ten publications. His famous publication dubbed How to write about Africa was received with love.
His first award came in 2003. His services services towards the Kenyan literature by the Publisher’s Association of Kenya were recognized.
He is one of the most renowned writers of this generation with his first book, which was in fact a memoir, “One Day I Will Write About This Place” being published in 2011.
Summer of that year, the Oprah Book Club added the memoir to its ‘summer reading list’.
Before the captivating memoir hit the shelves, Binyavanga would be selected by the world economic forum for the ‘young global leader’ award. This was way back in 2007. Then, he also worked as a writer at the Union College, Schenectady of USA.
In 2014, the LGBTQ activist was named by the Time 100 among the “Most Influential People in the World”.
Some of his literary works also include; An Affair To Dismember, Beyond the River Yei: life in the land where sleeping is a disease, How to write about Africa, Eines Tages werde ich über diesen Ort schreiben and Nguva Na Nyoka, co-authored by Wangechi Mutu.
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