How to Write About Africa

[A] Kenyan writer and LGBT activist who made a revolutionary impact on literature from and about the African continent – Margaret Busby * Guardian *
Barbed, playful, inventive … African literature would never be the same … An outsize figure on the literary landscape, his omnivorous brilliance matched by ambition and vision on a continental scale – Anderson Tepper * New York Times *
A collection of brilliant writing - essays, stories, journalism, and even recipes. I admire Wainaina’s humour, flamboyance and intelligence and the way he skewers the usual stereotypes about Africa – Deborah Levy * Times *
Seductive and appetising … [Wainaina’s] work is as relevant as ever [and his] observations remain sharp throughout * The New Yorker *
[An] award-winning Kenyan writer whose humorous, incisive books and essays explored themes of post-colonialism, gender and sexual identity … with wit and humour he took apart the paternalism of certain writers who talk of Africa as one country * Independent *
He was an intellectual … Someone who could have become the Edward Said of Africa or the James Baldwin of our time – Leila Aboulela
An uncompromising commentator … [Binyavanga Wainaina] shines a light on his continent without cliché – Nesrine Malik * Guardian *
[A] barrier-shattering presence in African literature * Washington Post *
Unflagging in his generosity, unflinching and direct in his criticism, [Binyavanga] produced work in his short life that will have impact longer lasting than those whose time here is twice as long – Ellah Wakatama Allfrey
A trail-blazing Kenyan legend * Al Jazeera *

Binyavanga Wainaina was a Kenyan author, activist, journalist and 2002 winner of the Caine Prize for African Writing. His debut book, a memoir entitled One Day I Will Write About This Place, was published in 2011. In April 2014, Time magazine included Wainaina in its annual Time 100 as one of the ‘Most Influential People in the World’. He died in 2019.

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