Binyavanga Wainaina
Binyavanga Wainaina
Kenneth Binyavanga Wainainais a Kenyan author, journalist and winner of the Caine Prize for African Writing. In April 2014, Time magazine included Wainaina in its annual TIME 100 as one of the "Most Influential People in the World."...
NationalityKenyan
ProfessionAuthor
Date of Birth18 January 1971
CountryKenya
girl children real
International correspondents with their long dictaphones, and dirty jeans, and five hundred words before whiskey, are slouched over the red velvet chairs, in the VIP section in the front, looking for the Story: the Most Macheteing Deathest, Most Treasury Corruptest, Most Entrail-Eating Civil Warest, Most Crocodile-Grinning Dictatorest, MOst Heart-Wrenching and Genociding Pulitzerest, Most Black Big-Eyed Oxfam Child Starvingest, Most Wild African Savages Having AIDS-Ridden Sexest with Genetically Mutilatedest Girls...The Most Authentic Real Black Africanest story they can find...
homosexual honestly swear
I, Binyavanga Wainaina, quite honestly swear I have known I am a homosexual since I was five.
country pride diversity
There is no country in the world with the diversity, confidence and talent and black pride like Nigeria.
Africa is to be pitied, worshipped or dominated
blue sky lakes
It is a pink and blue feeling, as sharp as clear sky; a slight breeze, and the edges of Lake Nakuru would rise like the ruffle at the edge of a skirt; and I am pockmarked with whole-body pinpricks of potentiality. A stretch of my body would surely stretch as far as the sky. The whole universe poised, and I am the agent of any movement.
people age platforms
People reach an age... where somebody elses platform is no longer yours.
ideas childhood feelings
I like the idea of readers feeling a familiarity, whether its with Africa or childhood.
texture
I love playing with words and texture.
believe fighting rights
I believe in, and will to the best of my ability fight for, equal rights and freedom of opinion for everyone, regardless of colour, religion, nationality, orientation - you know the rest.
people soul dignity
All people have dignity. Theres nobody who was born without a soul and a spirit.
people london young
Everywhere I go, I see young people: Confident, forward looking. I have seen them in Lagos, in Rwanda, in the suburbs of London.
gangsters humans bits
Every human being has a bit of gangster in him.
mean japan class
I have learned that I, we, are a dollar-a-day people (which is terrible, they say, because a cow in Japan is worth $9 a day). This means that a Japanese cow would be a middle class Kenyan... a $9-a-day cow from Japan could very well head a humanitarian NGO in Kenya. Massages are very cheap in Nairobi, so the cow would be comfortable.
optimistic transformation rapids
I’m extremely optimistic about rapid transformation and change of things in Africa in general.