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
country pride diversity
There is no country in the world with the diversity, confidence and talent and black pride like Nigeria.
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.
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.
coming kenya relationship south
Living in South Africa and periodically coming back to Kenya, my relationship with officialdom in Kenya was just insane.
excited longer quite
I am quite excited that Moi is leaving. Kenyans have changed. We have a free press, and it is no longer a situation of 'follow in my footsteps.'
readers whether
I like the idea of readers feeling a familiarity, whether it's with Africa or childhood.
adopted adopting brothers christians colonial good mixed produce sisters ways western
We are a mixed up people. We have mixed up ways of naming, too... When my father's brothers and sisters first went to colonial schools, they had to produce a surname. They also had to show they were good Christians by adopting a western name. They adopted my grandfather's name as surname. Wainaina.
catholic crayons finding remember
In kindergarten, we had this Irish Catholic headmistress called Sister Leonie, and I remember she would tell us, say, to put the crayons in the box. I remember thinking, 'Why is everyone finding this so easy? Why should the crayons be in the box?'
felt knew
I knew I didn't want to come out in the 'New Yorker'; it just felt wrong. It needed an African conversation.
cover nobel unless won
Never have a picture of a well-adjusted African on the cover of your book, or in it, unless that African has won the Nobel prize.
bring copy expected found guess hard move people quite sure watch
It's like I was always not quite sure even how to move in space somehow; I would watch people and then copy them. I found it really hard to walk straight. My brother was always on at me for walking off the pavement. I guess I always expected people to bring me back into line.
apartheid arrived average began government south supposed understand white
When I went to live in South Africa, I immediately began to understand what went wrong. Because here was a place supposed to be under apartheid - I arrived there in 1991 - but here a black person had more say and had more influence over his white government than an average Kenyan had over the Moi government.
blocked freely imagine places point writer
There's no point for me in being a writer and having all these blocked places where I feel I can't think freely and imagine freely. There just really is no point.