When the writer published a lost chapter from his memoir titled 'I am a homosexual, Mum', it caused a sensation – and has placed him at the heart of the African debate on gay rights
'A vivid presence': Binyavanga Wainaina at home in a suburb of Nairobi. Photograph: Phil Moore
Binyavanga Wainaina made his name with a short and celebrated satire called "How to Write About Africa". It was the perfect anti-primer for any would-be "dark continent correspondent", skewering every cliche under the vast, red, setting savannah sun:
"Always use the words 'Africa' or 'Darkness' or 'Safari' in your title," Wainaina advised, to begin with. "Never," he went on, "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. An AK-47, prominent ribs, naked breasts: use these…" Critically, he suggested, "Africa is the only continent you can love – take advantage of this. If you are a man, thrust yourself into her warm virgin forests. If you are a woman, treat Africa as a man who wears a bush jacket and disappears off into the sunset. Africa is to be pitied, worshipped or dominated. Whichever angle you take, be sure to leave the strong impression that without your intervention and your important book, Africa is doomed…"
Wainaina wrote this piece for Granta magazine in 2005, and it subsequently became a kind of calling card for him, leading indirectly to visiting lectureships in America (he was until recently director of the Chinua Achebe Center for African Literature and Languages at Bard College, a post that came with a fine house by a lake in upstate New York) as well as star-turn invites to the global literary festival circuit (he lived for a winter in Hay-on-Wye, while studying for a masters in creative writing, and was anointed Field Marshal of Africa by the self-appointed local "king").
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Wainaina wrote this piece for Granta magazine in 2005, and it subsequently became a kind of calling card for him, leading indirectly to visiting lectureships in America (he was until recently director of the Chinua Achebe Center for African Literature and Languages at Bard College, a post that came with a fine house by a lake in upstate New York) as well as star-turn invites to the global literary festival circuit (he lived for a winter in Hay-on-Wye, while studying for a masters in creative writing, and was anointed Field Marshal of Africa by the self-appointed local "king").
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