Binyavanga Wainaina

Aurélie Journo (Université Paris XIII)

Ed. by Helen Rachel Cousins, Birmingham Newman University
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 8.2.3: Anglophone African Writing and Culture: Subsaharan.
Vol. editors: Helen Rachel Cousins (Birmingham Newman University), David Firth (University of Manchester), Alex Nelungo Wanjala (University of Nairobi)

Dates

Born 18 Jan 1971

Places

Active in Kenya

Activities

Primary

Journalist
Writer / Author

Resources

Wainaina's Works

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Binyavanga Wainaina is a Kenyan writer, journalist and activist born in Nakuru (Kenya) in 1971. Born to a Kenyan middle-class family from a Kenyan father and a Ugandan mother, Binyavanga Wainaina grew up in Nakuru, in the Rift Valley Province. He attended Moi Primary School in Nakuru, Mangu High School in Thika, and Lenana School in Nairobi. In 1990, he left Kenya for South Africa, where he studied commerce at the University of Transkei. He returned to Nairobi in the early 2000s, before leaving for the United States, where he later became the director for the Chinua Achebe Centre for African Writers and Artists. He remained in this post until 2013, when he decided to return to Kenya.

He won the Caine Prize for his short story Discovering Home in 2002 and went on to found and edit, with

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3601 words

Citation: Journo, Aurélie. "Binyavanga Wainaina". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 03 November 2016 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=13751, accessed 21 November 2024.]