A Binyavanga app is the best way to keep his legacy alive
Binyavanga Wainaina gives a speech during one in a series of celebratory events to mark KWANI's 10 year Anniversary at the KU business centre conference room, Nairobi, on November 28, 2013. PHOTO | FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP
I had planned to write about the significance of May 25, Africa Day, and ordinary Africans I meet from places viewed as a never-ending disaster but who are anything but. However, Binyavanga Wainaina has refused to let me be.
I have been, for years, an avid reader of Kwani? — the literary journal Binyavanga founded with money from the Caine Prize for African Writing. I read his book, One Day I Will Write About this Place with a lump in my throat, every scene – the effect of Brenda Fassie’s voice singing vul’indlela, James Hadley Chase novels, praise songs composed by our teachers for the president on Madaraka Day on June 1, travelling third class on the train to Kisumu and Nairobi’s lunchtime preachers – clearly recognisable as the story of my generation.
