Activist Wainaina was ‘a beacon of light’

YAOUNDE: From delivering a TED Talk in a tutu to coming out in a country where homosexuality is deeply taboo, Binyavanga Wainaina, pictured, was a champion of the LGBT+ cause in Africa, campaigners said as they paid tribute to the Kenyan writer who died this week aged 48.

Many praised the author, essayist and campaigner as a role model who challenged widespread prejudices and emboldened young LGBT+ Africans to be open about who they were.

“I think Wainaina is the first African gay professional writer and someone of such a high standing in society who has come out as openly gay,” said Clare Byarugaba, a human rights activist in Uganda.

Byarugaba said Wainaina’s example provided encouragement to young LGBT+ people in Uganda, where many face violence and discrimination.

Hajia Yariya, a gay woman in Ghana, where LGBT+ people still face discrimination, said reading an interview in an African newspaper in which Wainaina said being a gay African man was not a big deal had given her “goosebumps”.

“I became very proud of who I am and I admired his fearless being a lot from that day,” she said.

Fellow author and friend Frankie Edozien said Wainaina had been “a beacon of light” who “was not going to cede his right to be an African and a gay African anywhere on the continent”.

That included the famous TED Talk – delivered in a lilac jacket and bright pink tutu – in 2015, the year after he came out.

“If people like him were silent, what is then the hope for the baker, the tailor, the mechanic who is LGBTQ out there?” the Nigerian-american author said.