Chimamanda Adichie mourns Kenyan author Binyavanga Wainaina

Nigerian author and feminist, Chimamanda Adichie has mourned the death of renowned Kenyan author Binyavanga Wainaina who died of HIV.

Chimamanda shared a picture the both of them took together and captioned it:

Binyavanga Wainaina. (1971 – 2019)
So kind, so generous, so humorous, so brilliant, so brave, so
talented, so knowledgeable, so wonderfully curious, so original.
I am struggling. To use the past tense. To stop crying.
My beloved ‘Canga.’ There is nobody else remotely like you. Nobody.
With you, I felt so known, so understood. And there is no gift, in a
friendship, more precious than this.
I love you. Always. Rest well.
Chimamanda

Before his death, Wainaina won the Caine Prize for African Writing for his short story Discovering Home in 2002.

Time Magazine in 2014 included Wainaina in its list of the Most Influential People in the World.

Binyavanga Wainaina, last year announced his plans to marry his long-time partner at a wedding in South Africa. The announcement divided opinion in Kenya where homosexual acts are illegal.

Binyavanga’s brother James Wainaina told the BBC that his family wants to celebrate his life.

“We are in a life celebration mood, we’re looking at this from a human level; it’s a human story. Allow that humanness to shine, people are hurting,” he said.