Africana Studies
North Academic Building
85 Mission Park Drive
Williams College
Williamstown, MA 01267
Phone: (413) 597-2242
Fax: (413) 597-4222

Chair:
Prof. Shanti M. Singham
ssingham@williams.edu

Administrative Assistant:
Lucy Gardner Carson
Lucy.G.Carson@williams.edu

Binyavanga Wainaina is a writer, cultural activist, and publicist. He was born in Nakuru town in the Rift Valley Province of Kenya and attended high school in Nairobi. He later studied commerce at the University of Transkei in South Africa, after which he worked in Cape Town for some years as a freelance food and travel writer. He was the founding editor and publisher of Kwani?, the leading literary magazine in eastern Africa. His work has been featured in many magazines and journals, including Harpers, Vanity Fair, National Geographic, Granta, New York Times Magazine, Virginia Quarterly Review, Paris Review, and Bidoun. He is a regular contributor to Cape Argus, (South Africa); Guardian (UK); East African (Nairobi); Ecoforu (Nairobi); Tank Magazine (London); Chimurenga (Cape Town); and Mail and Guardian (South Africa). He is the recipient of many writing awards, including the prestigious Caine Prize for African Writing, Virginia Quarterly Review’s Emily Clark Balch Prize for Short Fiction, a Chevening Scholarship, and a Lannan Foundation Fellowship. He is currently working on a book of memoirs called "Discovering Home" (2009). Outside of his literary career, Wainaina is a leading authority on African cuisine.

YouTube video: Binyavanga Wainaina reading from his memoir Discovering Home (10/28/08; Part 1 of 4)

YouTube video: Binyavanga Wainaina reading from his memoir Discovering Home (10/28/08; Part 2 of 4)

YouTube video: Binyavanga Wainaina reading from his memoir Discovering Home (10/28/08; Part 3 of 4)

YouTube video: Binyavanga Wainaina reading from his memoir Discovering Home (10/28/08; Part 4 of 4)

YouTube video: "How Not to Write About Africa" (1/3/09)
Written by Binyavanga Wainaina, narrated by Djimon Hounsou

YouTube video: Response to "How Not to Write About Africa" (1/3/09; Part 1 of 3)

YouTube video: Response to "How Not to Write About Africa" (1/3/09; Part 2 of 3)

YouTube video: Response to "How Not to Write About Africa" (1/3/09; Part 3 of 3)

NPR interview (12/4/08)
Binyavanga Wainaina is among a rising generation of African voices who bring a cautionary perspective to the morality and efficacy behind many Western initiatives to abolish poverty and speed development in Africa.

BBC News Online interview
BBC News Online speaks to six Kenyans about their hopes for the future and what the Moi era meant to them, as the country holds historic elections.