Kenyan - Author | January 18, 1971 -
Every human being has a bit of gangster in him.
Binyavanga Wainaina
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There is no country in the world with the diversity, confidence and talent and black pride like Nigeria.
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All people have dignity. There's nobody who was born without a soul and a spirit.
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I want to be fighting for a society accountable towards its citizens.
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I knew I didn't want to come out in the 'New Yorker'; it just felt wrong. It needed an African conversation.
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Never have a picture of a well-adjusted African on the cover of your book, or in it, unless that African has won the Nobel prize.
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In kindergarten, we had this Irish Catholic headmistress called Sister Leonie, and I remember she would tell us, say, to put the crayons in the box. I remember thinking, 'Why is everyone finding this so easy? Why should the crayons be in the box?'
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It's like I was always not quite sure even how to move in space somehow; I would watch people and then copy them. I found it really hard to walk straight. My brother was always on at me for walking off the pavement. I guess I always expected people to bring me back into line.
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When I went to live in South Africa, I immediately began to understand what went wrong. Because here was a place supposed to be under apartheid - I arrived there in 1991 - but here a black person had more say and had more influence over his white government than an average Kenyan had over the Moi government.
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Living in South Africa and periodically coming back to Kenya, my relationship with officialdom in Kenya was just insane.
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I am quite excited that Moi is leaving. Kenyans have changed. We have a free press, and it is no longer a situation of 'follow in my footsteps.'
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People reach an age... where somebody else's platform is no longer yours.
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