I repeat what I wrote on this day in 2014:
Last week I defended African homosexuals' rights and choice, and ended up in a longer debate on Facebook. I wanted to underline the fact that it isn't black and white, that many Africans in fact speak for openmindedness, against this mad lack of tolerance, and that I believe in the platforms where we can engage and share information.
One person didn't agree with me on defending homosexuals' rights, and asked me: 'Are you a lesbian?'. I don't think he deserved the right to ask me that question, and I find the answer irrelevant, too. I will defend South Sudanese refugees' rights to a decent life, in spite I'm not a South Sudanese refugee. I will also defend the rights of the youth living in Nairobi slums to a decent life, in spite I am not living in the slums.
I could go on.
To me this isn't about who or where you are, it is about sympathy and action.
What the Kenyan author Binyavanga Wainaina did some days ago on his 43rd birthday, is remarkable. It's courageous. It is good timing. Of course, he will face trouble, but his move will also force many to stop up and think. Moreover, his way of doing it is also sophisticated as he simply added a 'lost chapter' to his his book 'One Day I Will Write About This Place'.
On this Neelika Jayawardane here writes: 'Binyavanga Wainanina is stretching, playing with, and mocking the limits of memoir, and the conventions of writing one’s life story. We think he told us about himself in his memoir, One Day I’ll Write About This Place, published by Greywolf Press in September 2012. Memoirs are supposed to be the public forum on which one gives people the “true” account of one’s life. We think memoirs are locations of revelation. Where one “fixes” the truth in print. '
Read more here.