With summer upon us, I thought I would bring you some wonderfully inventive reads, colourful enough to add vibrancy to any sun-filled day. It’s a trilogy of novellas, bringing us Binti, a young woman from the Himba people, who reveals Namibia in a whole new light, treating us to an intimate glance of the rich traditions of this tribe: a desert people who wash with red clay and oils from flowers. Or at least it starts that way…
From an author intent on showing the magic of Africa through the magic of Africanfuturism.
Binti, by Nnedi Okorafor
Binti is the first of Namibia’s Himba people to be offered a place at Oomza University. But to take the place means defying her core traditions, leaving her family behind, and risking scandilizing her entire bloodline. Nevertheless, she heads out into the galaxy and into a world that incorporates biotechnology, with space ships possessing natural exoskeletons that could genetically enhance to grow breathing chambers. There is also an interesting fusion of fantasy: astrolade scanners that can see a person’s future; and strange, many-pointed artefacts called Edens, that no one knows the function of, just that it appears like art. It is one of the many ways in which this author’s work is often genre defying, and defining, with stories championing their own rules, paving the way for real innovation.
Binti is a skilful builder of astrolades and gifted as a harmonizer, but knowledge comes at a cost and the journey is far from easy. The Meduse are an alien race and long-term enemy of Oomza university, and now they are attacking her ship to devastating consequences. But our plucky heroine is grounded by the wisdom of her people, a tribe obsessed with innovation and technology, although as a general rule, they prefer to explore the universe by travelling inward.
Binti Home, by Nnedi Okorafor
Binti is returning home, after a year of study at the university, with her alien friend, Okwu. She is not the same girl and it is not certain that there will be a place for her among the tribes of her desert homeland. She has been suffering PTSD after what happened on the journey out – waking dreams and hallucinations – and has been seeing a therapist. As she approaches home, she considers how she hasn’t told her family about her hair not being hair anymore, that it was now a series of tentacles resulting from Meduse genetics being introduced to her genetics. She was still coming to terms with the sensation, and could hide the truth when speaking with her family through the astrolabe, but in person she wouldn’t be able to hide the fact that her locks moved on their own.
Surprises await her at home, and while some of her tribe are resistant to Binti’s changed outlook, acquired through inter-solar travel, the truth cannot be denied: Binti has seen the Night Masquerade. And so the story is told, blending culture and tradition with the innovation of space travel and marvellous invention. I loved the Africanfuturistic vison, with solar power ingrained into homes, covered by bioluminescent plants growing on the outside, homes that are more like self-sustaining creatures than homes. Among the tribes of her homeland, Binti learns about the mysterious and ancient edan she wears, and she discovers more about her origin, among the undying trees of the desert.
Binti, The Night Masquerade, by Nnedi Okofafor
In this concluding part to the trilogy, Binti returns, with a heartfelt tale that makes you just love her even more. A war is coming, and together with her new friend, Mwinyi, Binti attempts to stop it. Prepare for a feast for the imagination in what feels like an explosive finale. I adored the narrative, each word alive on the page, bursting with colour and invention. And I loved the deep-dive into the desert hinterland and the mysteries of the tribes. While Binti’s truths are layered in visions brought on by the alien zinariya, humanity and alien once again merge, taking us on a cascading journey of glorious technicolour. As Neil Gaiman says, ‘Prepare to fall in love with Binti.’
What are you reading?
