Review by Christina Fawcett

Going away to school and leaving everything you know behind is hard. 

Going away to school on another planet is harder. 

Going away to school and your interplanetary shuttle being attacked by murderous Meduse is so much worse. 

Binti by Nnedi Okorafor follows a young Himba woman who is the first of her community to go off to Oomza Uni: the finest higher learning institute in the galaxy. She must leave the Root, the name for her multigenerational family home, and the work that she does with her parents as a master harmonizer for astrolabes, in order to pursue an education. 

Okorafor’s narrative balances real-world experiences and spectacular imaginings to create a morally complex and nuanced novella. As Himba, Binti wears otjize on her skin and has her hair braided into a pattern that reflects her family tree. Boarding the shuttle at the beginning of the book, in a tense moment when she has run away from home, a woman handles Binti’s hair and comments to other Koush that she’s surprised it doesn’t smell like shit. The debasement, the objectification and the ignorance are all too real for many readers. Okorafor offers these moments with the weight of lived experience, positioning us with Binti as she remains quiet and does not pursue conflict despite the righteous anger Okorafor invites the reader to feel. 

The journey weaves together metaphor and good storytelling. Binti carries an old artefact from home, an edan, that when she rubs it with her otjize, or sacred clay from her home, it wakes up. This piece of her home becomes a way to communicate with the Meduse: a jellyfish-like alien race who take over the ship and slaughter all the inhabitants except Binti and the pilot. Binti is protected by the current of the edan and discovers that her otjize heals wounds for the Meduse. Her training to become a master harmonizer of currents and resonance enables her to use the edan’s current to speak with the Meduse and she is thus thrust into the position of negotiator between the Meduse and the academics at Oomza Uni, who stole the Meduse Chief’s stinger for an Anthropology exhibit.  

Okorafor takes a simple and largely familiar narrative of leaving home and expanding our horizons and dials it to eleven. Binti shows strength in her survival and curiosity in her conversations, making this brief novella a significant text for young readers. Binti’s journey, the first in a three-book series, examines the potential for growth and transformation while not shying away from negotiating racist or bigoted spaces. Binti navigates conversations with Koush, the Meduse, and the council of academics at Oomza Uni and, significantly, comes out of it changed. Okorafor shows the growth and transformation of her character as irrevocable and challenging, because growing up is not something one can undo. 

Winner of the 2015 Nebula and 2016 Hugo for Best Novella, Binti is important Afrofuturist text that challenges readers to travel with a young woman away from home and her comfort zone. 

Binti
Written by Nnedi Okorafor
2018, Macmillan
ISBN: 9781250203427
Reviews: Publishers Weekly, School Library Journal
Awards: Winner of the 2015 Nebula and 2016 Hugo for Best Novella

Dr Christina Fawcett is a Monster Theorist, Media Scholar and lover of all things speculative and fantastical. She examines villainous and monstrous spaces in fantasy, science fiction and horror narratives. She teaches at the University of Winnipeg and is the outgoing Book Reviews editor with Jeunesse.  

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GLLI’s 2024 International YA Literature Month has been curated by Dr Emily Corbett. She is a lecturer in children’s and young adult literature at Goldsmiths, University of London, where she leads the MA Children’s Literature: Theoretical Approaches to Children’s and Young Adult Literature programme. Her research focuses on the growth and development of YA from literary, publishing, and cultural perspectives. She is also General Editor of The International Journal of Young Adult Literature and was founding Vice President of the YA Studies Association. Her monograph, In Transition: Young Adult Literature and Transgender Representation (2024), has just been published by the University Press of Mississippi. You can find her contact details on her institutional website and connect with her on Twitter and Instagram via @DrEmilyCorbett.

Opinions expressed in posts on this site are the individual author’s and are not indicative of the views of Global Literature in Libraries Initiative.