Binti: The Complete Trilogy

What a simple but impactful story. Binti is wonderful. She is brave and exceptionally smart, but those characteristics don't come at the expense of her expressing emotions and vulnerability. She lets herself cry and fear and grieve.

No matter how far from home Binti travels, she insists on the dignity and sophistication of the community she left behind to attend university. In every space Binti occupies throughout the book (other than flashbacks), even if there are other humans, she is still the only Himba.

Not only do people fail to see the advantages her background provides, but many make derogatory assumptions about her culture. But Binti knows they're wrong. Her refusal to be ashamed of who she is and where she comes from enables her to succeed in ways thought impossible.

Here Okorafor makes an interesting point—it isn't just that ethnocentrism is unkind. It's incorrect. Interpreting difference from oneself as inferior or lacking is wrong, and I don't mean in the moral sense. Those who judge Binti are in fact misjudging her.

I also loved how Binti and the Meduse collaborated to push back against, basically, imperialism. Their point was simple: Don't take things that don't belong to you. If you already have, give them back, then work actively to correct the harm done. Binti and the Meduse find commonalities in how their communities are viewed and treated. This changes how they view one another. They are willing to open their minds and share resources specific to their kind. Because of this, they can work together to reclaim parts of their being that have been coopted and underestimated.

It's short and direct, but it moved me. It's a new favorite.