Nnedi Okorafor Binti

849 Words2 Pages

Binti, The Daughter of a Harmonizer. “All things are connected, like the blood that unites us. We do not weave the web of life; we are merely a strand in it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves,” the nineteenth-century tribe leader, Chief Seattle, once said. The short novel Binti, written by Nnedi Okorafor, demonstrates the idea of culture within a tribe called the Himba. The protagonist, Binti, leaves home and goes on a long, treacherous journey through the universe. She ends up creating harmony and joining two worlds that previously showed violence toward each other. Numerous individuals state that Binti is the daughter of a Himba tribe. She embodies this culture with her long red skirts, jingling anklets, and body and hair covered …show more content…

Before Binti, the world was in a state of fear and hatred. All humans feared the Meduse, and all Meduse thought humans were violent. Binti expresses this feeling when she hides from the Meduse in the text where it states, “The loud bang of something hard and powerful hitting the door made me yelp.Evil thing, I heard the one called Okwu say. Of all the voices, that one I could recognize. It was the angriest and scariest. Then the female voice said, Open this door. No!” (Okorafor 42). The Meduse wants Binti to open the door she fearfully hides behind, but Binti refuses with the thought of what could happen if she did. This idea frightens her as the “angriest and scariest” Meduse calls her evil. Binti twitches with the “loud bang,” horrified that if she opened the door to this other world, she would be connecting two things that, if connected, would have a horrific end. The Meduse and human worlds see each other as violent, with no intention of ever becoming interconnected. Humans are scared of the Meduse, and the Meduse wants to kill humans. Okwu, the main Meduse, expresses this feeling by saying, “Humans only understand violence.Humans must be killed before they kill us” (Okorafor 43). The relationship between Meduse and humans is unstable. The Meduse believe that humans “only understand violence,” but the Meduse contradict their own beliefs by killing all of the …show more content…

People in Binti’s culture become harmonizers from a young age, taking these practices to succor and fuse relationships with others. Binti expresses her skills by saying, “And so I became a master harmonizer by the age of twelve. I could communicate with spirit flow and convince them to become current” (Okorafor 31). Binti has been a harmonizer since a very young age. She uses her harmonizing skills to create balance and community within the Meduse and human world. Binti eases the tension between these two worlds and connects them. Part of Binti’s culture is being a harmonizer. Before Binti, the Meduse wanted to kill all humans, but now the Meduse have learned to stay peaceful because of Binti. Binti uses these master harmonizer skills, learned from a young age, to interact with Oomza Uni and impact their beliefs and teachings. One of the Oomza Uni leaders wants to make everyone feel welcomed and says, “We of Oomza Uni wish Okwu to stay behind as the first Meduse student to attend the university and as a showing of allegiance between Oomza Uni governments and the Meduse and the renewal of the pact between human and Meduse” (Okorafor 79). Binti is a mathematical harmonizer. Oomza Uni is a prestigious college interested in Binti and her specialties. She impacts Oomza Uni to change their ideas and behaviors. Oomza Uni wishes to “Renew[al] the pact” for the

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