Binti: The Complete Trilogy

by Nnedi Okorafor

“Edan” was a general name for a device too old for anyone to know it functions, so old that they were now just art.

Thankfully, they knew not to touch my hair again.

Who doesn't know this? I knew this when I only knew two black people. When I knew more I didn't ASK about their hair unless that was the topic at hand and I was quick to acknowledge my ignorance and to be respectful with questions. I still am 30 years later because manners.

We prefer to explore the universe by traveling inward, as opposed to outward. No Himba has ever gone to Oomza Uni. So me being the only one on the ship was not that surprising.

philosophers?

You see, there’s something that happens to a child of the soil when she leaves her soil. It’s a death, then a painful rebirth . . . but first you have to walk around the new world as a sort of ghost.

that first time you truly leave HOME it is like that. But going back feels like you're a ghost too

Amongst the Himba, you “were what you knew you were once you knew what you were and that was that”, to quote my village’s chief Kapika. I wondered if all the people of the Khoush communities were as open about alignment as Haifa. “All my life, I knew this was who I’d be, but it still took some getting used to after I transitioned,” she said. “Well, more everyone around me, than me.”