COMMENTARY: Binti Trilogy (2015-2018)
The following are thoughts and reactions I had while reading Binti Trilogy (2015-2018) by Nnedi Okorafor. They do not reflect my overall post-reading opinion of the work. For self-study purposes, there may also be extensive summaries of the plot in these notes. In short…
⚠️ MAJOR SPOILER ALERTS AHEAD ⚠️
Binti (2015)
- pg. 8 - ok cool cool. We have large biological spaceships and power dynamics with overt racism and a super smart math girl PROT. All good elements so far.
- lots of interesting MECH mixed to together here. Binti being Himba and using otjize to clean herself. The otjize somehow being a medicine for the Meduse. The edan that allows her to talk to the Meduse. The fact that her family is a line of harmonizers which I’m assuming is diplomatic relations. Lots of interesting types of aliens at Oomza university. So what is that? Otjize, edan, Meduse, harmonizer, oh and the okuoko. So about five load bearing MECHs?
- And then a lot of layered social commentary on top. Khousa majority racist towards the Himba minority but need them for their astrolabes. The misunderstood Meduse and the stolen stinger, very British museum. Binti as the diplomat and communicator who resolves and prevents violent conflict.
- Overall lots of great sci-fi and social commentary elements. Not really a good EGP or anything tho. Binti weeps a lot and she earned it due to the PTSD and physical trauma she experiences… but I didn’t feel it. I don’t know if it’s because the story was a novella and needed more psychological breathing space. Or if it was because it was one weird element after another. Maybe the ARC progression was too fast? But at the same time, I mean this is violence and trauma. Not sure how else you play it. Maybe more explicit about it? I dunno.
Binti: Sacred Fire (2019)
- OK, Haifa processing for Binti was the EGP I needed. Binti is still in shock and denial and not processing at all and powering through it with school and study.
- Oh. Forgot. Treeing is a MECH. I guess also, Meduse isn’t so much a MECH as the okuoko is. So still five MECHs, but definitely an interesting mix of five MECHs to build out this story.
- I think why I’m not connecting with Binti is because she’s so… dense. She’s like this hyper-intelligent mathematician but she’s absolutely not in touch with her feelings. To the point where when Okpa gets her to use her edan to talk about it her response is violent rage where she tries to break the edan. She needed Haifa to help her process. She’s numb. And it’s not just the PTSD that’s preventing her from processing, even before she got on the ship she was this hardened person.
- What kept this novella grounded was the fact that it was four new friends helping one of their own as fellow students away from home for the first time at university. That’s the relatable part that makes the story work. Binti has to process, and instead of abandoning her, they go with her to the desert to be her friends. It’s a touching story with a lot of weirdness because they’re all different aliens.
Binti: Home (2017)
- pg. 110 - I still have no idea what the fuck an astrolabe does in this world. Is it a cell phone? And the transporter/transponder. What does that thing do?
- pg. 117 - I just realized everyone can speak Meduse now. Do people just download languages or something? Or is this like Star Wars where everyone speaks a million languages?
- pg. 118 - good move. Put her back in the place where she got the PTSD. Forces a MID or some sort of cathartic release. Or triggers PTSD again…
- Pg. 149 - that’s really rough. The family dynamic. I know my extended family on my father’s side had the same tightness. Vietnamese family of 10 brothers, 3 sisters. And I imagine my father became a pariah when he left for Hong Kong himself. I could never fully comprehend that dynamic. That suffocating loyalty and disdain whenever someone acted independently/selfishly. Everything had to be “for the family”, for harmony.
- pg. 182 - woah. Big reveal. Binti’s tribe had alien contact in prerecorded history.
- Okay, I just finished this part after dropping it when I got home from Iceland and went into comic books only mode for over a year (June 2024-June 2025). That was a bad idea. I think I got the gist of it? She goes into the desert, meets here ancestral family, pricks her finger with an ancient owl that was there when the aliens arrived?
Binti: The Night Masquerade (2018)
- hahaha. At airport to Japan, have not read any novels since dropping Binti one year ago. Here we go.
- calling for help with their astrolabes!!!! They are fucking cell phones.
- pg. 216 - alien internet in her brain. Hahaha
- pg. 300 - no comment exactly. I was worried at first that getting back into a novel this late after not reading it for a year would be impossible, but because I’m trapped on a plane, I pushed through and found my place again. This has got to be one of the weirdest reading experiences I’ve had where I ignore a book for over a year and come back to it. Thankfully, I’m taking these notes and it was enough to recap. So far, the various factions converging was done very well. Khoush, Meduse, and Himba Elder Council, and the Night Masquerade. The negotiations that just happened was a great deke.