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• 1 2019-02-14T17:46:51-08:00 Course Texts 58 plain 2019-05-09T11:47:35-07:00

  Binti by Nnedi Okorafor 

  Winner of the 2016 Hugo Award (Novella)
  Winner of the 2015 Nebula Award (Novella)
  Winner of the 2017 NOMMO Award (Novella)
  Finalist for the 2015 British Science Fiction Association Award (Novella)
  Finalist for the 2016 British Fantasy Award (Novella)
  Finalist for the 2016 Locus Award (Novella)
  
  Her name is Binti, and she is the first of the Himba people ever to be offered a place at Oomza University, the finest institution of higher learning in the galaxy. But to accept the offer will mean giving up her place in her family to travel between the stars among strangers who do not share her ways or respect her customs. Knowledge comes at a cost, one that Binti is willing to pay, but her journey will not be easy. The world she seeks to enter has long warred with the Meduse, an alien race that has become the stuff of nightmares. Oomza University has wronged the Meduse, and Binti's stellar travel will bring her within their deadly reach. If Binti hopes to survive the legacy of a war not of her making, she will need both the gifts of her people and the wisdom enshrined within the University, itself - but first she has to make it there, alive.
  From Worlds Without End

  Lagoon by Nnedi Okorafor

  Finalist for the 2014 British Science Fiction Association Award (Novel)
  Finalist for the 2014 Red Tentacle Award (Novel)
  Finalist for the 2014 Tiptree Award (Novel)
  
  When a massive object crashes into the ocean off the coast of Lagos, Nigeria's most populous and legendary city, three people wandering along Bar Beach (Adaora, the marine biologist- Anthony, the rapper famous throughout Africa- Agu, the troubled soldier) find themselves running a race against time to save the country they love and the world itself... from itself. Lagoon expertly juggles multiple points of view and crisscrossing narratives with prose that is at once propulsive and poetic, combining everything from superhero comics to Nigerian mythology to tie together a story about a city consuming itself. At its heart a story about humanity at the crossroads between the past, present, and future, Lagoon touches on political and philosophical issues in the rich tradition of the very best science fiction, and ultimately asks us to consider the things that bind us together--and the things that make us human.
  From Worlds Without End

  Kabu-Kabu by Nnedi Okorafor

  Finalist for 2013 Locus Award (Collection)
  
  Kabu-Kabu-unregistered illegal Nigerian taxis-generally get you where you need to go. Nnedi Okorafor's Kabu-Kabu, however, takes the reader to exciting, fantastic, magical, occasionally dangerous, and always imaginative locations you didn't know you needed. This debut short story collection by an award-winning author includes notable previously published material, a new novella co-written with New YorkTimes-bestselling author Alan Dean Foster, six additional original stories, and a brief foreword by Whoopi Goldberg.
  From Worlds Without End

  Monster Portraits by Del Samatar and Sofia Samatar

  Recommended Reading by NPR's Book Concierge
  Del's artwork nominated for a British Science Fiction Association Award (2018)
  
  Relentlessly original and brilliantly hybrid, Monster Portraits investigates the concept of the monstrous through a mesmerizing combination of words and images. An uncanny and imaginative autobiography of otherness, it offers the fictional record of a writer in the realms of the fantastic shot through with the memories of a pair of Somali-American children growing up in the 1980s. Operating under the sign of two--texts and drawings, brother and sister, black and white, extraordinary and everyday--Monster Portraits multiplies, disintegrates, and blends, inviting the reader to find the danger in the banal, the beautiful in the grotesque. Accumulating into a breathless journey and groundbreaking study, these brief fictions and sketches claim the monster as a fragmentary vastness: not the sum but the derangement of its parts. Del Samatar's drawings conjure beings who drag worlds in their wake. World Fantasy Award-winning author Sofia Samatar responds with allusive, critical, and ecstatic meditations. Together they have created a secret history of the mixed-race child, a guide to the beasts of an unknown mythos, and a dreamer's iconography. The monstrous never looked so simultaneously haunting and familiar.
  From Worlds Without End

  The Black God's Drums by P. Djèlí Clark

  Finalist for the 2018 Nebula Award (Novella)
  Finalist for the 2019 Hugo Award (Novella)
  Finalist for the 2019 Locus Award (Novella)
  
  In an alternate New Orleans caught in the tangle of the American Civil War, the wall-scaling girl named Creeper yearns to escape the streets for the air - in particular, by earning a spot on-board the airship Midnight Robber. Creeper plans to earn Captain Ann-Marie's trust with information she discovers about a Haitian scientist and a mysterious weapon he calls The Black God's Drums. But Creeper also has a secret herself: Oya, the African orisha of the wind and storms, speaks inside her head, and may have her own ulterior motivations. Soon, Creeper, Oya, and the crew of the Midnight Robber are pulled into a perilous mission aimed to stop the Black God's Drums from being unleashed and wiping out the entirety of New Orleans.
  From Worlds Without End

  Everfair by Nisi Shawl

  Finalist for the 2016 Nebula Award (Novel)
  Finalist for the 2016 Tiptree Award (Novel)
  Finalist for the 2017 Campbell Award (Novel)
  Finalist for the 2017 Locus First Novel Award

  
  Everfair is a wonderful Neo-Victorian alternate history novel that explores the question of what might have come of Belgium's disastrous colonization of the Congo if the native populations had learned about steam technology a bit earlier. Fabian Socialists from Great Britian join forces with African-American missionaries to purchase land from the Belgian Congo's "owner," King Leopold II. This land, named Everfair, is set aside as a safe haven, an imaginary Utopia for native populations of the Congo as well as escaped slaves returning from America and other places where African natives were being mistreated. Nisi Shawl's speculative masterpiece manages to turn one of the worst human rights disasters on record into a marvelous and exciting exploration of the possibilities inherent in a turn of history. Everfair is told from a multiplicity of voices: Africans, Europeans, East Asians, and African Americans in complex relationships with one another, in a compelling range of voices that have historically been silenced. Everfair is not only a beautiful book but an educational and inspiring one that will give the reader new insight into an often ignored period of history.
  From Worlds Without End

  The Midnight Robber by Nalo Hopkinson

  Finalist for the 2000 Nebula Award (Novel)
  Finalist for the 2000 Tiptree Award (Novel)
  Finalist for the 2001 Hugo Award (Novel)
  Finalist for the 2001 Philip K. Dick Award (Novel)

  
  It's Carnival time and the Caribbean-colonized planet of Toussaint is celebrating with music, dance, and pageantry. Masked "Midnight Robbers" waylay revelers with brandished weapons and spellbinding words. But to young Tan-Tan, the Robber Queen is simply a favorite costume to wear at the festival -- until her power-corrupted father commits an unforgivable crime. Suddenly, both father and daughter are thrust into the brutal world of New Half-Way Tree. Here monstrous creatures from folklore are real, and the humans are violent outcasts in the wilds. Here Tan-Tan must reach into the heart of myth -- and become the Robber Queen herself. For only the Robber Queen's legendary powers can save her life... and set her free.
  From Worlds Without End

  Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi

  Finalist for the 2018 Andre Norton Award (Young Adult Novel)
  Finalist for the 2019 Locus First Novel Award
  Winner of the 2018 Dragon Award (Young Adult/Middle Grade Novel)
  
  Zélie Adebola remembers when the soil of Orïsha hummed with magic. Burners ignited flames, Tiders beckoned waves, and Zélie's Reaper mother summoned forth souls. But everything changed the night magic disappeared. Under the orders of a ruthless king, maji were killed, leaving Zélie without a mother and her people without hope. Now Zélie has one chance to bring back magic and strike against the monarchy. With the help of a rogue princess, Zélie must outwit and outrun the crown prince, who is hell-bent on eradicating magic for good. Danger lurks in Orïsha, where snow leoponaires prowl and vengeful spirits wait in the waters. Yet the greatest danger may be Zélie herself as she struggles to control her powers... and her growing feelings for an enemy.
  From Worlds Without End

  Other Stories

  China Miéville, “Covehithe”
       Finalist for 2011 British Science Fiction Award (Short Story)
  Warren Cariou, “An Athabasca Story”
  Deji Bryce Olukotun, "Four Lions"
  Henrietta Rose-Innes, "Poison" 
      Winner of the 2008 Caine Prize for African Writing
  Acan Innocent Immaculate, “Wishful Thinking”
  Walter Dinjos, “Mama Mmiri”
  Sofia Samatar, “An Account of the Land of Witches”
  Sofia Samatar, “Ogres of East Africa”
      Finalist for 2015 Locus Award (Short Story)
  P. Djèlí Clark, “The Secret Lives of the Nine Negro Teeth of George Washington”
      Finalist for the 2019 Nebula Award, 2019 Hugo Award, 2019 Locus Award, 2019 Sturgeon Award
     (Short Story)
• 1 media/binti_cover.jpg 2019-04-27T00:10:26-07:00 Meduse, Medusa, and Jellyfish 13 A look at the inspiration behind Nnedi Okorafor's Meduse image_header 2019-05-01T03:26:28-07:00

  Okorafor's Jellyfish Inspiration 

  In Nnedi Okorafor’s novella “Binti” it is rather evident that the antagonists, the Meduse, are inspired by jellyfish. The first description of the creatures explains “they were tall as grown men, their domes’ flesh thin as fine silk, their long tentacles spilling down to the floor like a series of gigantic ghostly noodles” (25). The description provides an image of a large, murderous jellyfish, which is honestly quite terrifying. Making Okorafor's inspiration even more evident is her dedication of the book to “the little blue jellyfish [she] saw swimming in Khalid Lagoon that sunny day.”  The dedication to the jellyfish paired with the description of the Meduse certainly helps identify the primary inspiration for the Meduse. However, the jellyfish is possibly not the only inspiration Okorafor had.

  The Meduse and Water

  The Meduse have very strong connections to water and although they were not necessarily inspired by water, understanding the connections could lead to another potential source of inspiration. The Meduse worship water as a god and are even descended from water. When at war, they are described as moving like water and their preferred method of killing is called “moojh-ha ki-bira”, which means “great wave” (26). Finally, their motive for war is often rooted in the fact that their planet has no water. Clearly, water plays a very significant role in the existence of the Meduse, even though their own planet lacks it. These strong connections to water coupled with the name “Meduse” create allusions to a certain figure in Greek mythology who could potentially have inspired the creation of the Meduse in some way.

  
  The Meduse and Medusa

  The obvious connection here is how similar the names are. They are only one letter off from being the same thing. However, there are other connections here that require an understanding of some Greek mythology. Medusa is a pretty well-known figure, famous for her snake-hair and her ability to turn people to stone. Although the Meduse have tentacles instead of snakes, the imagery is still very similar. Furthermore, Medusa is claimed to be the daughter of Phorcys. Phorcys is a sea god, meaning that Medusa has water ancestors just like the Meduse. Medusa is directly related to a water god and the Meduse worship water as god.
  
  Finally, medusa is also the name of a stage in the jellyfish life-cycle. Once jellyfish have reached adulthood and are able to reproduce, they can be classified as medusa. They are able to float freely in the ocean and are no longer attached to reefs, as they are in the early stages of life. Medusa are easily recognizable by their smooth, translucent domes; which also happens to be an accurate description of Okorafor's Meduse.
  
  For more information on medusa jellyfish, visit this page. For more information on the myth of Medusa, visit this page or this page.
• 1 2019-04-27T03:43:54-07:00 Touches of Hair in Sofia Samatar's "The Clan of the Claw" 13 plain 2019-05-01T12:08:36-07:00

  An elderly woman approaches me in the park. Your hair, it must be naturally curly. What’s your nationality?” She reaches to touch my hair. I flinch. She is taken aback, hurt. The monster destroys all innocence, all fellow feeling.

  
  The above quote comes from Sofia Samatar’s “The Clan of the Claw” to describe an encounter she had with an elderly lady. The overall story focuses on the experience of Samatar trying to find her people, or the group of people with similar experiences as her. She makes references to significant figures who were outcasts, and she comments on the similarities with their experiences. However, she doesn’t want to overshadow their experience by taking them over as her own.
  
  
  The main commentary in the story focuses on finding your place, but the above section focuses on her interaction with the elderly lady to show that simple interactions can have unconscious prejudice within them. The act of touching someone’s hair is now considered a micro-aggression.
  
  
  A microaggression is a comment or action that subtly and often unconsciously or unintentionally expresses a prejudiced attitude toward a member of a marginalized group (Merriam-Webster). To fully understand why touching a person’s hair is a microaggression, it is important to know the significance of hair to identity.
  
   
                                                                  The importance of hair to identity
  
  Hair is a marker for identity when thinking about African and African American hair because it provides insight into a person’s identity and holds cultural significance. Black Hair has had evolved throughout time with the changes happening as a result of colonialism, the slave trade, and assimilation. Rumeana Jahangir from BCC News wrote a blog focusing on the historical importance of hair to black history. It showed that black hair was initially used to identify different tribes or stages of life.
  
  
  The slave trade and later the segregation would cause African Americans to straighten their hair to fit into the norm of society. These individuals also saw changing their hair as a method for becoming more accepted in society.  The civil rights movement emphasized the importance of embracing the natural kinks of African and African American, and the focus on natural has reemerged into the mainstream in today’s world.
  
  
  Samatar is not the only author who uses hair as an identity marker in her works, and many speculative fiction authors of African descent play with the concept of hair. Tomi Adeyemi and Nnedi Okorafor are other authors who focus on hair, and the importance that it plays when defining an individual, especially Africans and African Americans.
  
  In Children of Blood and Bone, Tomi Adeyemi creates a world where white hair on dark skin is the identity marker, and these individuals are treated differently in society solely based on the identity associated with the color of their hair. In Binti, Nnedi Okorafor plays with the idea of hair having ties to cultural background by making her main character Himba woman. All these works show that hair holds a deep significance in the identity of a person and how they move about in the world.
  
  
  As people move through life, they are constantly aware of what makes them different from everyone else. While the most prominent factor that people notice first is skin color, hair is the second most prominent factor. The difference between these two identity markers is that people are comfortable with touching someone’s hair without permission whereas it is taught earlier not to touch another person’s body. There are many reasons why a person should not touch another’s hair, and Samatar’s interaction with the elderly provides a good starting point for addressing this microaggression.
  
   
  Why is touching someone’s hair a microaggression?
  • Touching someone’s hair is a microaggression because the act identifies the person as different. People with hair that fits norm rarely have people asking to touch their hair or question their ethnicity. The touching of the hair makes the person who has curly hair feel like an outsider. The person doing the touching has the power in the moment to out a person as different.
  • The act also demonstrates an intrusion of personal space. In Samatar’s story, she flinches from the act. In her case, the flinch is an unconscious reaction. Yet, the underlying assumption is there that someone must have something else in them to have hair that is not straight.
  • The people who want to touch the hair feel as though they have some right to be able to touch the hair like it is a museum exhibit. The act in a way is exoticizing the person who has the different hair. In a society when people are expected to conform to certain image, it can be jarring for a person to bring attention to the fact that there is a difference in people.
  • For people who have constantly adapted their hair for the dominant culture, it can emphasize the fact that society still does not find their attributes as normal. Under the surface of the action, it holds the inequality shared between the dominant culture and the Africans and African Americans living with their hair.
• 1 2019-04-27T03:59:31-07:00 Embracing cultures: ready or not? 9 plain 2019-05-01T11:53:13-07:00 Attending college or university is a time where students begin to expand their horizon past the ideologies that they have learned from their family. Student are interacting with various students from a multitude of backgrounds. In these cases when learning about other students and situations, people can choose to embrace the different cultures or choose to stay in their own cultural bubble.
  
  ►University Students in Binti
  
  Nnedi Okorafor’s 2014 novella Binti presents a university where students from different cultural backgrounds come together and enjoy learning about each other. The students headed for Oozma University are away from societal influences contribute negative stereotypes and negative opinions about others.
  
   The ship brings the students closer together because they take the time to learn about each other. The main character comes from the Himba culture, so she has distinct identity markers such as her hair, the use of Otjize, and her anklets.
  
   Throughout the beginning of the novel, the dominant culture ridicules her culture, but her shipmates headed to Oozma University make her feel comfortable by learning. She starts to realize that the other students are her people even though they have cultural differences.
  
  Binti even mentions that the “commonalities shined brighter,” and the student’s advanced interest in math and other subjects become more important than where they came from. Readers see how the sharing of cultures, and the attempt at understanding another culture can build connections and relationships. People can bond together once they have the trust of knowing that they can be their most authentic self.
  
  ►University Students in Lagoon
  
  A contrast is shown with the students in Binti and the students in Nnedi Okorafor’s novel Lagoon. The Lagoon students are stuck in their own ideologies, and they do not want to understand the cultural difference between themselves and the Nigerians in the media.
  
  The students look at the situation that the Nigerians experiences and immediately began to other the people. No time was taken to understand the culture or the cultural significance of the invasion that Nigeria faced. The students felt as though the situation did not affect them because Africa is only a distant connection to them.
  
   However, it is feasible that these students decide to stay in their ideologies rather than learning about other cultures because they are not exposed to other cultures in the setting presented to readers. All the students who are interacting are African American, Pre-Med college students.
  
  Having students that are cut from the same cloth makes it difficult to see them embrace cultural differences. An exposure to more cultures fosters more cultural appreciation in people. Talking about what on does not understand about a group of people can help eliminate some of the stereotypes and othering that happens.
  
   The students in Lagoon did not have the opportunity with their college or university experience to embrace various cultures, but the students in Binti bonded over learning about the different cultures.