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• 1 2019-04-27T04:10:14-07:00 The distance between Africa and African Americans 5 plain 2019-04-28T21:13:28-07:00 The African American experience has been largely one of displacement, extreme mobility throughout history—often resulting in deterritorialization, and an erosion of social and cultural identity.
  -Rodima-Taylor
  
  Daivi Rodima-Taylor and Zadi Zokou wrote a blog post commenting on the documentary BlacknBlack, and they mentioned that documentary provides information on the relations between African Americans and Africans. The quote above focuses on African Americans, and the problems they have faced with their social and cultural identity. Since African American were displaced by slavery and forced to move into new environments, their cultural identity was lost. As time progresses many now are working to find their identity in the world, and the displacement has caused some distance with the continent of Africa and its people. Nnedi Okorafor uses the post chapter of her 2014 novel, Lagoon, to show the distance and the established that African Americans have. The chapter focuses on a group of African American Pre-med college students in Chicago. The students are preparing for a study group, and they also discuss the event happening in Nigeria. As the characters talk, a description is given about their dress, and most of the students have on popular brand clothing. Okorafor seems to show that the social identity of African Americans in the United States comes from the brands that they wear because it shows their status. After giving insight into their outfits, she moves to focus more on their comments about the events happening in Nigeria. The students have distanced themselves from the continent of Africa because they blame it for slavery. They do not see where Africa had benefited them in anyway. One of the female students, Nature, states that “what’s Africa ever done for me?” (303), and her question is followed by Jordan stating that Africa has only enslaved their ancestors (303). The comments by the students shows how the movement has deteriorate the cultural identities that these individuals have because they do not see how there are still influence from Africa in the African Americans live their lives today. They place the blame of slavery on African without considers the impact of colonization. The students seem to do more victim blaming than trying to be understanding and building a connection with the land where most of their ancestors came from.
  
  Photo Credits: By Nnedi Okorafor on Amazon ; Photo by Mark Kucharski on Unsplash ; Photo by Steven Van on Unsplash
• 1 media/aliens.jpg 2019-04-27T05:38:11-07:00 Symbiosis and Hybridity 3 “Lagoon” by Nnedi Okorafor image_header 2019-05-01T04:26:35-07:00 In Nnedi Okorafor’s novel, “Lagoon,” an alien invasion takes place in Lagos. Following the invasion, the aliens work together with three humans in an attempt to come to an agreement that will allow them to coexist. The third act of the novel is fittingly titled “Symbiosis,” which is the act of two beings living together and establishing a relationship that is beneficial to both parties, or in other words, when it’s a “win-win situation.” This title makes sense because the aliens are trying to establish a symbiotic relationship with the humans. However, a symbiotic relationship is not all that is necessary in order for the humans and the aliens to live together. An eventual hybridity will also be necessary, as the two groups likely cannot coexist without merging as least some aspects of their cultures together. Hybridity is the concept of two things combining together, such as two races or two species. It is not quite the same thing as symbiosis, although they certainly can go hand-in-hand. Following the establishment of a symbiotic relationship between the aliens and the humans, it would be very difficult for the two cultures to live in such close proximity and prevent as least some combining of cultural aspects and traditions. This hybridity could be considered beneficial because it demonstrates that the two different cultures are truly working together and coexisting.

  Could Hybridity or Symbiosis Be a Bad Thing?

  Hybridity could potentially be a bad thing if the hybridity is not received well in one of the communities. If backlash to a hybrid culture occurred, it could be detrimental to the agreed upon relationship between the two parties. In Nnedi Okorafor's novela, Binti, a hybrid culture arises when Binti reaches an agreement with the "Meduse" characters.  Binit then becomes a hybrid of her own culture and the Meduse culture, similar to the way the humans and aliens form a hybrid culture in Lagoon. However, the relationship could be considered forced in Binti's situation since she really didn't have a choice. This type of hybridity could be damaging since it oversteps the original culture. On the other hand, symbiosis is not likely to be a bad thing since it if defined as a relationship that is beneficial to both parties involved in the agreement. The hybridity that exists in both Lagoon and Binti exist as the result of symbiotic agreements. The parties of each story found agreements that benefited those involved. However, symbiosis does hold the potential to be damaging to third parties that are not part of the relationship.