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• 1 2019-04-08T10:43:23-07:00 "Othering" in Nnedi Okorafor's Lagoon 19 An exploration of some of the ways colonialism has left an imprint on Nigeria image_header 2021-01-12T18:48:35-08:00 “An alien invasion in Nigeria? Whodathunkit…” This was my first thought when the plot of Nnedi Okorafor’s Lagoon started to become clear. Whoever heard of aliens having any interest in a nonwhite culture? This was the idea at the root of my surprise. Is it racist? Certainly not, I’m not that guy. It is, however, an example of how our implicit biases shape our expectations.
  The absurdity of the thought occurred to me when I couched it in this way (all irony included for your benefit), “who in the world would write a story about aliens landing on earth and visiting a culture different from mine populated by people who don’t look like me?” What we have here is a case of “othering”, albeit much more benign than what Edward Said discusses in his book, Orientalism.
  Okorafor addresses this in her book. Often, her characters perform this “othering” to each other, all while trying to jockey for the position of privilege and power:
  Father Oke, a priest who is apparently a complete fraud, uses his position to obtain wealth and comfort. It’s unclear if he actually believes in his own religion. It seems that there is an explosion of churches in Nigeria in which slapping women suspected of being witches is common practice. There’s also the obvious and problematic remnant of colonialism with a Western pseudo-Christian religion gaining more and more followers in Nigeria. This isn’t a creation for the book, either.
  
  
  One of the main characters, Adaora, is emblematic of the troubled relationship with the west. She is a Nigerian, born and raised. She is, however, educated in Western fashion as a scientist, a marine biologist. She works as a professor and has rejected the traditional homemaker role of women. She has significant conflict with Father Oke because her husband is a follower of his church.
              The trio of main characters—named Adaora, Agu, and Anthony—are, very early in the novel, taken into the ocean by aliens. This begs many questions for me. It’s reminiscent of the middle passage because there all taken into the water by a foreign power and emerge changed in significant ways. They seem bound to a fate after the incident, rather than having the agency to choose for themselves. Alternatively, it also seems very similar to Christian baptism ceremony. Either of these have serious post-colonial implications. .  
  Okorafor’s writing evokes many difficult to answer questions about the post-colonial environment in Nigeria, as well as containing many references to the slave trade and middle passage. Okorafor weaves an interesting story which is also very thought provoking because of the connotations involved. She demonstrates how the effects of colonialism and the slave trade have lingering consequences.
  
  Okorafor, Nnedi, Lagoon, Saga Press, 2016.
  Said, Edward W. Orientalism. Vintage Books, 2004.