Postcolonial Speculative Fiction

Embracing cultures: ready or not?

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.

 

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  1. This is a really neat comparison of how education is portrayed in the different works we have studied. I mentioned either in my journal or one of my posts that the group of friends in Lagoon are all very educated, but they stay to themselves and somewhat "other" themselves. They only use their pidgin language and act certain ways around each other; I believe their reasoning is so that they can appear educated to others, but it still proves your point that they don't get out of their comfort zone. I think the fact that Binti introduced so many diverse concepts for a children's novel proves how unique and influential it is.
  2. Specifically addressing your section about Binti, do you think the fact that these students were well educated and intelligent had any impact on them accepting each other's differences? I agree that the ship certainly facilitated this acceptance and understanding, but I would also cautiously accept that the students being educated also played a role. That isn't to say that well educated people can't be discriminatory, because they certainly can. But would you agree that it is less likely when you have the capability of understanding a culture that is different from your own? Being able to learn about and understand a culture significantly helps in accepting the differences.
  3. Hi Chelsea! I agree that to some degree their intelligence plays a part in why they are accepting of the different cultures, but I really wanted to focus on how having a safe space to explore cultures and having open minds. I didn't want to focus on which group of the students was more educated because both groups appeared educated in my opinion. Both groups are either planning to attend college or already attending college. The chicago students are pre-med students, which has to say something about their education level. Even though the chicago students are educated, they are still discriminatory against the Nigerians.

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