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Welcome to the discussion for our September read, Binti by Nnedi Okorafor!
Chat and share your thoughts and questions here.


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.

Let's start with some first thoughts!

What do you think of page one?
Does the book cover catch your eye?
Would you normally read this type of book?
If you've read it before or it's been on your TBR pile for a while, how did you first hear about it?

I know there are a few versions of the cover our there, but I love the version on the copy I'm reading! Binti looks like a fierce combination of tradition and forward motion.

All the book covers are so beautiful <3

What does everyone think of Binti as a main character? I love how grounded she is in her culture, her voice felt strong. I definitely wouldn't have acted so calm when (view spoiler)[the Meduse arrived on the ship! (hide spoiler)]

I found it really helpful to Google some of the things talked about like the otjize so I could imagine it properly, I still can't picture what the edan looks like though.

The story has such amazing world building. I never thought to look up any words I understood the intent if not the language :)

This has been on my to read list for awhile! I was a little annoyed by the cliffhanger ending. Anybody else? I'm tempted to dive right into the next book...

I loved all the beautifully imagined details of this, the way math is discussed, and the world building.

I thought this book did a great job of grabbing your attention quickly and keeping a balance between description and plot.

So I read a French edition containing Binti, Sacred Fire and Home
This is the cover and it definitely caught my eyes because all those yellow part are actually golden and shiny


I'm only sharing my thoughts now because I wanted to at least finish Sacred Fire too to put things into perspective. Something bothered me in the way it's written.Maybe it's because I lost the habit of reading 1st person narrative in my own language, but some sentences felt awkward to me...

Overall the book is really great at going to the point and still make it intriguing, fascinating even. But maybe it's too quick? I felt frustrated not learning more about anything in the end. I have great hopes that the sequels will solve that. Sacred Fire defines the characters and locations a bit more so it's starting pretty well.


Also thank you so much for the Edan picture it helps a ton!!!

Some more questions for the Binti readers:

- How would you have reacted when you started to grow tentacle hair? And what would your own tentacle hair be like?

- How did you feel about Okwu and Binti?

- We chose this as part of the space and time travel theme of this month. Do you feel it fits the genre? Or is it actually something else?

- If you have read till the end already, what are your feelings about that? Have you read only the first book or all three? Do you feel this was a complete story? Or do you feel this is part of a larger novel instead a standalone?

- If you have liked the story, does it remind you of another? Do you have a recommendation to anyone wanting to read more like this?

The tentacle hair bothered me. Binti was coerced into dropping the edan and then stabbed and changed without any communication or consent being given.

This was especially disturbing considering Binti's hair is a direct tie to her culture and family lineage. Even if she had been asked, when the question is consent to a serious biological modification or die, it isn't exactly a fair question.

I get that Binti required the tentacles to serve as ambassador. But it still bothered me that, as her professor pointed out, she willingly committed a cultural taboo of leaving to attend school. But she did it with thoughtful plans to respect other aspects of her culture and hopefully return after her education. Instead part of her identity has been permanently taken and she didn't even have a chance to consent to it.

Because of the above, I struggled with her friendship with Okwu. I wish we had been given more conversation or interaction between them. Something that would allow for more rapport.

I think Binti has surprising and fresh elements but overall still fits well in the space travel genre. And I would say it fits time travel in the sense that this is an imagined future we read about so we did a bit of literary time traveling 😊.

Lishi that's beautiful! Thanks for sharing that.

The lack of, I guess informed consent really bothered me, and there wasn't much time afterwards for her to process what had happened. There's a short story that only seems to be in the combined copy of the book so I haven't been able to read it, but I've heard it deals a bit more with the trauma, as book 2 takes place a while afterwards.

As for recommendations, it's definitely worth looking up Africanfuturist and Afrofuturist stories if you've not read many before. I have a lot of Okorafor's books on my to read list now, and I just finished her Shuri comics which were a delight.

Dawn by Octavia Butler might be another book to read if you liked Binti, and maybe books by N. K. Jemisin or Nalo Hopkinson. What do others think?