Binti

Binti came out from Tor.com in 2015. It is a science fiction novella by the Nigerian American writer Nnedi Okorafor, written in the Africanfuturist mode. It is the first novella in the Binti series and it won the Hugo and Nebula awards for Best Novella. A television adaptation has been reported as in development.

Binti is the first of the Himba people to be offered a place at Oomza University, which is a planet away and requires her to leave her family without permission. She sneaks out with her hair coated in otjize, the clay and oil mixture that means home, and boards a transport carrying students from across human space. Her family regards the departure as a betrayal, and she takes the traditions of her household with her rather than leaving them behind.

Mid-journey the ship is seized by the Meduse, a jellyfish-like species that has been at war with the Khoush, another human group, and Binti turns out to be the only person aboard who can talk to them. The device she carries, her edan, and the otjize itself both matter far more than she knew. The journey becomes a negotiation she is not qualified to hold, and the training she has had matters less than what she is willing to say.

The series continues in Home and The Night Masquerade, which follow Binti after the events of the first novella. It is a short book written from Binti's point of view, and it is the first of three instalments about the same character and the same university.