Home

Home (2017) is a science fiction novella by Nigerian American author Nnedi Okorafor. It is the second novella in her Binti series, which consists of two other novellas, Binti and The Night Masquerade, as well as a short story, “Sacred Fire,” that occurs between the events of the first two novellas. Binti, a 16-year-old human, leaves Earth to go to the intergalactic university, Oomza. En route to the university, her people, the Himba, are killed on the ship by an alien race known as the Meduse. Binti survives but is stung by a Meduse, transforming her hair into a collection of tentacles indicative of the Meduse people. She befriends Okwu, bridging the centuries-long hate that exists between the Meduse and humans. Despite her survival and change, Binti continues to experience trauma as a result of the massacre.

In Home, Binti decides to return to Earth to complete her pilgrimage and reconnect with the Himba people. Okwu accompanies her as Binti attempts to further peace between the Meduse and humans on Earth. However, when Binti arrives, she is taken by the Desert People, a mysterious group of nomadic ancestors who insist that Binti needs to learn about her past. The novel explores The Meaning of Home in a Liminal Existence, Familial Expectations Versus Individual Autonomy, and Identifying and Addressing Internalized Prejudice.

This guide uses the Kindle edition.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of racism, gender discrimination, graphic violence, and death.

Plot Summary

17-year-old Binti is a student at Oomza University, an intergalactic university. She is a member of the human Himba people who live alongside the Khoush on planet Earth. She arrived at Oomza Uni over a year ago. She practices a form of meditation called “treeing” with Professor Okpala, the head of the mathematics department. While meditating, Binti manipulates her edan, an ancient artifact she discovered on Earth as a child, which unexpectedly disassembles itself in her hands. While treeing, she is transported into space, where a disembodied voice demands more than just her name. Angry that she is unable to answer, Binti is pulled back to the classroom.

As the edan reassembles itself, Professor Okpala observes its unusual interaction. Binti reflects on her anger, the unpredictability of her edan, and its history, including its role in saving her from a Meduse attack on her journey to Oomza. Meanwhile, her okuoko, the living tentacles on her head induced by a Meduse sting, remain unaffected by the edan. Binti senses that her friend, Okwu, a Meduse, is about to fight Professor Dema, a Khoush teacher, in Weapons City. Dema and Okwu’s people are historical enemies, feuding for centuries. Binti goes to Okwu.

In the classroom, Binti sees Okwu and Dema with their weapons raised at each other. Binti intervenes, with her okuoko writhing, causing Okwu to calm down. Dema gives Okwu’s weapons project a top grade while vowing to fight to the death if they meet in public again.

Binti tells Okwu of her plan to return to Earth for a pilgrimage, seeking a personal cleansing from the guilt she feels for leaving home and surviving the attack that killed her people en route to Oomza. She invites Okwu to accompany her, trusting that a peace treaty will allow his presence and potentially ease Khoush prejudice against the Meduse.

Two weeks later, Binti struggles to operate her transporter pod. She receives help from another student, Haifa. She begins feeling anxious, an ongoing symptom of the trauma she experienced during the Third Fish massacre. Binti recalls her therapy sessions with Dr. Saidia Nwanyi. Despite warnings to delay travel, Binti insists on returning home.

At the launch station, Binti and Okwu learn that they will travel aboard the Third Fish back to Earth. While Binti fears the journey, Okwu provides comfort. Binti confronts her trauma gradually, meditating and treeing to manage her panic attacks. She uses otijze, red clay made from the Earth, to calm herself. She applies it to her okuoko to mask the shock of the change from her family, and to Okwu.

On Earth, Binti experiences relief and joy as she reunites with her family. However, Khoush soldiers fire upon Okwu. Binti again intervenes, asserting that they come in peace. They spend the next two hours being interviewed by the media about her journey, her time at Oomza, and her decision to return. Eventually, they make their way back to Binti’s village of Osemba.

To Binti’s surprise, her father built a tent for Okwu to stay in, with the gas inside mirroring its home planet. Binti joins her family for dinner, which begins joyously. Binti’s mother agrees that she should go on the pilgrimage, giving her a ceremonial wrap for the occasion. However, partway through, her father succumbs to his arthritis. Binti’s older siblings accuse her of abandoning their father, forcing him to work on astrolabes (electronic personal communication devices) on his own. She flees the dinner, retreating to her room and crying throughout the night.

The next day, Binti takes Okwu to the lake near her village. To her surprise, Okwu interacts with the glowing clusterwink snails. Okwu notes that its peoples’ feud with the Khoush began centuries ago over water, though no one alive remembers exactly why.

When Binti returns home, she meditates, disassembling the edan and revealing its golden core. Binti becomes angered when the edan does not reassemble itself. Outside, Binti sees the Night Masquerade, a mysterious figure traditionally only visible to heroic men, which points at her. Both she and her father see it, signaling that Binti is now implicated in her village prophecies. As a result, the Desert People, a nomadic group of their ancestors, arrive at Binti’s home. Her paternal grandmother, Auntie Titi, is among them, yet Binti’s father has supposedly rejected his Desert People ancestry. Titi insists that Binti must come with them to their desert village. Okwu remains at Binti’s home.

Binti’s journey with the Desert People is protected by Mwinyi, a young man whom Binti realizes is a harmonizer, which Binti is as well. He has the ability to use ancient forms of communication to bring disparate groups together, which he does to protect the Desert People throughout the journey. Binti watches as the Desert People use their arms to communicate, which her people regard as a sign of their uncivilized nature. Mwinyi challenges this prejudice, insisting that his people are known as Enyi Zinariya and that she must speak with Titi to learn more. 

Titi teaches Binti that the Enyi Zinariya possess advanced knowledge and technology passed down orally through generations. An alien people known as Zinariya encountered them centuries ago, teaching them. When they left, they gave Titi’s people a living organism that entered their bodies, also known as zinariya, which allowed them to communicate with each other over long distances using their arm movements.

Binti realizes that the zinariya was also passed down to her through her father’s DNA. Titi reveals that they are traveling to the Enyi Zinariya priestess, Ariya, who will activate her zinariya and allow her to reconnect with her ancestors. Binti recalls discovering her edan when she was eight years old, while meditating in the desert. Ariya then arrived, telling Binti to find her in the future once she was prepared to learn about the edan. Binti agrees to travel to Ariya but worries about her family and Okwu. When she uses her okuoko to communicate with Okwu, she learns that it is still safe with her family.

Binti and the others arrive at the Enyi Zinariya village, which is a series of limestone caves. She meets Ariya, who lives in the center of a dried-up lake. Binti and Ariya discuss Binti’s anger and unclean feelings, with Ariya advising her to truly learn about her okuoko to begin to understand and control the part of her that is Meduse. She then brings an owl into the cave, telling Binti that she needs to prick herself with one of its feathers to activate her zinariya. Binti begins to panic, insisting that she cannot be part Himba, part Meduse, and part Enyi Zinariya. However, her desire for knowledge, specifically about the edan, convinces her to willingly prick herself.

During the activation, Binti trees. She connects with the Mother of living things through Himba origin stories, experiencing a form of consciousness outside her body. She is once again in the void, with the disembodied voice asking her who she is. Binti has the sudden feeling that Okwu is in danger. She comes out of the ritual and sees that fire has erupted in the cave. As Binti panics, fleeing the cave, Ariya calms her. She teaches her how to use the zinariya, which allows her to communicate with her father back at home. Her father is disappointed in her decision to activate the zinariya, a fact which causes Binti to second-guess herself. He then informs her that Okwu was injured and likely killed in a Khoush attack. Their home is on fire, but Binti’s family is safe.

Binti tells Ariya that she needs to return home immediately. Mwiyi appears to escort her home, as Binti is adamant that there is still time to save Okwu.