Remote Control

“Her outfit was a miniature version of what the older more affluent Mamprusi women of northern Ghana wore—a hand-dyed long yellow BioSilk skirt, a matching top embroidered with expensive lace, and a purple and yellow headband made of twisted cloth.”

Instead of casting off technology completely, the novella instead conveys the theme of The Duality of Technology, emphasizing both its strengths and weaknesses. Here, even Sankofa, whose character is tied to the natural world, uses technology. In her traditional Ghanaian clothing, she has “BioSilk,” a technologically advanced form of clothing which benefits her life.

“She blinked. Was it Christmas? Or maybe still Christmas Eve? She felt a muffled yearning deep in her chest. She pushed the feeling away as she always did, thinking. We never celebrated Christmas, anyway. Though some in her hometown had. She remembered.”

Sankofa’s internal conflict that extends throughout the novella is introduced in the first few pages of the text: She longs for her past, hinting at how she wrestles with Redefining the Self After Trauma and Change. Due to the text’s structure, with the majority of the text serving as a flashback to her childhood, the reader does not yet know what happened to Sankofa before or where her family is now. In this way, the novella serves as Sankofa’s origin story, humanizing her despite her otherworldly power.

“Sankofa shined like a moon who knew it was a sun. The light came from her, from her skin. It poured from her, strong and controlled. It washed over everything, but it was only hungry for the man who’d shot at her.”

Sankofa’s character is often tied to celestial bodies, emphasizing her connection to nature. Here, she is compared to the moon and the sun using figurative language. These words emphasize several things about her character that will be explored throughout the text, such as the strength of her power, the mysteriousness of it, and the fact that she is larger than humanity in many ways.

“She turned away, opened her bag and brought out the jar of thick yellow shea butter. She scooped out a dollop. She rubbed it in her hands until it softened then melted. The she rubbed it on her arms, legs, neck, face and belly. She sighed as her dry skin absorbed the natural moisturizer.”

Trees, and shea trees in particular, are a symbol in the novella that emphasize Sankofa’s connection to nature. One element of shea trees that Sankofa relies on is the shea butter. Despite the technological advancements of the novella, Sankofa still uses traditional shea butter to cool her down after using her powers, a fact which emphasizes her traditionalism and connection to African culture.

“She rested her head against the tree’s trunk and shut her eyes. She loved this tree so much and every so often, it seemed to love her back, too, its leaves looking greener in the sunshine than any other tree.”

The tree to which Sankofa is connected as a child is, often times, almost sentient. She spends time with it, appreciates it, and respects it, a fact which underscores her connection to the natural world and tradition. Additionally, this moment, where she is first introduced as a four-year-old child, emphasizes the value that home holds for her, deepening the grief she feels when she is separated from it.

“She claimed it immediately, or maybe it claimed her. It was something valuable, or maybe it saw the value in her. It was beloved like something she’d lost a long time ago and just found, or maybe it had found her.”

The introduction of the seed and the box, which give Sankofa her powers, presents them as sentient beings, bringing in the ideas of fate and destiny and introducing The Burden of Power. Although it seems to have fallen by random chance, the box gives Sankofa the feeling that it was meant for her, a fact which provides insight into her motivation to spend years seeking it out after it is lost.

“‘I’m strong like Artemis,’ she whispered, looking down. This usually worked. But not today. She didn’t even think it would work if she pretended to be the thunder gods of Shango, Amadioha, or Zeus.”

As a child, Sankofa has a connection to mythology. Here, she thinks of Artemis, the Greek goddess of the hunt and childbirth. However, she also thinks of Amadioha, who is an Igbo god in Nigerian culture and Shango, an Orisha in the Yoruba religion. These allusions emphasize Sankofa’s connection to traditionalism and the past, specifically African religions, a key component of the novella as a work of Africanfuturism.

“Fatima wondered if this was why the woman could laugh so hard and freely, because she’d ‘been to’ other places, seen new things and the world was that much more enjoyable because of it. Fatima envied her. She wanted to see what it was like outside of town, too.”

As Sankofa walks through town, just before her injury in the street, she notes how happy foreign women look and wonders if it is because they have traveled. Ironically, Sankofa longs to travel, but will ultimately end her journey by returning back home.

“Then the pain came. This was the moment when Fatima forgot her name. It was a pain that tumbled to her soul. Later she would understand that it wasn’t just a pain. It was a beginning. And this beginning annihilated all that came before it.”

When Sankofa is struck by a car and reacts by unleashing her power, the narration notes that it is “a beginning,” a fact that emphasizes the change that Sankofa will undergo. Ultimately, this moment marks the introduction of redefining the self after trauma and change, as this rupture forces Sankofa to change who she is and reevaluate her life in the light of the death of her family and the birth of her new power.

“And so the seven-year-old girl in her pink knee-length skirt and yellow T-shirt gathered what food she could find, soap, her brother’s Sankofa bird that she’d broke, her mythology book, her mother’s favorite gold hoop earrings, a wooden owl her brother had carved for her, and a jar of her father’s shea butter, put it all in the satchel she used for school and she walked up the road.”

These lines emphasize Sankofa’s development throughout the text as a journey of discovery, evoking the traditional qualities of a bildungsroman or story of development. After she is separated from society, she strikes out on a journey, searching to figure out who she is and where she belongs in the world. Although her story is unique, the novella’s structure allows for parallels to be drawn to other stories which explore the difficulties of childhood and growing up.

“She pressed herself to the ground. The second blow from the man didn’t come. There was no sound and only moments passed. […] [S]he opened her eyes. She was in the shade of the dead truck, her satchel still on her shoulder. When she looked at where the man had been, all that was left was what might have been a jawbone.”

Despite the death and trauma involved in the novella, especially with a young girl, the narration is always straightforward and matter-of-fact. This narrative style creates a neutral tone, portraying Sankofa’s journey not as a tragedy but as a journey of discovery, adding to the mythological quality of her tale.

“She looked up and there was the fox who’d been skulking around her town. ‘You’re alive, too!’ she’d whispered happily. […] Then it trotted from the shallows into the bushes, disappearing into the shadows with a swish of its luxuriant red-orange tail. Even after it was gone, the forest felt that much friendlier and welcoming.”

After Sankofa leaves Wulugu, she is delighted to find that Movenpick followed her. These words underscore the value of Movenpick’s character, serving as a source of comfort and connection when she is isolated from humanity. In this moment, Movenpick leaves her—yet she still feels that the forest is “friendlier” and “welcoming” simply by knowing that he is still by her side after what she did in Wulugu.

“Sankofa opened her eyes, tears rolling down her cheeks. Then she had another thought, though she wasn’t quite sure what she meant by it. I will stand up straight. And in that stream, all alone and naked, with no family or loved ones, Sankofa stood up straighter.”

As Sankofa bathes in the stream in the forest, the moment serves as a metaphorical washing away of her sins. After the rupture she faced in Wulugu, she retreated to the forest and, although she was happy there, realized that she could not spend her life in hiding. Instead, this moment acts as a reaffirmation of her strength, deciding to learn from and embrace her power rather than hide from it.

“Sankofa lived this way for five years. She pursued the seed around Northern rural Ghana, never telling anyone why she went where she went, moving about with earned and justified entitlement, listening for word of the seed in a box and allowing others to wrap her in the mythology of a spirit.”

After leaving the forest and returning to society, time jumps forward, as Sankofa spends several years walking through Ghana and following the seed. Diction is important here, as the words “earned and justified entitlement” underscore what has happened over these years: She has become mythological, embracing her new power and earning both fear and respect from the people of Ghana. Although time passes quickly in the narration, it is important to note that Sankofa built the mythology around herself for years, lending insight into why she longs for home and an end to her journey after her often self-imposed isolation.

“Sankofa decided not to follow the internal radar that had been guiding her for years. She walked in the exact opposite direction. And that direction led her to a road and she walked down that road.”

Often in the novella, roads serve as both a physical and a metaphorical path for Sankofa to follow. Here, after she kills the guard who stole the seed, she willingly chooses a different road to travel down. Metaphorically, she is turning away from the journey she had followed for years, instead restarting her journey of redefining the self after trauma and change.

“As Sankofa passed [the robocop] with the others, it turned and watched her. Her, not the others. The drone still hovered directly overhead. Her neck prickled, but she moved as if she belonged there.”

When Sankofa enters RoboTown, the drone is present, watching over her. The eerie and discomforting atmosphere created by the drone foreshadows the events later in the novella. Sankofa notices it and is bothered by it immediately, with its surveillance speaking to the duality of technology in the text.

“She wanted everyone to leave her be, including Alhaja. She had done what Alhaja needed done and she didn’t want to celebrate, explain herself, or be stared at. She considered leaving in the dead of night, but instead lay in that comfortable blue bed and pushed her face to the sheet and let her tears run”

Sankofa’s feelings after she saves Alhaja’s store convey the burden of power. Sankofa has lived in a liminal space for years after leaving Wulugu. The first opportunity she has at human connection, however, overwhelms her, as she has come to expect that people will “stare” at her or need her to “explain herself,” making her incapable of making genuine connections because of her reputation.

“So Alhaja is ok with me using my glow to save her shop, but not with me using it save my own blood.”

This thought from Sankofa, after Alhaja warns her that people see her using her powers and distance themselves from her, speaks to her isolation and struggles with the burden of power. Sankofa is unsettled by the way people like Alhaja are more than happy to use her power for their own ends, while failing to understand what Sankofa might need or want from her power for herself. Ultimately, Sankofa’s journey is about reconciling both the good and bad of her power, accepting it instead for what it is.

“She considered just forgetting about the seed in a box and she felt an immense weight lift from her shoulders. And with that weight went the burden of guilt she felt for the deaths of her family and town. She would not just bury those memories, she would leave that entire grave behind.”

When Sankofa goes to the mosque, it marks a moment of change in her character as she tries to leave behind her trauma on her journey of redefining herself. What’s important in this quote is that she places the burden of her family’s death on the seed and the box, believing that she can abandon both and, by extension, get rid of the guilt of having killed her family. However, what she fails to grasp and will later learn is that the two are intricately tied: The power is now tied to her and she must face her guilt to move forward, instead of just ignoring it.

“All these devices we use are spies. That’s why you’re like a superhero; they can’t control you. You wearing a hijab now must drive the spies crazy because they can’t easily see your face.”

Sankofa’s conversation with Michael, one of the young boys in RoboTown, underscores the duality of technology. The younger generation in RoboTown helps Sankofa understand the robocop, as they have learned to avoid it and trick it. This moment highlights how Sankofa is, in many ways, better off without technology. Although robocops are an invention of the novella, they emphasize the way that technology in general can serve as a source of control and surveillance in today’s society.

“Being led out of town by an angry mob wasn’t the worst thing that could happen, best to stay calm and let it be done. She had all she needed in her satchel. Still, she’d grown to love RoboTown. It may not have been her home but for nearly a year, it had been a home.”

Sankofa’s emotional maturity is evident when she is chased from RoboTown, an important fact to remember as Sankofa is still only 14 years old. While most would be upset about an “angry mob,” Sankofa instead sees it as not a big deal, underscoring how she has been conditioned to a life of isolation and liminality.

“‘What am I?’ she said. But she didn’t really care about that question. No. She was what she was and now after nearly dying, waking up in her own grave, and emerging from the soil, she was better.”

After Sankofa is reborn after being shocked by the drone, her thoughts underscore her newfound understanding of her situation, undergoing both a literal and metaphorical rebirth. In the past, she has struggled to define who she is and how she fits into humanity. Now, however, she dismisses the question of “What am I?,” realizing that a title is unimportant to her identity; rather, what’s important is that she accept who she is and the power that was given to her, despite its burdens.

“She’d told them about how her garden was going and they’d all been impressed, saying that for someone who was fitted with the talent of taking life, she was also good at cultivating it. They’d all laughed.”

Sankofa’s relationship with the farmers in the forest is a key part of her character development. First, they provide her comfort, laughing together and allowing her to feel normal. Additionally, they allow her to separate herself from the mythology she has created surrounding herself. Instead of relying on others for food and clothing, she instead relies on the earth, “cultivating it” to feed herself and returning to nature.