Binti Summary and Analysis

Chapters 1-3 Summary

Binti lives on Earth in a distant future when interplanetary travel is common. She designs astrolabes, devices that store one’s personal history. Her work makes her a “harmonizer.” (Readers later learn this means that she has a gift for communication.) While praying, Binti powers up the transporter that will carry her luggage to the shuttle she’ll take to a launch port. She is the only dark-skinned person on the shuttle, and the other passengers give her disgusted looks. Binti’s people are the Himba, a sedentary group that live in their ancestral home in the desert—and never leave. Although Binti knows she has likely ruined her relationship with her family, she is leaving anyway, to become the first Himba to study at an interplanetary university—Oomza Uni.

In the launch port, Binti finds herself surrounded by light-skinned people called Khoush. Binti stands out because of her clothing, anklets, dark skin, and hair covered with a red clay called “otjize.” In the terminal, a travel security officer reads her astrolabe—a requirement before being able to travel. He congratulates Binti and tells her, “You are the pride of your people.” While Binti is standing in line for boarding, a Khoush woman tugs her hair and makes nasty comments. Binti ignores her and clutches a device called an “edan” in her pocket for comfort. The device is ancient, and its use has been forgotten. Binti boards a ship called the Third Fish. The ship is a giant creature similar to a shrimp, “with natural exoskeletons that could withstand the harshness of space.”

Chapters 1-3 Analysis

Binti narrates her story in the first person, limiting the reader’s viewpoint to what she experiences and chooses to divulge. In the opening lines, Binti reveals her close relationship with both technology and spirituality as she prays while starting her transport device, indicating that Binti accepts an overlap between prayer and science.

In Binti, Okorafor builds a world where the ancient and the contemporary, the mystical and the scientific can exist harmoniously. Binti’s people are an insular community that greatly values tradition yet makes the scientifically advanced “astrolabe.” They reflect Okorafor’s interest in the intersection between modernity and tradition.

The term “astrolabe” refers to a real instrument used to calculate the position of celestial bodies. The device can be traced back to the 6th century. In Binti, the astrolabe is a complex instrument that stores a person’s history.

Binti’s first interplanetary travel experience is fraught with the indignities of racism and feelings of alienation. As the only dark-skinned traveler in a sea of light-skinned travelers, she feels like an outsider. The sense of alienation, uncertainty and disdain she suffers because of her appearance and cultural background begin to develop the narrative’s major themes.