Binti

The Enyi Zinariyas’ priestess lives in the center of dried lake that is located away from the cave village. Mwinyi leads Binti to the cave and down the stone steps carved into the walls of the large hole. Ariya greets Binti warmly with a hug and asks Mwinyi to fetch her at sundown. Binti, displeased, did not expect the ceremony to take so long. Ariya questions Binti, and the teenager begins to grow angry again, as she has repeatedly over the last few months. Binti shouts at Ariya, confessing to the priestess that she has broken the edan. Binti also tells Ariya that she has become “unclean” after the Meduse stung her. Ariya dispels Binti’s fears. Ariya says simply: “Unclean? No […] That part of you that is Meduse now, you just need to get that under control” (192).

This revelation rock Binti’s entire world. She realizes that there may be nothing wrong with her. Binti is relieved and exhausted, overcome with the emotions of guilt and uncertainty that she has buried for so long. Ariya leaves for over an hour, so Binti naps on her rug. Ariya returns with a large two-foot tall owl. Binti realizes that she will need to have her nanoids activated to solve the puzzle of the edan and admits: “Change was constant. Change was my destiny. Growth” (193).

Despite this, when Ariya asks Binti if she wants to activate her nanoids, Binti continues to deflect the question. Binti insists that she is Himba and does not lay any claim to her Enyi Zinariya heritage. Ariya points out that the Meduse have already changed Binti—Binti is no longer simply Himba. Binti cries and mourns for the simple future she could have had, before she admits that she wants it. As much as Binti may long for home, her curiosity and need to solve the mysteries of the edan are far greater. 

Ariya plucks a feather from the owl, which is, in fact, an alien. The owl has lived amongst the Enyi Zinariya since the Zinariya first arrived. The Zinariya have tasked the owl to hold the catalysts that will activate the nanoids in a clan member’s blood. Binti chooses to stab her finger with the feather and accept the activation. Binti’s consciousness flees her body. She likens the awakening of the nanoids with pulling something deep from the Earth, with touching the “Mother” (199), the clay of home that the Himba worship.

A voice speaks to her, and Binti wakes in the desert. She sees Ariya putting out the fire on her singed clothes. Although Binti sees shapes in her vision, she is more preoccupied by the sudden knowledge that someone has hurt Okwu. A fireball hurtles to the ground towards Binti, and she longs for it to kill her. Ariya tells Binti to calm down and explains that she threw the fireball to snap Binti out of her trance. Binti sees the words of her father scrawl themselves out before her eyes. Her father is horrified by her decision to awaken the nanoids. However, Binti is more concerned about Okwu. Her father tells her that the Khoush came and tried to kill Okwu, before setting fire to the Root. Mwinyi leads Binti back through the desert towards home.

Binti has a nightmare of her father trapped in the cellar of the Root. The rest of her family is there, as are several neighbors and family friends. Her mother is nowhere to be seen. Although Binti tries to ask her father where her mother is, he does not respond. A voice tells Binti in Meduse that vengeance will be had. Binti does not know where Okwu is. Binti awakes in the desert, still days away from home. The nanoids, also known as the zinariya, show Binti a vision of the past. Binti sees a young woman named Kande.

Kande sneaks off to smoke a cigarette while her family watches television inside. Kande is worried; she does not like the man her family has arranged for her to marry. She is also worried that her family will discover her smoking habit. It is then that she sees the tall golden aliens; Kande is the first person to make contact with the Zinariya all those years ago. Mwinyi shakes Binti out of her meditative state and leads them both out of the sandstorm. Binti tries to contact her father but is unable to. She is convinced that her entire family has burned to death in the cellar of the Root. Binti weeps in the desert and before she can tree, the zinariya gift her with another vision of the past.

There is a council of elders debating Kande’s suitability to lead the clan. An old man named Takeagoodposition speaks with several elders about what to do with the Zinariya; some believe that Kande has gone mad, others think that breaking down the Zinariyas’ gold bodies will get them a fortune. Binti continues to listen in on the conversation until a red button, with the words “press it” (216), appears out of nowhere. The button is Mwinyi’s way of speaking to Binti through the zinariya and helping her escape the vision.

Upon waking, Binti begins wailing and screaming, mourning her family’s death. Although Mwinyi tries to speak to her, Binti continues to cry. Eventually, Mwinyi is able to tell Binti that her family may still be alive. According to Mwinyi, Titi has communicated with Binti’s father. Mwinyi tells Binti that she tries too hard to please everyone; in doing so, she has failed to fulfill her role as a harmonizer. Binti continues to see the world, the zinariya, growing around her. Binti and Mwinyi travel for another day and night before the latter insists that they stop and rest.

Mwinyi tells Binti to intuitively learn how to use the zinariya, and she agrees. She sits with her own thoughts and eventually figures out how to reach out to Mwinyi; she tells him “Hello.” Although Binti attempts to contact her father, she is unsuccessful. Binti also tries to reach out to Okwu but is unable to reach it. Binti realizes that she’s bare of otjize and rubs the clay mixture that she had made at Oomza University onto her skin. It is then that Binti sees a black tunnel in the sky. It paralyzes her, and she is unable to move until Mwinyi returns with rabbits for dinner. Although they speak to one another, Binti is unable to move. Eventually, Binti falls asleep and wakes up, able to move again. She feels uncomfortable because she is bare of otjize. Binti feels naked in front of Mwinyi, but he tells her that since he is not Himba, she does not look naked to him.

Binti and Mwinyi talk to each other about their respective cultures. Mwinyi tells her about how he communicates with the wild dogs. He also tells her the story of how he became a harmonizer. When Mwinyi was 8 years old, he came across a tribe of elephants. The matriarch of the tribe, Arewhana, tried to charge at Mwinyi and kill him, but he was curious as to why, so he asked her. In doing so, Arewhana and Mwinyi developed a strong friendship; she taught him how to speak with all creatures. After relating his story, they both rest to ready themselves for the day ahead.

Binti has a dream about the Enyi Zinariya clan when the Zinariya are still among them. There is a bustling market in the middle of the desert. A little girl runs up to one of the 20-foot-tall golden figures and teaches it how to eat an orange. Binti wakes from the dream and begins to run a current through the edan. As she does so, Binti checks her astrolabe and realizes that it does not work. Astrolabes are a large part of Binti’s life: “Astrolabes were the only object that also carried the full record of your entire life on it—you, your family, and all forecasts of your future” (233). Despite Binti’s best efforts, her astrolabe does not turn back on.

Binti and Mwinyi continue walking through the desert and eventually get close to Binti’s homeland. Mwinyi calls Okwu Binti’s “partner” (234). The term surprises her, but she does not reject it. Mwinyi learns from Ariya what happened to Okwu. According to Ariya, Khoush soldiers came for Okwu and blew up its tent, but it was not in it. Binti’s family did not cooperate with the Khoush, so the soldiers set the Root on fire. Instead of running away, Binti’s family rushed into the Root. Okwu killed many of the Khoush soldiers. Binti’s father was unable to communicate with the zinariya.

When they finally near Osemba, they see the familiar area where Binti used to come out to meditate, the very area where she’d found the edan. They soon notice the lands beneath their feet shimmering with flecks of gold. Mwinyi tells Binti that the shimmer is something that the zinariya is showing them. They both see a vision of the Zinariya landing in the area, stones from the past acting as a launch port for the aliens. They also watch as the Zinariya bury the golden ball in Binti’s edan. Back in the present, both Mwinyi and Binti head towards Osemba, where they see a Khoush ship landing.