Feet away, Professor Dema stood, carrying a large gunlike weapon with both her hands and a snarl on her lips. This was not the way final exams were supposed to go.
I’m not meant to stay here. You know it. You’ve always known it. I was always going out into the desert. You know? Because it’s huge, it’s vast. When I look back, the desert and space, they feel similar.
Butterflies understand the desert well. That’s why they move this way and that. They’re always Holding Conversation with the land. They talk as much as they listen. It’s in the desert’s language that you call the butterflies.
My tribe is obsessed with innovation and technology, but it is small, private, and, as I said, we don’t like to leave Earth. We prefer to explore the universe by traveling inward, as opposed to outward. No Himba has ever gone to Oomza Uni. So me being the only one on the ship was not that surprising. However, just because something isn’t surprising doesn’t mean it’s easy to deal with.
School will bring you more success than marriage.
I am Binti Ekeopara Zuzu Dambu Kaipka of Namib,” I whispered.
I whimpered, biting my lip. “I’m here, I’m here, I’m here,” i whispered. Because I was and there was no way out.
Do not take juju lightly, unless you are looking for unexpected death.
Overconsumption is a universal human trait,” Orlu pointed out. “And so is ignorance.
Having curiosity is the only way to learn.
As the day progressed we moved inside. Well into the night, we talked about nothing much of substance. Insignificance. Wonderful unimportance.
A tool always begs to be used. The trick is to learn how to use it.
Sunny nodded. But her mind was not on the problems of the black African diaspora. She was thinking about what it was going to be like to meet with a giant sentient spider who was thousands, maybe millions, of years old while she was impaired by doubling.
You Himba are so inward-looking,” she said. “Cocooned around that pink lake, growing your technology from knowledge harvested from deep within your genius, you girls and women dig up your red clay and hide beneath it. You’re an interesting people who have been on those lands for generations. But you’re a young people. The Enyi Zinariya are old old Africans. “And contrary to what you all believe, we have technology that puts yours to shame and we’ve had it for centuries.
You fit get me inside dere?” he asked, his voice lusty in her ear. “I go try, baby,” she whispered.
Fate is fixed like brittle crystal in the dark.
Work a little harder and be more confident. Our bond is broken; some compensation is required. It’s like loving and cherishing someone without needing the bonds of marriage to enforce it,” Anyanwu said. “By sinister means, you and I are free.” Sunny sat with Anyanwu’s words, staring into the pouring rain.
If you don’t recognize yourself, then who is the one who reminds you of who you are?
A tiger does not proclaim its tigritude. It pounces. – Wole Soyinka, Sub-Saharan Africa’s first Nobel Laureate.
Edgar never used the rhythm to do violence again. But when he got on stage, when he rapped and let the words flow from his tongue like warmed honey, he could feel it. It would be there when he needed it. So far, he hadn’t needed it.