Review: She Who Knows

She Who Knows by Nnedi Okorafor
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

In 2011, Nnedi Okorafor's Who Fears Death won the World Fantasy Award. This novella, the first in a series, is the story of Onyesonwu's mother, the sorceress Najeeba.

This book takes place in a far-future, post-apocalyptic (and presumably post-climate-change) Africa, where magic and technology co-exist. The author doesn't go into how or why that happened; it just exists, and the characters accept it and live with it. There are witches, spirits, and the astral projection (or equivalent) that Najeeba discovers she can do, juxtaposed with solar/wireless technology and "portables" (tablets, as far as I can tell).

What hasn't changed is the oppression of one people by another. In this future, the Nuru (people of Arab descent, per the author's forward) oppress the Okeke (people of African descent). Najeeba and her family are a subset of Okeke, the outcast and lowest caste Osu-nu:

To your clan, even though we look just like you, we are to be avoided. It's forbidden to befriend or marry us. Osu-nu people are untouchable Okeke people; we are the slaves who chose to be slaves to the goddess Adoro so that we could be free.

There's a lot of far-future history here, barely touched on because a novella leaves no room for it. Some of it is told in the form of stories, such as how two Osu-nu women found the dead lake with its extensive salt deposits, and founded a business later generations came to depend on to support themselves and thrive. The journeys down the salt roads, and what happens to Najeeba there, form a major part of the plot. Najeeba is the first girl in her village to accompany her father and brothers on the salt roads, and everything changes for her afterward.

This book has a very mythic, fantasy feel, despite the subtext of technology and SF. The end reveals just who Najeeba is telling her story to, and what she will do next. That book, I think, will be explosive, but it needed the background and setup of this one. It may be a bit of an "author-completist" type of tale for fans in that I don't know how well it would land with those who have never read Okorafor before, but I think the story is strong enough to overcome that handicap. In any event, it will likely impel you to read more of her work. (Full disclosure: I have Who Fears Death but haven't read it. I need to remedy that soon.)


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