Chapters 7-9 Summary

Binti returns from her memories to find herself the sole human survivor of the slaughter in the dining hall. The edan has somehow killed a Meduse who tried to attack her. Another Meduse floats in front of her, its tentacle injured from reaching for the edan. To stay calm, Binti whispers her whole name and what she has learned and inherited from her parents. Binti remembers being able to “communicate with spirit flow and convince them to become one current” at age 12. Her mother passed on her “mathematical sight” to Binti, and her father passed her generations of knowledge while she was in a meditative “treeing” state. Thinking these thoughts, Binti picks up her satchel from the table and piles a tray with food as she backs out of the dining hall. The Meduse slowly float after her but do not attack. She locks herself in her room and tries to use her astrolabe to signal for help, but to no avail; however, the astrolabe informs her that the ship is still on course, 121 hours from Oomza Uni.

Seventy-two hours pass. Binti has run out of food and has hardly any water. She muses that Oomza Uni’s security will know the ship has been hijacked and will simply shoot it down rather than allow it to land. The Meduse bang on her door. Binti realizes she is about to die. Instead of preparing to fight, Binti “look[s]… death square in the face and then… surrender[s] to it.” In this instant, she has a revelation about how her edan works.

Chapters 7-9 Analysis

Though the how and why of Binti’s edan are not yet clear, readers see that its spirituality and technology have somehow saved Binti’s life. Binti’s ability to “communicate with spirit flow” and manipulate electrical currents plays a critical role in her use of the edan.

Binti is a classic unwitting hero who does not have traditional powers, such as physical strength or magic. Rather, Binti has the extraordinary powers of “harmonization” and unusual mathematical skill, and her empathy and natural abilities to make connections allow her to subconsciously wield powerful technology. If Binti possessed more assertive or traditional powers, she would have likely died along with everyone else on the ship. Okorafor uses the character to underscore the extraordinary power of empathy.