Author: Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu
Publisher: Graphia
Binding: Paperback
Publication Date: February 2008
When I was elementary school, I found a copy of young adult author Virginia Hamilton’s foray into science fiction, Justice and Her Brothers. This novel and its sequels (forming the ‘Justice’ series) cemented my interest in speculative fiction. After a diet of The Hobbit and Narnia and various knock-offs, it was refreshing to read novels that featured characters that I could relate to—brown-skinned people who weren’t the exotic Other, tokens or outright minions of evil. Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu’s debut novel, Zahrah the Windseeker, is dedicated to the late Virginia Hamilton, and continues in her footsteps.
The novel is set on the planet Ginen, a lush jungle-filled world where technology is literally grown out of the earth. Computers and lightbulb sprout from the ground. The small town of Kirki is on the edge of the mostly unexplored Forbidden Greeny Jungle, an ominous patch of land that refuses to be tamed and host to wild and fantastical creatures. Thirteen year old Zahrah has always been an outsider in her town, because of the strange hair that she was born with: dada locks—hair that is entwined with foliage. She has been the target of her school’s ‘mean girl’ clique and mostly keeps to herself, with her books. However, she is best friends with a popular boy in school, the headstrong and charismatic Dari. On the day after her first period, Zahrah finds herself floating above her bed. She realizes that she can levitate, and possibly control the wind in such a way that she can fly. But she is terrified of the power. She keeps it to herself, but eventually tells Dari. Dari, in his typical fashion, suggests that they practice her strange talent in the Forbidden Greeny Jungle—not too far in to get lost. Against her better judgment, Zahrah agrees. At first, the flying experiments go well. But it all changes when Dari is bitten by a war snake. The only cure, they find when the children go to the hospital, lies in the Forbidden Greeny Jungle. Against the wishes of her parents, Zahrah goes to the jungle, in search of a cure.
In many ways, Zahrah the Windseeker is a simple quest novel. It gives Okorafor-Mbachu an excuse to flex her world-building skills, which she does in spades. The spunky Zahrah meets many strange creatures, has adventures and faces dangers:
[The giant scorpion] came clambering down from a nearby tree while I made a snack of a mango. I now know what it’s like to feel absolutely sure that death is moments away. What could I do against this thing?! The scorpion was an ancient-looking beast whose flat disk of a gray body was bigger than a grown man’s! It was a scurrying nightmare.
Young readers will be thrilled with the fast-paced plot, while adults will appreciate the author’s sly references to Nigerian folklore and even Alice in Wonderland. I especially enjoyed the girl’s slow acceptance of her difference. The writing does have a lyricism beneath its deceptive simplicity. I wish that this book had been around when I was eleven years old.
