By Jummai Linda Mustafa
Author: Nnedi Okorafor- Mbachu.
Title: Zahrah the Windseeker.
Publisher: HMCo Children’s Books.
Genre: Fiction, Fantasy and Historical fiction.
Year: 2005
Pages: 308
Zahrah the Windseeker is one of the few literatures written about fantasies conceived by young adults. With fantasies, Nnedi Okorafor’s book also incorporate myths, folklores and culture of West Africa. In 2008, it won the Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa.
In the Kingdom of Ooni, fear of the unknown makes everyone to hold dear to their lives. Any child born with dreadlocks (dada) is especially rumored to have supernatural powers. Thirteen year old Zahrah Tsami feels like a normal girl but unlike other children born in the village of Kirki, Zahrah was born with deadlocks which make her a dreaded person. It is only Dari her best friend that is not afraid of her. A fantastical travelogue into the unknown life of a young girl’s fears, the book also expounds the magic that surrounds Zahrah and her town.
A simple tale that graphically turns into an animated film which is more like the many children adventure films made in the Western World. The story begins with Zahrah, who is an inquisitive adolescence and lives in Ooni Kingdom on the planet of Ginen. Zahrah says of her birth:
“When I was born, my mother took one look at me and laughed.
“She’s… dada.” Said the doctor, looking surprised.
“I can see that.” My mother replied with a smile. She took me in
her arms and gently touched one of the thick clumps of hair growing from my little head. I had dadalocks, and woven inside each one of those clumps was a skinny, light green vine. Contrary
to what a lot of people think, these vines didn’t sprout directly
from my head. Instead, they were more like plants that had
attached themselves to my hair as I grew inside my mother’s
womb. Imagine that! To be born with vines growing in your hair!
But that’s the nature of dada people, like myself. (pg.7)
As an example of African fantasy, Zahrah the Windseeker is one of the few fantasy and science fiction written by a Nigerian. There is the incorporation of Southern Nigerian culture into the book. For example, Zahrah’s mother is a market woman which is a very common occupation of Southern Nigerian women. Zahrah regularly reads about a superhero named Chukwu (a supreme deity of the Igbo people) who will come and save her from her fears but towards the end of the book she has to save herself as well as the life of her friend Dari from supernatural powers.
The planet Ginen, is a world of vegetation and everywhere on this planet is covered by plants. In Ooni, the people try to work as a team with nature instead of cutting down trees and clearing plots of lands for cultivation. This old way of preserving the land is especially valued in Ooni yet there are times when the same people who try to conserve their land also get themselves involved in the environmental desecration of the land. Okorafor’s use of contrast makes the book an interesting read. As much as the people of Ooni try to preserve the small town of Kirki, the taming of the forest becomes a more dreaded place to be in and as such a no go area for the people of Kirki.
We follow Zahrah as she enters puberty and shockingly discovers that she has the power to fly. But there is no one to ask of her ability since she is mostly avoided because she has dreadlocks. At the instigation of her friend, Dari, the only person she’s told her secrets, Zahrah ventures into the forbidden dark Market where she meets Nsibi, a fellow dada whose parents came from faraway lands. She assures Zahrah to practice her powers telling her that there is nothing wrong with her ability to fly. Dari once again advises Zahrah to break the rules and travel into the Forbidden Greeny jungle where she can practice flying without fear of being observed. But when Dari is poisoned by one of the many strange creatures in the Forbidden Greeny Jungle, Zahrah must abandon all her fears and travel alone deep into the Forbidden Greeny Jungle to find a cure. There she encounters many bizarre, deadly and helpful creatures that have never been encountered by residents of the Ooni Kingdom before.
In the novel, earth is a legendary place, something that Dari in his studies of mysterious things is curious to learn more about. A very adventurous book for adolescents, the book has a lot of unanswered questions. For instance, the location of Ginen planet is not known and the people of Ooni lost their pasts without readers being told of how and why. Generally, the book is a good read for children and adolescents as it activates peoples imagination.
The lesson to learn from Okorafor’s Zahrah the Windseeker is the fact that Okorafor brings readers to the point of believing on possibilities rather than impossibilities.