That’s when she forgets her real name and becomes a vagabond, with only Movenpick to accompany her. Her new ability is triggered and she inadvertently kills the entire village, her own family included. She knows it is meant for her and when her father sells it to a rich politician, she is upset.Īnother year goes by and when Fatima is seven, a day comes when she is hit by a car.

She and her brother discover that when she’s hurt, she begins to glow green, but they don’t know what the glow can do. In the year that follows, the malaria that used to plague Fatima goes away. She keeps the box that contains it safely in her room. The box contains a seed Fatima instantly feels a connection to. It sinks into the soil and a box emerges from the earth. One night, when she is five, Fatima / Sankofa watches a meteor shower and something crashes to the foot of the tree. A fox whom she names Movenpick is drawn to the tree as well. Her designs are intricate and remarkable they take up the entire yard. She likes to look at the stars and then draw what she sees in the earth near the tree. There is a shea tree next to the house that young Fatima loves to climb. Her warm, loving family owns a shea tree farm. The next chapter flashes back ten years and we meet Sankofa, then called Fatima, as a child of four. She remembers that she once had a family but she doesn’t know her own name. There’s a lot Sankofa doesn’t know or understand about herself and how her power works. Sankofa travels on foot because her touch destroys all technological inventions (why she never rides a bicycle instead is a question that goes unanswered). Her green light evaporates the bullet and leaves only one bone of the man. As she leaves, the family’s gateman, whose brother’s wish for a mercy killing she fulfilled, rages against her and shoots her.

She demands food and clothing and is given both. Sankofa knocks on a well-to-do family’s door and is, of course, allowed in-no one wants to offend her. Her name precedes her she is believed to be Death’s daughter for her ability to emit a green light that kills everyone in its vicinity. Although the villagers have never met her, they know of Sankofa. Janine: Remote Control takes place in a slightly futuristic Ghana and opens with fourteen-year-old Sankofa’s arrival at a village. Jayne read it too and we decided to write up a joint review. So, when the ARC of her new novella, Remote Control, became available, I was eager to read it. I liked her Hugo and Nebula-winning novella, Binti, too. I’ve enjoyed a few of Nnedi Okorafor’s books in the past, particularly the Akata Witch series of YA novels, which take place in Nigeria. Jayne Book Reviews / C Reviews / C+ Reviews Africanfuturism / child in jeopardy / Ghana / horror / joint review / loner / Mysterious powers / POC / POC author / Science Fiction / survivor / teen 2 Comments JanuJOINT REVIEW: Remote Control by Nnedi Okorafor