It’s up to Sankofa to find out for herself by trial and error what her new abilities are. If so, then it is an artifact whose purpose is unclear and which does not come with a user’s manual.
The reader, like LifeGen, will probably see the seed as an alien artifact. Mobs aren’t known for wisdom, but this work features a mob that is more foolish than most. Why this book now? Greg Ruth’s cover art kept catching my eye, and I wanted to find out what was inside. However an American company, LifeGen, sees her as a resource they may be able to exploit. She limits herself to the useful (as much as she can) and becomes a revered figure, not a monster to be hunted. She is feared but also useful: she can end the suffering of the terminally ill with a touch. Sankofa’s fame spreads much faster than she can walk 1.
Thus begins her life as Sankofa, eternal wanderer. Her entire family drops dead, along with the rest of Wulugu. Fatima starts to emit an eerie green glow that kills every human within range. What should have been fatal injuries are not. The extent of the changes wrought on Fatima become clear when she is struck by a speeding car as she crosses the road. The politician does not profit from his purchase hardly has he possessed the seed than he is robbed by his driver, who vanishes. After all, the money will make the family’s life better.
When a wealthy politician comes asking to buy it for an absurd sum, Fatima’s parents sell it without deeply considering the matter. To her parents, the seed is merely a child’s treasure. Once she possesses the seed, she becomes healthy. When she was young it seemed likely that malaria would carry her off. The longer she is exposed to her little treasure the more she changes. When a seed-like object falls out of the sky, Fatima takes it for her own. Her story begins in the rural town of Wulugu, when she was just a sickly girl named Fatima. In large part, it is because she can burn people down to their bones merely by willing it. In part, this is because Sankofa provides a useful service. The people she encounters fall over themselves providing her with food and clothing. Sankofa wanders Ghana in the company of a fox, visiting community after community. Unless you’re reading this after January 2021, in which case strike “upcoming.” Nnedi Okorafor’s 2021 Remote Control is an upcoming science fiction novella.
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