The fire in my veins burns hotter than any sun. - Nnedi Okorafor

Some of our old ways are better forgotten, but not all of them.

The theme of choice and the power of culture pops up in my stories often. Before Binti, the biggest example of this is in Who Fears Death when Onyesonwu must face the decision of whether or not to go through a ceremony that required cutting off her clitoris. To many readers, the fact that she even has to think about whether or not to do this is shocking. It’s not shocking to me at all, coming from the culture that I come from where the individual is often secondary to the community…

We all have the power to embrace our scars and rise like phoenixes from the ashes of our pain.