Trigger and spoiler warnings (rape and female genital mutilation).

It’s Herstory Month! What better way to kick off March then showing how one author wrote about some uncomfortable issues that directly affect women (but are global problems). Nnedi Okorafor deals with rape, being the child of rape, and female genital mutilation within the first 32 pages (of the hardcover edition). I’ve talked about Dr. Okorafor before, in her short story Ozioma the Wicked, and she is not one to shy away from taboo topics which is something I admire about her.

1. Remember that these things are part of life. And life goes on.

Okorafor doesn’t go too much into the ramifications of FGM (if you’re interested in learning more you can watch Khadija Gbla’s TED talk here) but we are part of the audience for the Eleventh Rite and the absence of their clitorides is revisited several times throughout the story.

Additionally the way Okorafor writes about Onyesonwu’s mother’s rape and how Onyesonwu can’t stop from continually replaying her conception, like an embarrassing moment,  that is amplified by her magical abilities. At one point Onye uses her magic like an empathy gun from Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy movie to broadcast what happened to her mother so people will leave her alone. But there is this great quote at the end of the third chapter, “… all we could do was continue living,” that’s a reminder that bad things happen and we have to soldier on.

2. Eleven year olds will make stupid decisions when they don’t have all the information. (And possibly will still make same stupid decision when they have all the info.)

When Onye learns how she is bringing shame on her parents by being a child of a rape she decides to not double shame her parents by being uncircumcised, even though her mother calls the practice barbaric and doesn’t want Onye to do it. However Onye and the rest of the girls don’t know what they are giving up by getting their clitorides removed. Part of me believes Onye wouldn’t have gone through with it if anyone explained everything that could happen by removing her clitoris. Although she might have. The wonder of orgasms might be difficult for an eleven year old virgin to grasp.

3. Sometimes good things come out of the bad.

It reminds me of the line from Doctor Who when they visited Picasso, “The way I see it every life is a pile of good things and bad things… The good things don’t always soften the bad things but vice versa: the bad things don’t necessarily spoil the good things or make them unimportant.”

Out of the rape, Najeeba got Onyesonwu and learned how to take care of herself and her child without anyone’s help. From the Eleventh Rite several things happened: Binta can finally report that her father rapes her and people can take action, and Onyesonwu finally gets friends. The results don’t justify the actions but shitty situations can be fertilizer to grow a better circumstance.

What do you think about writing about awful experiences in a way that shows the fallout and the silver lining? How do you entwine both the upsetting and aggravating moments with the exciting and joyful experiences in your writing?