Nigerians in Space by Deji Bryce Olukoton Essay Example

This debut book by the Nigerian-American author Deji Bryce Olukoton came out in the year 2014, and it addresses a fictional Nigerian Space program. The whole events of the book take place over a period of twenty or so years starting from the year 1993. The book's main character is Wale Olufunmi, a moon geologist working in the United States at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Wale is a dreamer, and despite being a lowly technician, he hopes to be an astronaut one day. He even muses,"He wouldn't hit golf balls like the American astronauts. He would squeeze out rhythms from a talking drum into the blackness between the stars" (Olukotun, 6)

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In the beginning, Wale is on a mission to steal a "piece of the moon"- a moon rock sample collected from the first moon landing in 1969 to return it home to Nigeria. The stealing of the moon rock might seem to be a worthless endeavor to the reader, but it turns out that the lunar geologist is, in fact, a nationalist at heart. Wale Olufunmi is part of a Nigerian space program organized by the unscrupulous politician Nurudeen Bello. Wale steals the moon rock and hides it at the base of the snow globe to smuggle it out of America, but his attempt to go back home goes awry. Nurudeen Bello disappears like many politicians often do in their careers, Wale has no visa that can give him safe passage home to Nigeria, and he may be complicit in a murder and wanted by police after witnessing a murder.

In the book, the moon is a symbol of hope and a better future for Nigerians and others in the Brain Gain program. Twenty years after Bello betrays wale Olufunmi, Wale is an entrepreneur dealing in bamboo and its products at his new home in South Africa. His now-adult son has followed in his footsteps and develops a lamp that recreates the moon's natural light after being inspired by the stolen snow globe. Wale is still hung over his past and is still searching for Bello even after all these years. Wale still has a dream, and it is evident from the fact that he gives tours at the Royal Observatory. Wale and Dayo meet a Zimbabwean girl by the name of Melissa or Melle who has a special form of vitiligo which makes her skin glow like the light of the moon. Dayo and Wale often meet with a man named Thursday who is a poacher for marine mollusks abalones. The abalones are attracted to the light emanated by Dayo's lamps which makes it easier for Thursday to catch them.

The reader might think that this is too much coincidence to be explained by just that. However, avid Science Fiction and Fantasy fans will realize that an overdose of coincidence is a mainstay in the genre. Once, Wale asks Dayo if he managed to sell the moon lamps and the writer narraters "Dayo went through his routine, trying to emphasize the technical parts. He used the words "luminosity" and "Umbra" and "aqueous medium" with what he hoped was familiarity" (Olukotun, 173).

The politician in the Environment Ministry, Nurudeen Bello is the one who says "For us to leap, we must find another source, clean of the blood of our ancestors. It is not more oil that we need. Not gold, not diamonds. We can't swap blood for blood. What we need are minds" (Olukotun, 14). He advocates for and is the head of the top secret Nigerian program dubbed Brain Drain yet he does not support Wale when he encounters problems. Some scholars refute that "Nigerians in Space" does not meet the basic requirements to be termed as a true work of Science Fiction. First, the space program, in the end, turns out to be a complete disaster and a waste of public funds. However, it can be argued that the book is an imagination of Nigerians in space rather than an actual successful voyage to space. In 2014, when Olukoton wrote the book, he did not imagine that there was an actual space program being organized in his native Nigeria, but there was! When interviewed in 2014 if he knew that Nigeria had a space initiative, one that had been in the works for some years, the author replied: "It seemed too ridiculous even to be worth researching-I had made the idea up!" (Samata, 176)

The book may be categorized as Science Fiction but it takes the reader through a rollercoaster ride, and all of it happens on the planet Earth. Perhaps the author uses space as a symbolic representation of breaking stereotypes concerning Africans or Nigerians in the attempt to carve out an identity for themselves in post-colonial times. Also, the supposed space program is organized by a dishonest politician who is concerned about making money most of the time. "The author could be speaking volumes with this trend which can be seen to be a true representation of how things work in Africa where corrupt politicians are in charge of huge projects and end up pocketing most of the money" (Moylan, 03).

In Science-Fiction the portrayed political landscape is as important as imagination itself. The theme of corruption and self-interest is prevalent all through the book from start to end and is represented by the politician Nurudeen Bello who is antagonistic to the nationalist pride in sending his country mates to space. On the contrary, the lunar geologist Wale Olufunmi is a true believer in what Olukoton terms as "brain gain" which is the opposite of a brain drain. The Brain Gain mission is the use of professionals working in foreign countries to gain the skills necessary to help out their native country (Nigeria). For example, the stealing of the moon rock by Wale can be regarded as an act of brain gain.

Conclusion

In conclusion, based on the book "Nigerians in Space" African Science Fiction seems to be on the rise even though it seems to be too idealistic and overly conservative. According to Sofia Samata "Nigerians in Space comes across as a story of hope and dreams which never die and this what constitutes Afrofuturism" (Samata, 191). However, the reality of life such as corruption and dirty politics seem to have so much say in much of what happens or what does not in the book. Readers may feel disappointed that Wale did not manage to go to space and be an astronaut as he imagined at the beginning of the book but that may be a lesson that although some dreams may not be achieved it does not mean one stops dreaming. "In the book, the moon is a universal symbol exceeding reality and entering the realm of sci-fi" (Moylan, 03).

Works Cited

Olukotun, Deji Bryce. Nigerians in Space. Unnamed Press, 2014.

Moylan, Thomas. Scraps of the untainted sky: Science fiction, utopia, dystopia. Routledge, 2018.

Samatar, Sofia. "Toward a Planetary History of Afrofuturism." Research in African Literatures 48.4 (2017): 175-191.