This TED Talk features author Nettie Acoraphore,

recorded live at TED Global 2017.

What if an African girl from a traditional family

in a part of future Africa is accepted into the finest university in the galaxy,

planets away?

What if she decides to go? This is an excerpt from my Binti Novella trilogy.

I powered up the transporter and said a silent prayer.

I had no idea what I was going to do if it didn't work.

My transporter was cheap,

so even a droplet of moisture or more likely a grain of sand

would cause it to short.

It was faulty and most of the time I had to restart it over and over before it worked.

Please not now, please not now, I thought.

The transporter shivered in the sand and I held my breath.

Tiny, flat and black as a prayer stone,

it buzzed softly and then slowly rose from the sand.

Finally, it produced the baggage-lifting force.

I grinned.

Now I could make it to the shuttle on time.

I swiped Ojitze from my forehead with my index finger and knelt down.

Then I touched the finger to the sand, grounding the sweet-smelling red clay into it.

Thank you, I whispered.

...