Nnedi Okorafor and the Fantasy Genre She Is Helping Redefine | The New York Times Nearly 25 years ago, Nnedi Okorafor was visiting relatives in Isiekenesi, Nigeria, when she asked her grand uncle a sensitive question. What could he tell her about Nsibidi, an old and often secret symbolic script?

His response was, ‘You should not be asking me about these evil things!’” Ms. Okorafor recalled.

Predictably, his chiding only fueled her curiosity. She learned everything she could about the script and, many years later, incorporated it into her fantasy books. “There’s a secretness that was really intriguing,” said Ms. Okorafor, who has a tattoo on her arm with Nsibidi symbols that means “story teller.”

Magic, ritual and secrecy are threads that run through Ms. Okorafor’s wildly imaginative young adult fantasy series, which features a head-spinning menagerie of otherworldly spirits and deities drawn from Nigerian myths and legends.

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The National Museum of African American History and Culture is the only national museum devoted exclusively to the documentation of African American life, history, and culture. It was established by Act of Congress in 2003, following decades of efforts to promote and highlight the contributions of African Americans. To date, the Museum has collected more than 36,000 artifacts and nearly 100,000 individuals have become charter members. The Museum opened to the public on September 24, 2016, as the 19th and newest museum of the Smithsonian Institution. (Website).