"The Okeke people have the skin color of the night because they were created before the day. They were the first. Later, after much had happened, the Nuru arrived. They came from the stars and that's why their skin is the color of the sun. These names must have been agreed upon during peaceful times, for it was well known that the Okeke were born to be slaves of the Nuru. Long ago during the Old Africa era, they had done something terrible causing Ani to put this duty on their backs. It is written in the Great Book."

Onyesonwu was severely limited. Being a product of rape, she was labeled as an “Ewu,” which is used to describe those born of violence. These children and people are demonized and persecuted by others because they are believed to only beget more destruction. Almost every person perceives Onyesonwu as an evil, untrustworthy, unstable person who should be avoided, or killed. When Onyesonwu attempts to find a teacher for her in “juju,” her inner power, she is rejected by elders and sorcerers on the basis that she is “Ewu,” and a woman. 

Okorafor incorporates patriarchal tendencies in this work as men are perceived to be more capable and competent than women. Often comments made by men in the novel reflect a sense of superiority that hinders Onyesonwu in her journey to save an infinite amount of lives. Having to confront the matter of her existence in almost every interpersonal interaction and relationship, Onyesonwu defies the logic of her society and aims to fulfill the prophecy of rewriting the reality that plagues Africa in the novel. 

Prophecy, religion, faith, and mysticism play a heavy role in the ethnic conflict and cleansing in the region. The narratives that antagonize Okeke people to the Nuru were espoused in “The Great Book,” a religious artifact that is the source of the belief systems of a wide sector of people in this society. Religious fanaticism is an intriguing phenomena that takes form in many surprising ways. Additionally, mysticism lends itself to some wondrous and disturbing fantastical elements such as a wise, white sorcerer found in the middle of a desert storm.

Religious elements also meet cultural ones in an uncomfortable way in the novel. Consensual female circumcision is a massive part of the novel and affects many characters on the journey to rewrite the great book. 

Rooted in a cultural context, the inclusion of this phenomena subtly illuminates how femininity is understood when juxtaposed with masculinity, in the absence of male circumcision. Often, critiques are levied at any practices surrounding circumcision in the Global South that lend itself to cultural imperialist narratives and sentiments. The West imposes its own conceptualization of patriarchy and projects it onto those that stand on and in other cultural contexts. 

The novel subverts this not by having characters separate themselves or alienate themselves from said culture, but grounds the practice in cultural tradition. It doesn’t trivialize or rehabilitate the image and perception of the practice. The novel doesn’t valorize tradition in any way. Room is given for this practice to exist without it being understood as an oppressive, patriarchal practice, as in a Western context. 

"All of me was destroyed. I was dead, broken, scattered, and absorbed. It was a thousand times worse than when I first changed into a bird. I remember nothing because I was nothing. Then I was something. I could feel it. I was being put back together, bit by bit. What was doing this? No, it was not Ani. It was not a goddess. It was cold, if it could be cold."