Death of the Author

The novel that catalyzes Zelu’s character arc is a motif for the theme of Asserting the Agency of People With Disabilities. Okorafor uses metafictional techniques to delve into the text of Zelu’s work and show how it reflects her inner conflict as a person with paraplegia.

Rusted Robots is about the dichotomy between the presence and absence of body, or the issue of embodiment, which is central to Zelu’s journey. Zelu’s relatives often make her feel that her disability makes her “less” of a person. As the novel reflects, however, Zelu’s body and its capacity to feel also make her human. Through her experiences, Zelu comes to see more fully that her disability is not a hindrance to living, a perspective shift that she shares with her family. By engaging with science and technology, Zelu comes into contact with tools that augment her body, and her fans see her “becoming” her robotic character, Ankara. At the premiere of the Rusted Robots film adaptation, Zelu is referred to as the “African cyborg” by the media, though Zelu resents the idea because it undermines the attempt to normalize public perception of her disability.

Rusted Robots also represents a breakthrough in Zelu’s ability to use storytelling as a tool for living. Previously, Zelu had used writing as a tool to seek approval. The novel that Zelu wrote before Rusted Robots was her attempt at mimicking the writers who had influenced her through college. Once she has lost her job and failed to find a publisher, Zelu abandons her need for validation and writes a novel that aligns precisely with the way she feels about her life as a person with paraplegia. The success that she enjoys after finishing the novel represents an affirmation of her agency, rewarding her for speaking her truth for the very first time.