Excerpt from “Understanding Human Evolution from a Deconstructionist lens”, an essay

Octavia Butler, an African-American writer of novels such as Kindred and the Xenogenesis trilogy, rose to prominence as an author in the late 20th century due to her groundbreaking science fiction novels and approach to tackling complex topics such as racism, sexuality, and oppression (Schlib and Clifford 1113; "Octavia Butler” 00:00-03:01). Within the excerpt Human Evolution, taken from Butler’s novel Imago of the Xenogenesis trilogy, the reader follows the narrative from the perspective of Jodahs, an Oankali-Human hybrid, as they introduce themself to a pair of humans that are seeking temporary shelter on the Oankali planet while they wait for a shuttle to take them to the human Mars colony. Jodahs expresses a struggle to relate or find comfort in either side of their identity as a mixed species being, and experiences resistance from the humans after Jodahs attempts to convince them to stay on the Oankali planet. The humans and Oankali in Human Evolution view each other as opposite ends of two binaries, in regards to each species’ idea of what it means to be a human and to colonize, without realizing how similar their behaviors are, and the negative effects these binaries have on mixed-species characters like Jodahs.

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Congruent to examples of colonization throughout human history, the Oankali also seek to reproduce a similar power imbalance by stripping the humans of their agency. As noted by Lisa Dowdall in an essay titled “Treasured Strangers: Race, Biopolitics, and the Human in Octavia E. Butler's Xenogenesis Trilogy”, Butler has clear aims to compare the humans within the story to that of Black women in America during the early 20th century, who were targeted and had their right to reproduce forcefully taken from them (Dowdall 509). Simultaneously, during the era of American slavery, Black enslaved women were used by their oppressors to reproduce, only to have the offspring be used as well by their colonizers. Unlike Jodahs, their human mother Lilith was painfully aware of her plight as an African-American woman captured and forced into reproducing with the Oankali. Their pursuit towards non-consensual cross-breeding and control over the human population speaks to the long history of human enslavement. In this sense, the Oankali’s colonization elicits a portrayal of humanity at its most heinous. Unfortunately, for Jodahs, their life living mainly amongst other Oankali has led them to side more with the colonizing efforts of the Oankali. As a result, their humanity is essentially erased from their identity, in an attempt to metaphorically white-wash them and deny the complexities that come with being biracial.

This straddling of worlds leads Jodahs to experience the feelings and wants of two seemingly distinct species that, in the end, share more alike than not, that Butler intentionally uses to consider the racial imbalance through the lens of colonial reproduction and control over the lives and perceptions mixed race children have of their identity. Interracial citizens within an imperialist society muddy the waters when it comes to separating the colonizer from the colonized. Jodahs understands the plight of the humans, and stands to uphold a structure that simultaneously removes human autonomy while also perpetuating a cycle not too dissimilar from European colonialism within human societies long before the collapse of Earth. For the humans, Jodahs’ alliances with the Oankali as well as their mixed-species biology leads them to view Jodahs as other, and therefore non-human. For Lilith, despite being fully human, her stance as Black woman within the lens of a racialized society brings into consideration the ways in which women of color understand the experience of being othered.

Even when put in a position of powerlessness, the humans within Human Evolution remain steadfast in their traditional ideals and relation towards non-human entities. In contemporary society, this way of thinking helps those in positions of imperialist power impose strict binaries between who can and cannot have full autonomy. Reconsidering this mindset not only gives room for biracial—or mixed-species—people to connect with all parts of their identity, but also allows those with less agency the ability to redefine what it means to be human and hold value outside of something purely economic.