Fenuku in Remote Control: The Brother Who Awakened Sankofa's Power

Overview: The Brother Who Lit the Fuse of Sankofa's Power

Fenuku is Fatima's older brother in Nnedi Okorafor's Remote Control, a ten-year-old boy who appears only in the novel's opening chapters but whose influence echoes through the entire story. He is the catalyst for Fatima's discovery of her destructive green light, the witness to her transformation, and the first casualty of the power he helped awaken. Though he dies in the accident that erases Fatima's name and gives birth to Sankofa, Fenuku remains a haunting presence—his carved wooden birds, his dirty room, and his final cry of “Sister!” all resurface in Sankofa's memory as she wanders Ghana for years. Fenuku is not a complex, evolving character; he is a fixed point of origin, a brother whose love and curiosity set in motion a chain of events that isolates his sister and redefines her as a figure of death and mercy. His role is less about his own arc and more about how his actions and death shape Sankofa's identity, grief, and quest.

Plot Role: The Catalyst and the First Victim

Fenuku's primary plot function is to trigger Fatima's latent power. In Chapter 3, when seven-year-old Fatima feels an unusual heat on her skin, she seeks out her brother, who is playing football. He immediately recognizes the pattern: “First Fenuku had her grasp a wasp. It always started with a wasp.” He instructs her to catch wasps, observes her body flare with green light, and even suggests more extreme tests like putting pepper in her eyes. This experimentation is not malicious; it stems from a shared curiosity about the strange phenomenon. Fenuku is the only person who knows about Fatima's power before the accident, and he treats it as a puzzle to solve rather than a curse to fear.

The accident occurs when their father sends them to the market to buy cigarettes. As they cross the road, Fatima hesitates while watching a tanker, then runs, stumbles in a pothole, and is struck by a BMW. The impact throws her into the air, and when she hits the ground, green light bursts from her body, knocking everyone in the vicinity unconscious—including Fenuku, who had been running toward her. The text explicitly states that Fenuku dies in this event, along with their parents and the entire town of Wulugu. His death is not a separate incident; it is a direct consequence of the power he helped Fatima discover.

After the accident, Fenuku appears only in memory and symbol. Sankofa carries his broken Sankofa bird and his carved wooden owl in her satchel, and she recalls his dirty room and his love of cars. His death is the emotional core of her grief, and it fuels her determination to find the seed she believes caused everything. In Chapter 6, when she confronts the one-eyed man who stole the seed, she thinks, “Her parents dead. Her brother dead. Her entire town dead.” Fenuku's death is inseparable from her quest.

Motivations and Traits: Curiosity, Protectiveness, and Reckless Love

Fenuku's motivations are rooted in a child's curiosity and a brother's protectiveness. He is fascinated by Fatima's power and wants to understand it, even if his methods are painful. The text shows him pushing her to endure wasp stings, saying, “But how else can we find out?” This reveals a scientific bent, but also a lack of empathy for her pain—he treats her as a subject rather than a sister in those moments. Yet his protectiveness is evident when he runs toward her after the accident, screaming her name and crying—something he never did during the wasp tests. His final act is to call her “Sister!” for the first time, a term of endearment that underscores their bond.

Fenuku is also a typical older brother: he is annoyed when Fatima interrupts his football game, he gives her a stern look when she might tell their father about the wasps, and he teases her. But he is also playful and caring, as when he laughs with her after a particularly painful sting. His traits are those of a normal ten-year-old, which makes his death all the more tragic—he is an innocent casualty of a power he did not fully understand.

Chronological Arc: From Playful Brother to Posthumous Symbol

Fenuku's chronological arc is brief but impactful. He first appears in Chapter 3 as a boy playing football, then as the experimenter who helps Fatima trigger her power, then as the victim of that power. His death occurs on the same day, and he never appears again in the present timeline. However, his posthumous presence grows: Sankofa breaks his carved Sankofa bird, which becomes a symbol of her broken family; she carries his owl and the bird's pieces with her; and she remembers him in moments of despair. In Chapter 10, when she returns to Wulugu and buries the seed, she thinks of her family, and “the faces of her father, mother and brother shined brightly in her mind.” Fenuku's arc is thus a transformation from a living character to a memory that anchors Sankofa's identity.

Relationships: The Bond That Defines Sankofa's Grief

Fenuku's relationship with Fatima is the most significant in the novel, even though it is cut short. He is her guide into the unknown, the only person who shares her secret before the accident. Their bond is one of trust and shared curiosity, but also of sibling rivalry and affection. After his death, Sankofa's grief is compounded by guilt—she believes she killed him, along with everyone else. This guilt is a driving force behind her isolation and her later role as a mercy killer.

Fenuku also has relationships with their parents. Their father sends them on the errand that leads to the accident, and their mother is asleep at home when the green light hits. Fenuku's death is part of a family annihilation, and Sankofa's later interactions with other families—like the mother who asks her to end her son's suffering—are colored by her own loss.

Key Decisions and Consequences: The Wasp Test and the Fatal Crossing

Fenuku's key decisions are twofold: first, he decides to have Fatima grasp wasps to trigger her power, and second, he decides to cross the road first, leaving Fatima to follow. The first decision directly enables the second: without the wasp tests, Fatima might not have been so attuned to her heat, and the accident might have unfolded differently. The second decision is more circumstantial—Fatima's hesitation is due to her daydreaming about tankers, not Fenuku's choice—but his position on the other side of the road makes him a witness to her death and then a victim of her power.

The consequences are catastrophic: Fenuku dies, as do their parents and the entire town. Fatima loses her name and becomes Sankofa. She spends years tracking the seed, and her power becomes both a curse and a tool. Fenuku's decisions, made with the best intentions, lead to the novel's central tragedy.

Theme and Symbol Connections: The Sankofa Bird and the Burden of Grief

Fenuku is intimately tied to the novel's themes of grief, identity loss, and the isolating burden of destructive power. His carved Sankofa bird—a symbol of looking back to move forward—is broken by Fatima after the accident, representing the shattered family and her inability to reconcile her past. The bird's name, Sankofa, becomes her new identity, a constant reminder of the brother who carved it and the home she lost.

Fenuku also embodies the theme of stories and myths. He is part of the folk tale that grows around Sankofa—the child born to dead parents, raised by Death. His death is a foundational event that fuels the myth. In Chapter 10, Sankofa resents the story that her parents abandoned her, but she cannot escape the narrative that includes Fenuku's death.

Finally, Fenuku's role as the one who awakened her power connects to the theme of surveillance and corporate exploitation. The seed that caused her power was stolen by a politician and given to LifeGen, and Fenuku's death is an indirect result of that theft. His loss is thus tied to the larger forces of greed and exploitation that Sankofa later confronts.

Five Questions and Answers

1. How does Fenuku help Fatima discover her power?

Fenuku has Fatima grasp wasps to trigger her latent ability. He observes her body flare with green light and encourages her to repeat the experiment, even suggesting more painful tests. This is the first time Fatima consciously activates her power, and Fenuku is the only witness.

2. What is the immediate consequence of Fenuku's death?

Fenuku dies in the green light burst that follows Fatima's accident. This event also kills their parents and the entire town of Wulugu, and causes Fatima to forget her name. She later adopts the name Sankofa, and the loss of her family becomes the driving force of her quest.

3. What does the broken Sankofa bird symbolize?

The bird, carved by Fenuku, represents the family and home that Sankofa loses. When she breaks it after the accident, it symbolizes the irreparable damage to her life and her identity. She carries the pieces with her, and the bird's name becomes her new identity, linking her to her brother's memory.

4. How does Fenuku's relationship with Fatima contrast with her later isolation?

Before the accident, Fenuku is Fatima's confidant and experiment partner; they share a secret and a bond. After his death, Sankofa is utterly alone, traveling with only a fox and a cat. The contrast highlights the isolating burden of her power—she can no longer trust anyone, and the one person who understood her is gone.

5. Why is Fenuku's final cry of “Sister!” significant?

Fenuku never calls Fatima “sister” before the accident; he uses her name. His cry in the moment of crisis is a sign of his deep love and desperation, and it is the last word she hears from him. It underscores the intimacy of their bond and makes his death even more devastating, as it is the first and only time he uses that term of endearment.

For further exploration of how Fenuku's death shapes Sankofa's journey, see the analysis of the isolating burden of destructive power, identity loss and reinvention, and grief, loss, and the search for home. You can also revisit the ending explained to see how Sankofa finally confronts her brother's memory, or browse questions and answers for more insights.