Review: ‘The Tiny Things Are Heavier' is a reflection on young adulthood and migration
Okonkwo's debut novel is at turns amusing and heartbreaking as it follows Sommy, a Nigerian graduate student trying to navigate her new life in Iowa. Lonesome and homesick, Sommy tries to fit in as she studies for her master's degree, eventually befriending several other women in their 20s and engaging in a complicated sexual relationship with her gregarious Nigerian roommate, Bayo.
Through it all, Sommy is haunted by guilt over her brother Mezie's attempted suicide just two weeks before she left her homeland for the United States. She's also frustrated that Mezie answers her frequent phone calls and text messages with silence, leaving her to wonder what he's thinking and where their relationship stands.
Okonkwo astutely captures the awkwardness and insecurities of a young woman from any country or culture starting an independent life as an adult. She also shows how relationships with family members can change when young people reach adulthood and head out on their own.
While still involved with Bayo, Sommy falls for Bryan, who was born to a white mother and a Nigerian father he never knew. After Sommy carries out her deceit for some time, Bayo eventually learns that his roommate is now with someone else and leaves deeply hurt.
Bryan and Sommy form a serious relationship and make plans to visit Nigeria so he can track down his father.
When they finally make the trip, Bryan's quest to finally know his dad turns out to be highly disappointing. Sommy has some luck connecting with her brother, but she sees him with different eyes now that she's an adult.
An unexpected tragedy during the Nigeria visit suddenly changes everyone's future forever.
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'If those jobs then become obsolete, at some point this makes the industry a bit elitist … you don't have the same entry window that you do now,' argued Masilakhe Njomane, a junior research fellow at the South African Cultural Observatory and co-author of a recent report on AI's impact on South Africa's creative industries. 'In an economy like South Africa it's detrimental, as we already have a lot of trouble with job security as a whole, especially in the creative and cultural industry,' she added. While Triggerfish has not used AI-generated art, Forrest said, employees have used GitHub Copilot, an AI-powered coding assistant, to help them generate code for the past couple of years, noticeably speeding up their output. He conceded 'AI initially might eliminate some roles, but it will enable other roles.' On the other hand, Njomane pointed to AI creating opportunities for independent studios to play a bigger role in content creation. 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'I think art is always assimilating – I mean, Raphael was assimilating Michelangelo and Leonardo. It's always been about looking at what people are doing and saying, 'How can I being my perspective to this?' 'It's acceptable if humans do it. But the question is how acceptable is it when it's done by machines? Ultimately, I think the controversy will wear off.' Having creative control over your data inputs could have other benefits: namely, helping eliminate bias. Racial bias in AIs is well documented, from facial recognition technology recording much higher error rates among dark-skinned people than light-skinned, to large language models perpetuating negative stereotypes against speakers of African American English. Such 'techno-racism' extends into generative AI: artist Stephanie Dinkins even produced an exhibition out of AI's inability to accurately depict Black women. Okoye says in the past, some AIs have generated either generic or inaccurate imagery when prompted to create African characters. 'The only solution is to go local, create your characters, train your own model,' she reiterated. As for why AIs fall short, Forrest said that 'there is so little existing African content – especially in animation – that there is a lot less for (an AI) to understand.' Njomane pointed to AIs performing better in English and other Western languages, adding many often generate generic imagery of Africa. 'It's not being programmed with (Africans) in mind or even consulting them at all. And that's a huge problem.' Okoye outlined a dream scenario in which development funds or angel investors back studios to create diverse African characters and culturally specific assets to train an AI model. That would generate a library of accurate, free-to-access imagery, which can serve as a foundation for animators to build on in a way that allows them to assert their copyright. Amid a boom in African animation, animators will need all the tools they can get, as studios look to replicate the success of series like 'Iwájú' and 'Iyanu' – Nigerian projects streaming on Disney+ and HBO Max respectively, signposting growing international appetite for Afro-centric storytelling. Despite the ongoing ethical kinks, Okoye remains optimistic. But as someone who once worked as a typesetter alongside colleagues worried for their careers with the arrival of the personal computer, she also understands people's concerns. 'Coming from (being) a typesetter to somebody who's training AI models – how beautiful,' she said. 'What a great time to be alive.'
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