afrofuturism resistance

8/15/2019 Afrofuturism Resistance

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http://www.dazeddigital.com/artsandculture/article/28271/1/race-is-the-space-

afrofuturism-is-all-about-now

Ever noticed how few black characters there are in sci-fi flicks? How those that do exist are sidekicks,

baddies or set up to die? How the attitude towards space exploration is markedly similar to colonisation?

That the robots are almost always slaves to human masters? (no wonder they end up coming after us in

the other handful of narratives How economic and racial ine!ualities either magically become non-issues

or are aggravated even more while everyone remains nonplussed?

These are some of the !uestions that "frofuturist writers, artists and filmmakers from #hiladelphia to

$agos, %otterdam to &airo and beyond are highlighting, inspired by the likes of interstellar 'a

musician )un %a (famous for )pace is the #lace, and black feminist sci-fi writer *ctavia +utler +y using

science fiction to unpack hard-hitting social issues, these voices are saying we need more intersectional

visions of the future that include all races, genders, sexualities, species and religions that make up

humanity

APOCALYPSE NOW

hat is different to traditional science fiction is that "frofuturism generally doesn.t play out in the distant

abstract future but is set in the impending present "fter all, technology-wise we.re living in the future that

many of us grew up reading about / except for the flying cars 0any are also living the proverbial

apocalypse 1rom the terrorist attacks in #aris, +eirut, +urundi and +aghdad to the earth!uakes in 2apan

and 0exico, and the continued need for "mericans to be reminded that 3+lacklivesmatter, how much

more catastrophic does it need to get before we agree that it.s time to reimagine our collective future?

That.s not to ignore the lived experience of everyday domestic apocalypses such as sexual abuse and

violence This is what #hiladelphia-based social worker %as 0ashramani and lawyer %asheedah

#hillips translate into "frofuturist fiction "long with musician and writer &amae 4efstara aka 0other 0oor

5oddess, the three women spread their work through photocopied ines that deal with issues like

gentrification using the space invader metaphor, and domestic and sexual abuse through the lens of alien

abductions

http://www.dazeddigital.com/artsandculture/article/28271/1/race-is-the-space-afrofuturism-is-all-about-nowhttp://www.dazeddigital.com/artsandculture/article/28271/1/race-is-the-space-afrofuturism-is-all-about-nowhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_Rahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octavia_E._Butlerhttp://rasmashramani.tumblr.com/http://rasmashramani.tumblr.com/http://rasmashramani.tumblr.com/http://www.amazon.com/Rasheedah-Phillips/e/B00J9WMKNA/ref=dp_byline_cont_book_1http://www.amazon.com/Rasheedah-Phillips/e/B00J9WMKNA/ref=dp_byline_cont_book_1http://mmgzmmgz.tumblr.com/http://mmgzmmgz.tumblr.com/http://mmgzmmgz.tumblr.com/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_Rahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octavia_E._Butlerhttp://rasmashramani.tumblr.com/http://www.amazon.com/Rasheedah-Phillips/e/B00J9WMKNA/ref=dp_byline_cont_book_1http://www.amazon.com/Rasheedah-Phillips/e/B00J9WMKNA/ref=dp_byline_cont_book_1http://mmgzmmgz.tumblr.com/http://mmgzmmgz.tumblr.com/http://www.dazeddigital.com/artsandculture/article/28271/1/race-is-the-space-afrofuturism-is-all-about-nowhttp://www.dazeddigital.com/artsandculture/article/28271/1/race-is-the-space-afrofuturism-is-all-about-now


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Rasheedah Phillips


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Ras Mashramani

BACK TO THE FUTURE

1or many, along with the one in nine people in the world that go hungry every single day, even the notion

of thinking about a future beyond the existing apocalypse / their next meal / is a provocation Here

#hillips, also the founder of the "frofuturist "ffair , proposes revisionist historical narratives that recast

people of colour, women and $5+T6 people as heroes of their own destiny

http://afrofuturistaffair.tumblr.com/http://afrofuturistaffair.tumblr.com/http://afrofuturistaffair.tumblr.com/http://afrofuturistaffair.tumblr.com/


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6n mainstream sci-fi, the time-travel paradox / in which changing something in the past might erase your

very existence / trips up any attempt at changing history However, says #hillips, this is a linear sense of

time in which we are all slaves to the clock 6n Black Quantum Futurism, she bends space and time in

order to see into alternative futures

http://blackquantumfuturism.tumblr.com/http://blackquantumfuturism.tumblr.com/http://blackquantumfuturism.tumblr.com/http://blackquantumfuturism.tumblr.com/


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TECHNOLOGY WON’T SAVE US

7nlike the externally imposed estern sense of time, an "frican sense of time is innately human and 8it.s

time9 when everyone gets there Egyptian graphic novelist )herif "del stretched time in his satirical

depiction of &airo in :,;;; years )poiler< he reckons it will be about the same / one giant traffic 'am Thisdystopian future expresses the disappointment following the "rab )pring revolution euphoria when mobile

messaging technology was heralded as a rallying cry for the masses to bring down every corrupt state

"nd then the dust settled and the same people were still in power, only worse than before

6t is for this reason that novelists such as =igerian-"merican =nedi *korafor is addressing political

complexity with magical realism, best seen in Who Fears Death, winner of the orld 1antasy "ward for

+est =ovel This year she published the pre!uel, The Book of Phoenix The books engage with issues of

ethnicity, female genital mutilation, gender e!uality and coloniation

https://www.behance.net/barbatozehttps://www.behance.net/barbatozehttp://nnedi.com/http://nnedi.com/http://nnedi.com/https://www.behance.net/barbatozehttp://nnedi.com/


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The work of Egyptian graphic novelist Sherif AdelSherif Adel


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Sherif Adel

EUROPA EUROPA

&harl $andvreugd.s 0ovement =r >< 4estination 6nner )pace looks at a future vision of art in which a

black body can talk about humanity in general, not 'ust ethnicity He says that he is from %otterdam and

the city is his home, but he has multiple homes, as with increasingly more people, regardless of ethnicity,

impacted by migration 8Through the black body 6.m trying to give a glimpse of us in the future9

86 see the urgency of "frofuturism for %otterdam as a postcolonial, multiethnic city with a strong presence

of the black diaspora 6t is the speculative and non-white vision that this city needs, against the currently

dystopian rule driven by angst-ridden white nostalgia,9 1lorian &ramer , says +ecause of its experimental

46 countercultural avant garde !uality, &ramer places "frofuturism in the same realm as the punk,1luxus, hacker and netart movements 86t@s like being in $ondon in :ABB and witnessing the beginnings of

punk9

)till, "frofuturists are slim on the ground in Europe when compared to the 7) and "frica However, as the

neoconservative hatches come down in response to terrorism, there has never been a better time< what

we know from punk is that fascism fuels counterculture The time is now to make 3+lackfuturesmatter

http://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2015/02/27/38753385/this-month-and-

e!er"-month-blac#-sci-$-writers-loo#-to-the-future

Author %te!en 'arnes vividly remembers attending science fiction conventions when

he first started in the field 30 years ago: "For almost 20 years, as far as I could tell, I was

the only black male science fiction writer in the world," he says !he legendary %amuel

(. )elan", whod written science fiction classics like Nova and )halgren, had left the

field, #arnes says, because it had become im$ossible for him to make a living there%

those early conventions were distinctly unwelcoming to nonwhite voices

https://landvreugd.wordpress.com/https://landvreugd.wordpress.com/https://landvreugd.wordpress.com/2015/11/02/movt-nr-8-destination-inner-space/https://twitter.com/florian_cramerhttps://twitter.com/florian_cramerhttp://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2015/02/27/387533895/this-month-and-every-month-black-sci-fi-writers-look-to-the-futurehttp://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2015/02/27/387533895/this-month-and-every-month-black-sci-fi-writers-look-to-the-futurehttp://www.lifewrite.com/http://www.lifewrite.com/https://www.facebook.com/samuelrdelanyhttps://www.facebook.com/samuelrdelanyhttp://www.npr.org/2014/01/05/258691287/when-modernism-met-science-fiction-three-new-wave-classicshttps://landvreugd.wordpress.com/https://landvreugd.wordpress.com/2015/11/02/movt-nr-8-destination-inner-space/https://twitter.com/florian_cramerhttp://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2015/02/27/387533895/this-month-and-every-month-black-sci-fi-writers-look-to-the-futurehttp://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2015/02/27/387533895/this-month-and-every-month-black-sci-fi-writers-look-to-the-futurehttp://www.lifewrite.com/https://www.facebook.com/samuelrdelanyhttps://www.facebook.com/samuelrdelanyhttp://www.npr.org/2014/01/05/258691287/when-modernism-met-science-fiction-three-new-wave-classics


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)halgren

bySamuel R. Delany

*aperbac#+ 801 pages

purchase

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"I had black friends in the field who would not talk about how they really felt to their white friends because they were afraid of losing their friendshi$," says #arnes, whosescience fiction bona&fides are e'tensive and hard&earned% he has $ublished over two

do(en novels and written for shows like Stargate SG-1 andThe Outer imits )es a

black man who has dedicated his life to this genre, but, he says, "It can be very $ainful inthe nerd tribe"

I get that *onventions in the world of science fiction and fantasy have an intensity andoutsi(ed im$ortance that strangers to the genre can find $u((ling +early 30 years after#arnes first e'$eriences, I attended the orld Fantasy *onvention in *algary, Alberta,

http://www.npr.org/books/titles/258694839/dhalgrenhttp://www.npr.org/books/authors/258694846/samuel-r-delanyhttp://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2015/02/27/387533895/this-month-and-every-month-black-sci-fi-writers-look-to-the-futurehttp://www.npr.org/books/titles/258694839/dhalgrenhttp://www.npr.org/books/authors/258694846/samuel-r-delanyhttp://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2015/02/27/387533895/this-month-and-every-month-black-sci-fi-writers-look-to-the-future


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with writer ,.. emisin -who went on to write the much&

acclaimed nheritance trilogy. /y first novel had ust been $ublished !he whiteness

of this su$$osedly "world" gathering felt a little e'treme, but nothing I hadnt e'$ected

#ut then it got odder /ulti$le strangers a$$roached me to ask if Id found my friends

earlier that day I $anicked, thinking I had forgotten some ac1uaintance !hat night, when I returned to my hotel room, emisin started to com$lain about having had a hardtime finding her breakfast com$anions !he $ieces clicked, and we stared at each other

in horror: !hey all thought we were the same $erson e look nothing alike #ut we were black women, and all too often in our community, thats enough

I do not know of a single black 4F writer who has not e'$erienced this /emorably,

emisin was once mistaken for the great cta!ia . 'utler 5 two years after her death

!hese are degrading e'$eriences that stri$ away our humanity and achievements, yetre1uire no malice on the $art of those making these mistakes -and not ust in $erson 5 a

maor maga(ine in the field once $rinted a convention re$ort mistaking me forndrea

airston. #ut the trick of institutional racism is that it re1uires no malice, only

com$lacency

!his might make it sound as if the situation is dire for black writers of 4F #ut as

frustrating as the $lague of mistaken identities is, I cant hel$ but take some comfort init hen 6elany was dominating the field, he was the only black male writer of hisgeneration For decades #utlers arresting, mind&bending, diverse visions of the future

were the brilliant but singular offerings of a black female voice In other words, for years

they didnt have to tell us a$art because we were never more than a handful

For years they didn't have to tell us apart because we were never more than a handful. But what's

happening now? There are more black writers of science fiction than there have ever been.

#ut whats ha$$ening now7 !here are more black writers of science fiction than therehave ever been 8very year more of us debut to wider acclaim, find ourselves regularly

on genre awards lists for the first time, and e'$erience the $leasure of seeing more andmore diverse faces at conventions !he black community has always embraced science

fiction 5 the famous )ar# 4atteranthologies, edited by 4heree 9 !homas, included a

work of s$eculative fiction from 8# 6u #ois And now science fiction has, I think,finally been forced to recogni(e us

#ut our rise to $rominence 5 which can seem sudden if you havent been aware of the

dee$ currents of science fictional imagination that have ri$$led through the blackcommunity for more than a century 5 also brings out dormant hostility In his article"9acism in 4cience Fiction," $ublished in the ;;0s, 6elany $redicted the current

backlash that can make it easy to dismiss 4F as more racist than other fields -it isnt.

http://nkjemisin.com/http://nkjemisin.com/http://apps.npr.org/best-books-2014/#/book/the-inheritance-trilogyhttp://www.npr.org/books/authors/138055308/octavia-e-butlerhttp://www.npr.org/books/authors/138055308/octavia-e-butlerhttp://www.andreahairston.com/http://www.andreahairston.com/http://www.strangehorizons.com/2009/20090216/brissett-a.shtmlhttp://nkjemisin.com/http://apps.npr.org/best-books-2014/#/book/the-inheritance-trilogyhttp://www.npr.org/books/authors/138055308/octavia-e-butlerhttp://www.andreahairston.com/http://www.andreahairston.com/http://www.strangehorizons.com/2009/20090216/brissett-a.shtml


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As long as there are only one or two black writers, 6elany wrote, he doesnt e'$ect to

e'$erience much overt racial hostility in a field where $eo$le $ride themselves on theirliberal values #ut thats only "until, say, black writers start to number thirteen, fifteen,twenty $ercent of the total At that $oint, where the com$etition might be $erceived as

having some economic heft, chances are we will have as much racism and $reudice here

as in any other field"

Here we are, a force for once in numbers as well as talent (we always had that), spinning visions of

futures where our existence is not just a token nod to diversity, but fundamental to our understanding

of the world.

+early 20years later, that $reudice abounds: hitewashed covers, hostile dismissals of

"identity $olitics" and "$olitical correctness" as a barely veiled attem$t to silence us, all& white $anels on diversity, all&white anthologies of "the best" science fiction andcontinual institutional barriers to traditional $ublication based on a$$eals to

marketability that really reflect the $ublishing houses disbelief in the $ower and a$$ealof black storytelling

And yet here we are, a force for once in numbers as well as talent -we always had that.,

s$inning visions of futures where our e'istence is not ust a token nod to diversity, butfundamental to our understanding of the world "I think that we are in a transitional ageright now and are una$ologetically staking out a $lace to create visions of a future that

includes us," says ennifer 4arie 'rissett, whose debut novel !lysium was recently

nominated for the


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MUSIC ARTICLES

'Electric Lady' Janelle Monae On Creating The Unheard

!o the e'tent that science fiction is the literature of ideas, of $lausible futurism, of

e'tra$olation from social trends that can hel$ us locate ourselves better in the $resent, we have hel$ed to make science fiction more relevant than ever Afrofuturism was ahugely im$ortant $henomenon in the black community, but >eorge *linton or 4un 9anever got invited to a orld 4cience Fiction *onvention ?ast year, the groundbreaking

musical artist anelle /onae, whose work is strongly ins$ired by afrofuturism, received

an honorable mention for the $restigious !i$tree Award for her album he lectric

6ad" !he lines are converging% we are rewriting our futures

)ar# 4atter

A *entury of 4$eculative Fiction from the African 6ias$ora

bySheree R. Thomas

ardco!er+ 27 pages

http://www.npr.org/series/100920965/music-articles/http://www.npr.org/2013/09/07/218617976/electric-lady-janelle-monae-on-creating-the-unheardhttp://www.npr.org/2013/09/07/218617976/electric-lady-janelle-monae-on-creating-the-unheardhttp://www.npr.org/2013/09/07/218617976/electric-lady-janelle-monae-on-creating-the-unheardhttp://www.npr.org/books/titles/388462396/dark-matter-a-century-of-speculative-fiction-from-the-african-diasporahttp://www.npr.org/books/authors/388462402/sheree-r-thomashttp://www.npr.org/series/100920965/music-articles/http://www.npr.org/2013/09/07/218617976/electric-lady-janelle-monae-on-creating-the-unheardhttp://www.npr.org/2013/09/07/218617976/electric-lady-janelle-monae-on-creating-the-unheardhttp://www.npr.org/2013/09/07/218617976/electric-lady-janelle-monae-on-creating-the-unheardhttp://www.npr.org/books/titles/388462396/dark-matter-a-century-of-speculative-fiction-from-the-african-diasporahttp://www.npr.org/books/authors/388462402/sheree-r-thomas


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purchase

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"For me, science fiction is the state of being black on the $lanet," says anthology editor

4heree 9 !homas "?iving, observing, e'$loring what it means to be human in timesand s$aces that clearly devalue that humanity" !he current $ublic struggles in the 4Fcommunity are "ust a natural $art of the $rocess of allowing more voices to s$eak in a

genre that has long claimed to be the haven for e'$loring the im$ossible and theuns$eakable"

#ut what science fiction likes to imagine of itself has long been at odds with reality4teven #arnes says that while science fiction writers were no worse than those of other

genres, "they had the hallucination that they were better" *anadian writer 4inister

aust grew u$ loving traditional 4F worlds, "and only later came to understand how

thoroughly 8urocentric and often im$erialist they were" If science fiction is a literatureof ideas, it is also one of myths 5 and it is this central role of myth&making that #arnesfeels is $articularly im$ortant to black writers "#lack Americans have more of a need of

that than anybody Its im$ortant that stories are created about us where were fullyfleshed human beings"

And if no one else will, then we have to be the first,nedi #orafor, whose science

fiction novels include "ho #ears Death and agoon, has won and been nominated

for some of the most $restigious awards in the field 4he is a +igerian&American, and it

was not her reading, but her cultural heritage that led her to see the $otential of thegenre "I noticed the future ha$$ening in +igeria in a way that was not being reflected in

literature, science fiction or otherwise" And so she imagined it herself

!o as$iring writers, even ust one role model can give us the confidence to write in our

own voices Author obias %. 'uc#ell recalls that when he began to write novels, "ust

knowing that ,alo op#inson was writing science fiction infused with the *aribbean

granted me a dee$ strength to write e'actly what I wanted to write"

It's important that stories are created about us where we're fully fleshed human beings.

/inister Faust

%herri 6. %mith came to the genre after several mainstream novels, and her Orleans is

one of the very few young adult science fiction works with black main characters "If this

is a golden age of black science fiction, I ho$e its ust the beginning," she says "Id liketo be on the vanguard of something rich and wonderful, and I think we are ust gettingstarted"

http://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2015/02/27/387533895/this-month-and-every-month-black-sci-fi-writers-look-to-the-futurehttp://www.ministerfaust.com/http://www.ministerfaust.com/http://www.ministerfaust.com/http://nnedi.com/http://www.tobiasbuckell.com/http://www.tobiasbuckell.com/http://www.npr.org/2013/03/21/174140238/mojo-music-and-semi-divine-sibling-rivalry-in-sister-minehttp://www.sherrilsmith.com/http://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2015/02/27/387533895/this-month-and-every-month-black-sci-fi-writers-look-to-the-futurehttp://www.ministerfaust.com/http://www.ministerfaust.com/http://nnedi.com/http://www.tobiasbuckell.com/http://www.npr.org/2013/03/21/174140238/mojo-music-and-semi-divine-sibling-rivalry-in-sister-minehttp://www.sherrilsmith.com/


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I think shes right, but theres a $art of me that feels a little too aded for com$lete

o$timism Andrea )airston 5 an academic, a $laywright, a novelist and !i$tree Award winner -who doesnt look like me. 5 echoes that sense of caution: "I still dont see agolden age ha$$ening with the larger $ublishing houses" Institutional barriers are high

and hard to break down, not the least because the individuals who build them dont see

anything wrong

!wo years ago, += emisin wondered wh" no one spends time focusing on

blac#futures as well as blac# histor" during this shortest month of the "ear

4he wondered if shed s$ent too many years swallowing all&white, "bi(arro&world versions of humanity, and they have become a to'in $oisoning my imagination" #ut

anelle /onae 5 that afrofuturist electric lady, "is a tiny, fast&footed, $om$adourdantidote to all of that"

And so is emisin herself, and 4amuel 9 6elany and @ctavia 8 #utler and 8# 6u

#ois and the other few do(en of us who have come 5 remarkably, im$robably 5 intoliterary s$aces once so comfortably white and who have sat down, and who have ust begun to s$eak

http://h"perallergic.com/5790/the-da"s-of-future-past-afrofuturism-and-blac#-

memor"/

When you walk into the main gallery of the Studio Museum in Harlem’s current

exhibitionThe Shadows Took Shape, which explores contemporary art through the lens

of Afrofuturist aesthetics, one of the first pieces to catch the eye is a glittering

procession of black astronauts fanned across a faded landscape. They appear awed

and estranged by their surroundings, carrying a wooden coffin along their wide-eyed

way. Having cleared a ravine, above them stands a figure on a rock cliff, his hands

outspread to the sky, like Moses parting the red sea for the chosen people. As you take

in David Huffman’s aptly titled “MLK,” you dare to dream,have these marooned

spacemen finally reached the promised land?

Hack this: What are wereally talking about when we talk about Afrofuturism —

a term of art that’s made the rounds since its introduction by author and

cultural critic Mark Dery in his seminal essay “Black to the Future”? According

to Dery, it is “speculative fiction that treats African American concerns in the

http://nkjemisin.com/2013/09/how-long-til-black-future-monthhttp://nkjemisin.com/2013/09/how-long-til-black-future-monthhttp://nkjemisin.com/2013/09/how-long-til-black-future-monthhttp://nkjemisin.com/2013/09/how-long-til-black-future-monthhttp://hyperallergic.com/95760/the-days-of-future-past-afrofuturism-and-black-memory/http://hyperallergic.com/95760/the-days-of-future-past-afrofuturism-and-black-memory/http://www.studiomuseum.org/exhibition/the-shadows-took-shapehttp://www.detritus.net/contact/rumori/200211/0319.htmlhttp://nkjemisin.com/2013/09/how-long-til-black-future-monthhttp://nkjemisin.com/2013/09/how-long-til-black-future-monthhttp://hyperallergic.com/95760/the-days-of-future-past-afrofuturism-and-black-memory/http://hyperallergic.com/95760/the-days-of-future-past-afrofuturism-and-black-memory/http://www.studiomuseum.org/exhibition/the-shadows-took-shapehttp://www.detritus.net/contact/rumori/200211/0319.html


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context of twentieth-century techno-culture.” In fact, with the proliferation of

authors and visual and musical artists embracing the aesthetics of the genre

— which Dery illustrates with a deluge of references from Octavia Butler’s

science fiction, to the “robotic synth-pop” ofAfrika Bambaataa, it’s clear that

that’s just the tip of the intergalactic iceberg.

Janelle Monáe, The ArchAndroid (image viaWikipedia )

Today, we need look no further than talented musician and all around Electric

LadyJanelle Monáe, who, on her concept albumThe ArchAndroid, assumes

the identity of a fictional android named Cindi Mayweather circa 2719, and to

television characterizations like theWalking Dead’sMichonne — the

dreadlocked, katana-wielding survivor of a zombie apocalypse, played by

Dania Guriri — to see that no longer is “the science fiction genre …dominated

by white male writers and readers,” or characters for that matter, as Elisa

Edwards observes in the introduction toRace, Aliens, and the U.S

Government in African American Science Fiction.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afrika_Bambaataahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Janelle_Mon%C3%A1e_-_The_ArchAndroid_album_cover.jpghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janelle_Mon%C3%A1ehttp://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/3643900902/hyperallergic-20http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/3643900902/hyperallergic-20http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afrika_Bambaataahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Janelle_Mon%C3%A1e_-_The_ArchAndroid_album_cover.jpghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janelle_Mon%C3%A1ehttp://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/3643900902/hyperallergic-20http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/3643900902/hyperallergic-20


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In the Studio Museum’s timely show, inspired by jazz musician and cosmic

philosopher Sun Ra, who held that he’d been abducted to the planet Saturn

where he’d had a prophetic vision of the future, we can trace the genre’s

evolution, influences and themes. And Huffman’s “MLK” offers the perfect

entry point for this exploration as it establishes one of the key elements of the

genre, insisting that we not only boldly imagine the future, but grapple, at

every turn, with the ever-present past.

This reflection on the past as a function of the future can also be seen in the

work of Sanford Biggers, whose beautiful, psychedelic quilt work in “Vex” is

disrupted by the trace outline of the famous photo “The Scourged Back,”depicting the scarred back of a slave. Similarly, and in keeping with

Afrofuturism’s cross disciplinary influence, sci-fi author Otavia Butler’s perhaps

most well-known work of speculative fiction,Kindred, centers on the time-

travel odyssey of Edana, a black woman living in 1970’s California who is

transported, on her 26th birthday, back to the antebellum south.

http://metmuseum.org/exhibitions/view?exhibitionId=%7B9400f95d-89a4-4920-a05e-46ee3cedc9c0%7D&oid=302544&ft=*&fe=1http://metmuseum.org/exhibitions/view?exhibitionId=%7B9400f95d-89a4-4920-a05e-46ee3cedc9c0%7D&oid=302544&ft=*&fe=1


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Sanford Biggers, “Vex”

That one of the hallmarks of Afrofuturism is a reification of past trauma is

consistent with the argument that Edwards puts forth, that, in many ways, the

experience of African Diasporic communities is essentially one of alienation,

where by black people have “already experienced a sort of science fiction

story when they first came to America. Here, the slave trade is “interpreted in

terms of an alien abduction.”


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It would, however, be misrepresentative to assert that the scope Afrofuturism’s

understanding of the past as essential to conceptualizing the future — an

approach in tension with neoliberal visions of a post-racial society proffered by

our Obama-era geopolitical landscape — is limited to the African American

experience.

The same analysis can be clearly seen in the dreamy photographs of Christina

De Middel, portraying African men outfitted in DIY space travel accessories

that reference the more recent, if largely forgotten history of Zambia’s short

lived space program. Started by Makuka Nkolso in 1968, the Zambian space

program aimed to put the first African on the moon during a time when Zambiawas seeking its independence, linking space exploration to the cultivation of a

newly emergent national identity was, for De Middel, “a vehicle … [for

Zambia] to position itself in the international spotlight.”


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Christina De Middel, “Umfundi”

The implied relationship between political self-determination and the ability to

participate in the “enlightenment project” that sci-fi writer Kodwo Eshun

reminds us “imperial racism has denied black subjects,” underscores another

point of affinity between the historically marginalized experience of black


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people world-wide and the experience of alien otherness that anchors so

many science fiction narratives.

However, at least in the African American and Afro-Caribbean contexts, the

cultivation of an “authentic” national identity is inhibited by the severance from

origins along the middle passage, raising the question, as Dery astutely

considers, “Can a community whose past has been deliberately rubbed out …

imagine possible futures?” Or, for that matter, an authentic self?

In this sense, Afrofuturism seems interested in imagining the future from

beyond a strictly Afrocentric perspective. It is in communion with a long history

in black culture of re-inventing the black self and the mythology of black

identity by deconstructing Western paradigms in search of what black means

for black people.

Sun Ra in “Space is the Place” (still viaYouTube )

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwNtxFH6IjUhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwNtxFH6IjU


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We can see this unbroken struggle for selfhood in Rastafarian cosmology,

which sought to re-imagine black identity in the Afro-Caribbean context at a

time of increasing resistance to colonial subjugation, and in Black Nationalism

stateside, and the emergence of traditions like Kwanza that many argue seek

to reconstruct Black America’s severed roots to the “motherland.”

The visionary musician Sun Ra’s statement from the filmSpace is the

Place (1974) perhaps best captures the essence of this ongoing ideological

process. In the film he appears to a group of black youth decked out in his

space-age regalia, spouting his new age, cosmic philosophies. Skeptical, the

youths question where he comes from and how they could possibly know he isreal, to which he cryptically responds: “I do not come to you as a reality, I

come to you as the myth because that’s what black people are, myths.”

In addition to probing the interstice between past and future — all that dark

matter, if you will, another strand of Afrofuturism feels distinctly aligned with

aesthetic naturalism. InPumzi, a Kenyan short film by writer and director

Wanuri Kahiu, featured inShadows Took Shape, we’re introduced to a post-apocalyptic landscape where water scarcity has driven civilization

underground and all resources are self-generated. (And where, for instance,

our liquid waste is purified for consumption!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwNtxFH6IjUhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwNtxFH6IjUhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwNtxFH6IjUhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwNtxFH6IjU


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Weneri Kahiu, still from “Pumzi”

In the short film, one scientist who believes she’s discovered fertile soilescapes to the outside world in search of its source. Along her journey she

traverses a dystopian desert landscape, where she comes to represent the

last hope for supporting natural life (she carries with her a seedling she hopes

to plant in the water-rich soil for which she is searching). One could easily see

how this futuristic construction situates her, the black African woman, as the

source of all life and as natural to the wind-swept future-scape as the

elements that batter her.


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Erykah Badu in “Didn’tcha Know” (still viaYouTube )

This image of the black woman as water-bearer and life-giver surfaces in

numerous Afrofuturistic representations, echoed, for instance, in Erykah

Badu’s music video for her 2000 single, “Didn’tcha Know.” In the video, as she

croons “Which way to go? I think I made a wrong turn back there somewhere,”

Badu also migrates alone across a white desert, the sun beating down on her

outfitted in a futuristic exoskeleton as she lurches toward an uncertain future.

Here, we seen Afrofuturist aesthetics and the Afrocentric philosophies

popularized by Badu and attributed to neo-soul — the musical genre

embodied by artists like Badu, Bilal, and Maxwell — converge, so that Badu,

like the character inPumzi, comes to represent to the viewer, at once the

original woman and the last woman on earth, the alpha and omega as it were.

An even more interesting construction when read in dialogue with one of

Butler’s short stories called,The Book of Martha which places a black woman

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Np21rH7Ldtohttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Np21rH7Ldto


25/68

at God’s side where she is gifted the power to transform humankind and make

them less wasteful.

In visualizing these revolutionary images of black identity that in many ways

characterize the genre, I’m put in mind of yet another, if perhaps less obvious,

Afrofuturistic narrative by way of the X-Men character Storm.

The Marvel comics of the 1980s introduced a storyline in theirUncanny X-

Men series entitledThe Days of Future Past — the X-Men, in the spirit of all

great sci-fi, offer a capacious allegory for the realpolitik, in this case the

universal narrative of a marginalized and alienated community discriminated

against for their inherent difference. This branch of the series contemplates a

dystopian future where the mutant race is systematically persecuted and

imprisoned in internment camps. They (the mutants) essentially have no place

in the future. The X-Men, in order to change the course of history, must travel

back in time to prevent a fatal moment that leads to the mutant holocaust.

(Interestingly enough, this imagined future is in the year 2013.)

What seems crucial to note here, and perhaps chief amongst Afroturism’s

interests, is a resistance to conceptualizing the future as divorced from the

past. It is only by vigilantly recalling and revisiting the past — unable, in a

world where history has repeated itself time and again, to take anything for

granted — that we ensure that the future remains an imaginative province to

which all have access.

http://sdonline.org/2/afrofuturism-science-$ction-and-the-histor"-of-the-future/

In his introduction to the ;; re&issue of Invisible Man 9al$h 8llison $rovocatively

notes, Ba $iece of science fiction is the last thing I e'$ected to writeC -'v. #oth this claim

and the way 8llison $hrases it are striking ?iterary scholars usually talk about Invisible

Man as a $rime e'am$le of the >reat American +ovel, but throughout his career 8llison

carefully distanced himself from that $hrase Indeed, when he acce$ted the +ational

http://sdonline.org/42/afrofuturism-science-fiction-and-the-history-of-the-future/http://sdonline.org/42/afrofuturism-science-fiction-and-the-history-of-the-future/


26/68

#ook Award for this work in ;D3 he rather cheerfully described it as a failed example of

the >reat American +ovel #ut 8llison does not ust fli$ the scri$t and call Invisible

Man a work of science fiction, either 5 at most he im$lies that there is something

fantastic about it !hus it seems that 8llison could not make sense of his own novel

because he did not have a name for a literature $redicated u$on both realist and

s$eculative modes of storytelling

9ecently, however, artists and scholars have indeed coined a name for this kind of

storytelling: Afrofuturism @ver the $ast three decades both science fiction and

Afrodias$oric scholars have become increasingly interested in what 4heree 9 !homas

calls Bs$eculative fiction from the African dias$oraC ?eading science fiction ournals

such as Extrapolation and Science Fiction Studies regularly include essays about black

authors in their $ages, and as early as the summer of ;E, Black American Literature

Forumdevoted an entire s$ecial issue to the subect of race in science fiction!hroughout the ;0s and ;0s, however, there was little discussion of this fiction as a

literary mode with its own distinct themes, techni1ues, and relations to other kinds of

black cultural $roduction

!his situation changed with the emergence of Afrofuturist studies in the ;;0s, when

cultural critics including /ark 6ery, >reg !ate, !ricia 9ose, and =odwo 8shun first

drew attention to the centrality of science fiction themes and techni1ues in the work of

many black authors, artists, and musicians !he term is generally credited to 6ery, who,

in his ;;E edited collection Flame Wars: Te !iscourse of "#berculture, introduces

the term BAfrofuturismC to define Bs$eculative fiction that treats African&American

themes and addresses African&American concerns in the conte't of 20th century

technoculture 5 and more generally, African&American signification that a$$ro$riates

images of technology and a $rosthetically enhanced futureC to e'$lore how $eo$le of

color negotiate life in a technology intensive world -3G. As the first $art of 6eryHs

definition suggests, Afrofuturism is closely related to science fiction as an aesthetic

genre% indeed, contem$orary authors whom critics such as 6ery, !ate and 9ose identify

as Afrofuturist -such as 4amuel 9 6elany, @ctavia #utler, and +alo )o$kinson.

e'$licitly identify themselves as science fiction authors )owever, as 6ery argues in thesecond half of his definition, Afrofuturism is not only a subgenre of science fiction

Instead, it is a larger aesthetic mode that encom$asses a diverse range of artists working

in different genres and media who are united by their shared interest in $roecting black

futures derived from Afrodias$oric e'$eriences

/ore recently, sociologist Alondra +elson has been instrumental in develo$ing

Afrofuturism as a coherent mode of critical in1uiry According to +elson, the task of the


27/68

Afrofuturist scholar is to Be'$lore futurist themes in black cultural $roduction and the

ways in which technological innovation is changing the face of black art and cultureC

-+elson /iller. #ecause this kind of cultural $roduction crosses conventional

aesthetic boundaries -including the hy$othetical boundaries between canonical and

$o$ular culture., Afrofuturist scholars must be $re$ared to work both within and

without the academy And indeed, +elsonHs own work on Afrofuturism does ust that In

;; +elson and multimedia artist


28/68

Afrofuturists are concerned $rimarily with the 1uestion of whether or not there will be

any future whatsoever for $eo$le of color, contem$orary Afrofuturists assume that in

the future race will continue to matter to individuals and entire civili(ations alike In

doing so, they e'$and our sense of the $ossible and contribute to the ongoing

develo$ment of science fiction itself

A Brief History of Afrofuturism

!he history of Afrofuturist storytelling both $arallels and intersects that of science

fiction 4cience fiction scholars generally agree that science fiction develo$ed from the

scientifically& and technologically&ins$ired stories of classic nineteenth century authors

including /ary 4helley and )> ells in >reat #ritain, ules Jerne in France, and

8dgar Allan oo$hered >ra$evineC combines elements

of gothic and trickster narratives to e'amine the relations of northern whites and


29/68

southern blacks% and ohnsonHs ;0E novel Li't Aead for te ,e'ro de$icts an

African American man who travels into the future and e'$lores a racially&egalitarian

socialist America -49 6elany 33f. hatever narrative forms they worked in, then,

nineteenth&century Afrofuturist authors were bound together by a shared interest in

re$resenting the changing relations of science and society as they s$ecifically $ertained

to African&American history 5 including, of course, the history of the future

Although American science fiction evolved into a distinct genre re$lete with its own

authors, editors, and maga(ines in the first decades of the twentieth century,

Afrofuturist authors of this $eriod were still more likely to $ublish in black maga(ines

and news$a$ers such as "risis and the 7ittsbur' "ourier @f course, this does not

mean that there were not any black science fiction authors 5 since science fiction

maga(ines such as Ama*in'and Astoundin' Stories carried out most of their business

by mail, it would have been im$ossible to determine the race -or even gender. of any individual authors unless they announced it $ublicly hat it does mean, however, is

that authors associated with these maga(ines generally did not write stories that

addressed racial issues in meaningful ways -6elany 3E.2

!here seem to have been two broad reasons for this silence !he first has to do with the

cultural status of science fiction in America at that time #ecause early American science

fiction maga(ines were made of chea$ $ul$ $a$er featuring crudely drawn images of

e'$loding $lanets, scantily&clad women, and bug&eyed monsters, they were often

$erceived as somewhat immature and disre$utable -ames 3. As such, they were

hardly ideal forums for authors interested in serious s$eculation about the future of race

in America

!he second reason is more directly $olitical hile individual members of the science

fiction community were often advocates of civil rights, science fiction storytelling as a

whole tended to revolve around futures that were im$licitly 5 and sometimes

e'$licitlyL racist ones *onsider, for instance, 4tanley > einbaumHs BA /artian

@dysseyC -;3E. !his story holds a s$ecial $lace in science fiction history because it is

one of the first sym$athetic de$ictions of the alien other, em$hasi(ing the intellectual

similarities between technologically advanced humans and aliens over their obvious$hysical differences Knfortunately, it does so in a s$ectacularly racist manner: the

$redominantly white humans who $o$ulate einbaumHs story know that the /artians

they encounter are intelligent and rational beings precisel# because teir kno$led'e

classification s#stems are more sopisticated tan tose of African people back on

eart 8ven at their literary best, then, early science fiction authors seemed inca$able of


30/68

writing stories about tomorrow that did anything other than reflect the $reudices of the

current day3

After orld ar II, new sciences and technologies including everything from the atom

bomb to the automatic coffeemaker seemed to $ro$el Americans into a brave new future

that would be radically different from the $ast +ot sur$risingly, science fiction became

an increasingly $o$ular 5 and increasingly res$ectable 5 way to make sense of these

changes Although Afrofuturists still did not have much formal contact with the science

fiction community in the $ostwar era, their storytelling $ractices became an increasingly

central as$ect of another $o$ular art form: a(( music Indeed, many Americans first

encountered what we now call Afrofuturism in the work of ;E0s, D0s, and early G0s a((

musicians such as 4un 9a and ?ee B4cratchC


31/68

historical recovery $roects that black Atlantic intellectuals have engaged in for well over

two hundred years According to author !oni /orrison these $roects do more than

sim$ly combat the erasure of black subects from estern history !hey also

demonstrate how African slaves and their descendants e'$erienced conditions of

homelessness, alienation, and dislocation that antici$ate what $hiloso$hers like

+iet(sche describe as the founding conditions of modernity -see >ilroy . !hus

Afrodias$oric histories insist both on the authenticity of the black subectHs e'$erience

in estern history and the way this e'$erience embodies the dislocation felt by many

modern $eo$les

As a $o$ular aesthetic movement centered on seemingly fantastic tro$es such as Bthe

encounter with the alien otherC and Btravel through time and s$ace,C Afrofuturism holds

the $otential to bring the Afrodias$oric e'$erience to life in new ways As Alondra+elson e'$lains, the science fictional elements of Afrofuturism $rovide both Ba$t

meta$hors for black life and historyC and ins$iration for Btechnical and creative

innovationsC of artists working in a variety of traditional and new media Furthermore,

by harnessing one of the signature languages of modernity 5 the language of science

fiction 5 Afrofuturist artists automatically create new audiences for their stories: those

$rimarily young, white, estern, and middle&class men who com$rise the maority of

science fiction fans and who might never otherwise learn much about the history of their

country save what they ha$ha(ardly $ick u$ in the high school classroom

As its name im$lies, Afrofuturism is not ust about reclaiming the history of the $ast, but

about reclaiming the history of the future as well *ultural critic =odwo 8shun $ro$oses

that mainstream understandings and re$resentations of the future derive from three

closely related sources !hese sources include big science, which generates data about

the $ast and the $resent in order to $redict the future% big business, which funds

scientific research and acts u$on its results% and the global media, which synthesi(es

scientific and cor$orate activity into a relatively coherent narrative and then

disseminates this narrative throughout the world !ogether, these institutions constitute

what 8shun calls the Bfutures industryC /ore often than not, the agents of this 8ber&industry conflate blackness with catastro$he For e'am$le, 8shun writes that BAfrican

social reality is overdetermined by intimidating global scenarios, doomsday economic

$roections, weather $redictions, medical re$orts on AI64, and life&e'$ectancy

forecasts, all of which $redict decades of immiseri(ationC -2003: 2;f. @ther $laces

$o$ulated by descendants of the African dias$ora 5 such as the *aribbean islands and

the inner cities of +orth America 5 receive similar treatment in futurist scenarios As


32/68

such they become sites of absolute dysto$ia% imaginary s$aces where the $ersistence of

black identity signifies a disastrous failure in the ongoing $rogress of global ca$ital

itself

Afrofuturist artists fight these dysto$ic futures in two related ways First, they use the

vocabulary of science fiction to demonstrate how black alienation 5 what 8# 6u

#ois called Bdouble consciousnessC 5 is e'acerbated rather than alleviated by those

visions of tomorrow that are disseminated by the futures industry 4econd, they disru$t,

challenge, and otherwise transform those futures with fantastic stories that, as 9uth

/ayer $uts it, Bmove seamlessly back and forth through time and s$ace, between

cultural traditions and geogra$hic time (onesC 5 and thus between blackness as a

dysto$ic relic of the $ast and as a harbinger of a new and more $romising alien future

-DDG. !hese acts of Bchrono$olitical intervention,C as 8shun calls them, double, tri$le,

1uadru$le, and even 1uintu$le our consciousness about what it might mean to live in a black future -2003: 2;.

Fighting the Futures Industry: Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man

Although Afrofuturism, like science fiction, has develo$ed over the course of two

centuries, I begin my own history of this aesthetic tradition in the middle of the

twentieth century with 9al$h 8llisonHs Invisible Man 8llisonHs novel is a $articularly

com$elling e'am$le of Afrofuturism because it invites readers to think about how the

rhetoric of the futures industry im$acts $eo$le of color As readers are likely to

remember, Invisible Man follows the adventures of an unnamed $rotagonist who tries

to become an American leader by allying himself with various organi(ations: the historic

black college he attends as a young man in the south, the $aint factory he works for

when he first moves north, and then finally the leftist $olitical grou$ known as the

#rotherhood

As I read 8llisonHs novel in the history of Afrofuturism, what the invisible man is looking

for is the $ossibility of a black future that he cannot find In each case his dreams of

self&reali(ation are thwarted because he is treated as little more than a blank slate u$on

which institutional authority $roects its own vision of the future !he most e'$licitacknowledgement of this comes from /r +orton, the rich white college trustee who

tells 8llisonHs $rotagonist: BMou are my fate, young man @nly you can tell me what it

really isN !hrough youN I can observe in terms of living $ersonalities to what e'tent my

money, my time and my ho$es have been fruitfully investedC -E2, ED. )ere then the

black subect is figured as venture ca$ital, a natural resource available to white investors

s$eculating in the stock market of tomorrow


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Although white members of the #rotherhood e'$licitly o$$ose themselves to ca$italists

like +orton, they, too, treat black men as natural resources rather than human beings

!his attitude is clearly enca$sulated in a #rotherhood $oster entitled BAfter the 4truggle:

!he 9ainbow of AmericaHs FutureC !he $oster de$icts Ba grou$ of heroic figures An

American Indian cou$le, re$resenting the dis$ossessed $ast% a blond brother -in

overalls. and a leading Irish sister, re$resenting the dis$ossessed $resent% and OblackP

#rother !od *lifton and a young white cou$le -it had been felt unwise sim$ly to show

*lifton and the girl. surrounded by a grou$ of children of mi'ed races, re$resenting the

futureC -3D. /uch like +orton then, the #rotherhood e1uates blackness with futurity,

but only insofar as the black subect conforms to a $redictable and carefully controlled

vision of the future

8ventually 8llisonHs $rotagonist learns to say no to these whitewashed histories of thefuture $redicated on the erasure of black subectivity )e learns this lesson from #rother

!ar$ As a young man in the south !ar$ refuses to give u$ his $ossessions to a white

man% later, he refuses to acce$t the sentence of life im$risonment he receives for doing

so, and after nineteen years of $atient waiting, he finds his o$$ortunity and esca$es to

the +orth As he tells the invisible man: BI said no to a man who wanted to take

something from me% thatHs what it cost me for saying no and even now the debt ainHt

fully $aid and will never be $aid in their termsN I said noN I said ell noQ And I ke$t

saying no until I broke the chain and leftC -3. I think this $assage is significant

because it does more than demonstrate one manHs refusal to $lay the role that has been

socially scri$ted for him It shows how, in refusing this role, one man can change the

future: !ar$Hs debt 5 such as it is 5 will never be $aid because he refuses to become the

subservient black man he is su$$osed to be Instead, he removes himself from the bad

future that has been im$osed on him and allies himself with the #rotherhood in ho$e of

a better tomorrow

#ut if 8llisonHs $rotagonist says no to all those whitewashed futures that deny the

com$le'ity of his history and identity 5 including those offered by the #rotherhood 5

what is left to him7 !oward the end of the novel he encounters two $ossible black futures, but neither is very satisfactory @n the one hand, 9as the 8'horterR6estroyer

dreams of a #lack +ationalist future in Africa, but these dreams turn out to be little

more than recycled scenarios from old )ollywood films Indeed, one observer directly

com$ares 9asHs warrior&king clothes to Bthe kind you see them African guys OwearingP in

the moving $icturesC and his horse to B)eigho, the goddam 4ilverC -DG3f. @n the other

hand, 9inehart the gangster suggests that black Americans might do best to resist


34/68

$redetermined futures and Bo$en u$ new sections of realityC by embracing whatever role

is most a$$ro$riate at the moment: $reacher or $im$, lover or fighter, criminal or

informer Knfortunately, when the invisible man tries this out on his $olitical

constituency it backfires horribly and )arlem e'$lodes in a night of a$ocaly$tic rioting

that tears the community a$art and leaves the invisible man tra$$ed in the sewer system

beneath +ew Mork *ity

At first this seems to be a fortunate fall for 8llisonHs $rotagonist @nce the invisible man

is outside 5 or underneath 5 American society he finds that he can begin to e'ert some

control over it Indeed, he becomes a kind of $roto&hacker, stealing electricity from

#roadway to light his hiding $lace and $ower his ?ouis Armstrong records )e also

becomes a $roto&Afrofuturist author, rethinking the relations of his $ast and $resent

and ma$$ing the networks of $ower that would $ro$el him into various futures not of his own making !hus the basement becomes a kind of time and s$ace vessel that carries

8llisonHs $rotagonist toward a new identity, a new aesthetic $ractice, and $erha$s,

finally, a truly new future;

#ut the invisible man never 1uite gets there In the final $ages of 8llisonHs novel he

admits, Bit esca$es me hat do I really want, IHve asked myself *ertainly not the

freedom of a 9inehart or the $ower of Othe #rotherhoodP, nor sim$ly the freedom not to

run +o, but the ne't ste$ I OcanHtP make, so IHve remained in the holeC -DE. As such,

the invisible man remains $er$etually on the edge of revelation and the edge of action,

aware that he holds within himself the $ossibility of a new future, but one that doesnHt

seem 1uite ready to be born ust yet

Making It New: Afrofuturist Fitions of the !wentieth and !wenty"First

#enturies

Although 8llisonHs invisible man may never be ready to confront the future, many other

Afrofuturist artists have done ust that 5 and in a range of $rovocative ways *onsider

the visions of tomorrow crafted by two Afrofuturist authors from the first half of the

twentieth century: 8# 6u #ois and >eorge 4 4chuyler In many ways, 6u #ois and4chuyler could not be more different from one another 6u #ois was a radical sociologist

and civil rights activist who firmly believed that $eo$le of color from across the world

should come together to fight racism #y way of contrast, 4chuyler was a conservative

ournalist for the 7ittsbur' "ourier who fiercely condemned racism but who also

reected the notion of a globally unified black art, culture, or $olitics +onetheless, both


35/68

men were committed to using s$eculative narrative forms to imagine how black $eo$le

might $artici$ate in the creation of the future

For e'am$le, 8# 6u #oisHs short story, B!he *omet,C which first a$$eared in the

;20 collection !ark$ater: 9oices from Witin te 9eil( both invokes and rewrites the

science fiction disaster story According to science fiction scholars 6avid


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Slo$l# te mi't# propec# of er destin# over$elmed er- Se $as no mere

$oman% Se $as neiter i' nor lo$( $ite nor black( ric nor poor% Se $as primal

$oman+ mi't# moter of all men to come and Bride of Life% Se looked upon te man

beside er and for'ot all else but is manood( is stron'( vi'orous manood- Se

sa$ im 'lorified% 6e $as no lon'er a tin' apart( a creature belo$( a stran'e outcast

of anoter clime and blood( but er broter umanit# incarnate( Son of od and 'reat

All/Fater of te race to be% 23;5

!hus 6u #ois suggests that the comet is not really a disaster for our hero 9ather it is an

e'tremely fortunate event that cata$ults him into a brave new world where se' matters

more than race

#ut alas, this future is not meant to be ust as im and the young woman $re$are to

consummate their love, they are discovered by a rescue $arty whose leader informsthem that the comet tail only affected +ew Mork *ity% that the rest of America is ust the

same as it ever was and that normal services and relations are already being restored to

the city itself )e then $rom$tly demonstrates this, of course, by trying to lynch im for

touching a white woman Although the young woman intervenes to save imHs life, she

1uickly loses interest in him once she is reunited with her rich white fiancS And even

though im is finally reunited with his own wife, it is only to learn that the comet has

killed their baby !hus 6u #ois ends his story by suggesting not only that it will take a

natural disaster to eradicate racism in America, but that without such a disaster there

may no future whatsoever for black Americans

#y way of contrast, >eorge 4 4chuyler combines elements of two other science fiction

story ty$es 5 the military adventure and the uto$ian ourney 5 to de$ict a future in

which dias$oric blacks oin forces to con1uer the world American science fiction written

between the two world wars often revolved around battles with alien races in which

sym$athetic humans saved the day with their su$erior knowledge of science and

technology -4tableford, BarC 2;. !his is certainly true of B#lack InternationaleC and

B#lack 8m$ire,C two interlocking seriali(ed stories that 4chuyler $ublished inthe 7ittsbur' "ourier between ;3G and ;3 4chuylerHs stories follow the adventures

of *arl 4later, a young ournalist for Te 6arlem Blade who is swe$t u$ into a global

battle between two alien races on 8arth: white $eo$le and everyone else !his global

battle 5 or, more $ro$erly, this global revolution 5 is led by the wealthy and brilliant

6r )enry #elsidus #elsidus begins his revolution by gathering together a B#lack

InternationaleC com$rised of Afrodias$oric scientists, soldiers, artists, and


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business$eo$le from around the globe Although they have little common history or

culture, these future world leaders are bound together by their frustration with the

inability to succeed in a racist world 5 and, more altruistically, by their commitment to

actively creating a new future for black men and women everywhere

And this is $recisely what they do After decimating the Knited 4tates with biological

warfare, the #lack Internationale liberates Africa from its 8uro$ean colonial o$$ressors

and announces the birth of a new #lack 8m$ire hen the 8uro$eans $rotest, #elsidusHs

second&in&command >eneral ivens masterminds a series of air raids that

1uickly bring 8uro$e to its collective knees >ivensHs efforts are greatly enhanced by

timely aid from /artha >askins, a young white stockbroker who becomes #elsidusHs

lover and, eventually, the head of his 8uro$ean es$ionage unit !hus 4chuyler suggests

that the battle for racial e1uality will naturally a$$eal to right&thinking $eo$le

everywhere, regardless of race and gender0

8ven though these scenes of carnage must have been great fun for 4chuyler to write 5

nearly seventy years later, they are certainly still great fun to read 5 it is im$ortant to

note that 4chuyler balances the carnage with scenes that celebrate Afrodias$oric

intellectual $rowess and $review the uto$ian future in store for subects of the new

#lack 8m$ire Indeed, *arl 4later decides to oin the black revolution $recisely because

#elsidusHs $eo$le have already done so much !hey have invented new cro$s to

eliminate world hunger, new information networks to create global community, and

even new religions to instill both individual dignity and racial $ride in their

worshi$$ers And herein lies the central irony of 4chuylerHs story As #ellarius

dramatically e'$lains to 4later, it is $recisely the e'$erience of slavery and racial

discrimination that has $re$ared Afrodias$oric $eo$le for world domination:

?ike any good science fiction author, then, 4chuyler uses his uto$ian society to estrange

readers from their assum$tions about the $ast, $resent, and future of their own world

In Black Internationale and Black Empire, recent estern history is not ust aconfirmation of white su$remacy, nor is it ust a racist tragedy 9ather, it is a series of

fortunate events that facilitate the evolution of Afrodias$oric $eo$le into su$ermen and

su$erwomen who will lead all humanity into a new age

/uch like 9al$h 8llison, then, early Afrofuturist authors such as 6u #ois and 4chuyler

wrote stories that revolved around a s$ecific issue: the ability of Afrodias$oric blacks to

make a $lace for themselves in estern 5 and even global 5 futurity #y way of


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contrast, contem$orary Afrofuturist authors such as @ctavia #utler and +alo )o$kinson

readily assume that $eo$le of color will indeed be key $layers in the history of the future

#ut this does not mean that they sim$ly create !echnicolor versions of traditional

science fiction stories, making a few heroic scientists black or brown and a few evil alien

others white or $ink 9ather, they actively draw u$on Afrodias$oric history and culture

to tell com$le' and sometimes contradictory stories about how and why race relations

might continue to matter in the future In doing so, they also contribute to the ongoing

develo$ment of science fiction itself

*onsider, for e'am$le, @ctavia #utlerHs short story B#loodchild,C which first a$$eared

in Asimov.s Science Fiction Ma'a*ine in ;E At first glance B#loodchildC seems to be a

sim$le variation on the classic alien invasion story, revolving around the $seudo&

6arwinian notion that s$ecies must com$ete with one another to ensure that only thefittest survives -4tableford, BAliensC G. #utlerHs story takes $lace in a far&off future

where a grou$ of humans have migrated to an alien world to esca$e $ersecution on

8arth hen they arrive they $rom$tly attem$t to e'terminate the bug&like !Hlic who

live there Knfortunately for the humans, the !Hlic are highly advanced $eo$le with

$roblems of their own: they are facing certain e'tinction because the mammals they rely

on to incubate their larvae have all but died out +ot sur$risingly, the !Hlic 1uickly

con1uer the human invaders and drug them into submission so human women will bear

as many children as $ossible and thus the !Hlic can use sur$lus human men as hosts for

their own larvae, thereby endowing the men with a traditionally female biological

function >iven this situation, an a$ocaly$tic struggle between the !Hlic and humanity

seems inevitable

)owever, #utler refuses to indulge in a$ocaly$tic storytelling, instead drawing

ins$iration from African American history to e'$lore how different races might survive

and co&evolve through com$romise and coo$eration B#loodchildC revolves around a

human adolescent boy named >an whose family lives with !H>atoi, a $owerful female

!Hlic $olitician who has already radically im$roved human&!Hlic relations by sto$$ing the

sale of human men away from their families, creating $reserves where humans can live without !Hlic interference, and encouraging $rogressive&minded !Hlic and humans to oin

together into new inters$ecies families hat !H>atoi hasnHt done, however, is

ade1uately $re$are >an for childbirth, which the !Hlic think of as a highly $rivate

matter ItHs also a dangerous one: if the larvae are not surgically removed from their

hosts at a $recise time, they will kill the host by trying to eat their way out from inside

him Knderstandably, when >an sees a birth go wrong, all his fears about !Hlic control


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over human Bhost animalsC come rushing to the surface and the young boy threatens to

kill both himself and !H>atoi

>an refrains from doing this, however Instead, he and !H>atoi talk out their differences

5 and then, more im$ortantly, recogni(e their similarities As the alien neatly $uts it:

te animals $e once used be'an killin' our e''s after implantation lon' before #our

ancestors arrived-% Because #our people arrived( $e are relearnin' $at it means to

be a ealt#( trivin' people% And #our ancestors( fleein' from teir ome$orld( from

teir o$n kind $o $ould ave killed or enslaved tem < te# survived because of us%

We sa$ tem as people and 'ave tem te 7reserve $en te# still tried to kill us as

$orms= 23>?5%

9ecogni(ing that their s$ecies can no longer survive without one another, >an $utsdown his gun, reaffirms his love for !H>atoi, and $romises to bear her children !H>atoi,

meanwhile, vows to make $olitical amends for her cultural short&sightedness And thus

the story ends with >an and !H>atoi in one anotherHs arms, conceiving the children that

will affirm the $ossibility of human&!Hlic co&evolution

4ignificantly, although this is a ha$$y ending for >an and !H>atoi, it is $robably a very

uncomfortable one for #utlerHs readers !he !Hlic still have more $ower than humans,

human women still give birth to human men who will, in turn, give birth to alien babies,

and we sim$ly do not know if !H>atoi will really be able to convince her $eers to do right

by their new human $artners hat #utler does insist u$on, however, is that much like

African American slaves of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the ca$tive humans

on !H>atoiHs world do have a choice: they most likely cannot win their freedom by

violence, but at the same time, they do not have to be doomed victims or martyrs

Instead, they can forge new kinds of emotional and $hysical connections with other like&

minded individuals to ensure that everyone lives to see a better day As I read it, then,

>anHs choice to bear !H>atoiHs children is a risky but incredibly brave one because it

affirms the com$le'ity of historical reality over sim$le misre$resentations of so&called biological necessity

I end this essay at the new millennium with +alo )o$kinsonHs short story B>anger -#all

?ightning.C First $ublished in 4herree 9 !homasHs !ark Matters: A "entur# of

Speculative Fiction from te African !iaspora -2000., B>anger -#all ?ightning.C

u$dates Isaac AsimovHs classic robot $u((le stories !hroughout the ;E0s Asimov wrote


40/68

a series of stories about robots whose behavior was guided by three immutable rules

designed to $rotect humans against harm by robots In each tale a robot does something

une'$ected, and the reader races against AsimovHs characters to see who can solve the

$u((le first )o$kinsonHs story follows a similar, if saucier, $attern B>angerC relates the

story of *leve and Issy, who have recently bought full&body se' suits in a des$erate

attem$t to save their marriage -readers learn at the beginning of the story that the only

time *leve and Issy actually communicate anymore is in bed. @ne night the cou$le

swa$s suits to see what it is like to be the o$$osite se', and are so sur$rised by the

intensity of the e'$erience that they ri$ off the suits and throw them in a corner In the

morning Issy wakes u$ to find out that the suits have merged and come to life As a kind

of electrified double of *leve and Issy, the do$$leganger 5 or Bganger,C as )o$kinsonHs

characters call it 5 wants nothing more than to have se' with its owners #ut because it

is made of almost $ure electricity, this will obviously kill them And hence the $u((le of the story: here did the ganger come from7 )ow can Issy and

*leve sto$ it7 ?ike any good Asimovian character, )o$kinsonHs se' suit hackers 1uickly

and logically figure out what ha$$ened: the suits merged and took on a life of their own

because *leve and Issy failed to follow the manufacturerHs warning to discharge and

se$arate the suits after every use !hey then figure out how to sto$ the ganger ust as

1uickly and logically As Issy e'$lains to *leve, the suits are their doubles, and so the

ganger will $robably res$ond to stimuli in much the same manner as Issy and *leve

!herefore, since the one thing they never want to do anymore is talk, then talking to

each other is whatHs most likely to kill the ganger And thus Issy and *leve finally talk,

the ganger is destroyed, and their marriage is saved

In its broadest dimensions, then, )o$kinsonHs story does not seem to be about race And

yet, it is $rofoundly engaged with race at two very different levels First and most

obviously, race is the key to unlocking the $u((le at the heart of this tale 6uring the

final battle with the ganger, readers learn why *leve and Issy do not talk anymore *leve

reveals that he is afraid to e'$ress his feelings because Blook at the si(e of me, the

blackness of me Mou know what it is to see $eo$le cringe for fear when you shout7C-D. Issy, meanwhile, admits that she channels her an'iety about $ersonal

relationshi$s into more abstract anger at racial inustice, thereby allowing herself to

Btalk around stuff, not about itC -D0. )ere then )o$kinson e'tends the tradition

initiated by 6u #ois, 4chuyler, and #utler, insisting not only that race will matter to

entire nations in the future, but that it will matter to individual $eo$le in their everyday

lives as well


41/68

4econd, race is central to B>anger -#all ?ightning.C 5 and indeed all of )o$kinsonHs

fiction 5 in a much more celebratory way as well 4cience fiction has traditionally been

thought of as the Bliterature of engineersC% accordingly, authors generally use the same

standard American 8nglish that is found in engineering te'tbooks )o$kinson, however,

de$arts from this tradition by allowing her narrators and characters to s$eak in the

dialects of her $an&*aribbean childhood In doing so she fulfills the goals of both science

fiction and Afrofuturist writing 4he reminds us that science fiction is not ust the

literature of engineers, but the literature of all $eo$le who live in a high&tech world

#onlusion: Blak to the Future

In conclusion, I want to $ro$ose two reasons why it is im$ortant to recover the history

of Afrofuturism as it has unfolded over the $ast two centuries !he first reason is a

scholarly one, and has to do with our understanding of literary and cultural history !he

$ast two decades have been marked by an e'$losion of interest in literary re$resentations of science and technology !hese studies tend to follow a very s$ecific

and very raced traectory: they tell us that white authors including !4 8liot, !homas

ibson are the real founders of modern technocultural narrative

and that authors of color did not engage in this kind of storytelling until identity $olitics

e'$loded in the ;G0s !hus it seems that white authors got there first, and that $eo$le

of color have been mere res$ondents to the new literary forms of twentieth and twenty&

first centuries #ut this ust isnHt trueQ #y recovering Afrodias$oric future story telling

traditions we gain a better understanding of the im$ortant intellectual and aesthetic

work that these authors have $erformed on both national and global cultural fronts In

doing so, we also learn more about how Afrofuturism transforms science fiction and

other modes of technologically engaged literature today

/y second reason for wanting to direct attention to Afrofuturism is $olitical From the

ongoing war on terror to )urricane =atrina, it seems that we are tra$$ed in an historical

moment when we can think about the future only in terms of disaster 5 and that

disaster is almost always associated with the racial other @f course, there are many

artists, scholars, and activists who want to resist these terrifying new re$resentations of the future As a literary scholar myself, I believe that one im$ortant way to do this is to

identify the narrative strategies that artists have used in the $ast to e'$ress dissent from

those visions of tomorrow that are generated by a ruthless, economically self&interested

futures industry )ence my interest in Afrofuturism, which assures us that we can

indeed ust say no to those bad futures that ustify social, $olitical, and economic

discrimination In doing so this mode of aesthetic e'$ression also enables us to say yes


42/68

to the $ossibility of new and better futures and thus to take back the global cultural

imaginary today

http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2015/dec/07/afrofuturism-blac#-identit"-future-

science-technolog"

iven the fre1uency with which we see black $eo$le in the Knited 4tates being

killed or attacked by $olice for $rotesting, itHs no sur$rise that a $acked house

turned out on !hursday night at *ivic )all in +ew Mork *ity to attend the

$anel Afrofuturism: Imagining the Future of #lack Identity 9ight now, there

is a $al$able hunger and desire to know more about Afrofuturism as a lens to

better understand our lives and their $ossibilities beyond our $resent

circumstances

At the outset, Afrofuturism was described as a black $ers$ective on Bthe

$olitics, aesthetics and cultural as$ectsC of science, science fiction and

technology 4late culture writer Aisha )arris guided a discussion about what

the term means between author Mtasha omack , +igerian artist

and designer alS @ySidS, and lawyer and Ari(ona 4tate Kniversity

$rofessor /ichael #ennet It 1uickly emerged that what Afrofuturism is, and

how its lens may be turned on the global world, is very $ersonal In the way

that film noir functions as a genre, or a(( as a musical style, Afrofuturism is a

$hiloso$hy that can be simultaneously obvious and vague in its identity, bounded and $orous in its edges It can include 4un 9aHs 4$ace is the reg !ateHs cultural criticism, and even sociologist Alondra +elsonHs work

on 6+A and race

frofuturism: where space+ p"ramids and politics collide

9ead more

omack, the author of Afrofuturism: the orld of #lack 4ci&Fi Fantasy and

Fantasy *ulture, began by e'$laining that to her, Afrofuturism offers a Bhighly

intersectionalC way of looking at $ossible futures or alternate realities through

a black cultural lens It is non&linear, fluid and feminist% it uses the black

http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2015/dec/07/afrofuturism-black-identity-future-science-technologyhttp://www.theguardian.com/culture/2015/dec/07/afrofuturism-black-identity-future-science-technologyhttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/nov/24/minneapolis-protesters-shot-terrorize-black-peoplehttp://civichall.org/events/afrofuturism/http://www.slate.com/authors.aisha_harris.htmlhttp://www.slate.com/authors.aisha_harris.htmlhttps://twitter.com/ytashawomack?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthorhttp://www.ikirejones.com/our-team/https://twitter.com/MGBennetthttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djBKQNVj5Cchttp://www.amazon.com/The-Social-Life-DNA-Reconciliation/dp/0807033014http://www.amazon.com/The-Social-Life-DNA-Reconciliation/dp/0807033014http://www.iafrofuturism.com/http://www.iafrofuturism.com/http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2015/dec/07/afrofuturism-black-identity-future-science-technologyhttp://www.theguardian.com/culture/2015/dec/07/afrofuturism-black-identity-future-science-technologyhttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/nov/24/minneapolis-protesters-shot-terrorize-black-peoplehttp://civichall.org/events/afrofuturism/http://www.slate.com/authors.aisha_harris.htmlhttps://twitter.com/ytashawomack?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthorhttp://www.ikirejones.com/our-team/https://twitter.com/MGBennetthttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djBKQNVj5Cchttp://www.amazon.com/The-Social-Life-DNA-Reconciliation/dp/0807033014http://www.iafrofuturism.com/http://www.iafrofuturism.com/


43/68

imagination to consider mysticism, meta$hysics, identity and liberation% and,

des$ite offering black folks a way to see ourselves in a better future,

Afrofuturism blends the future, the $ast and the $resent

!o omack, one of AfrofutrismHs central functions is to e'$lore Brace as atechnologyC, utilised for s$ecific reasons !he de$loyment of this technology

has created racism -indeed, as one audience member $ointed out, technology

itself can be racist L as news broke on !hursday that A$$leHs 4iri

defined BbitchC as Bblack slangC for BwomanC. #ut ust like technology,

Afrofuturism can be u$graded Indeed, as the story of 9achel 6ole(al$ointed

out in the summer, race is a fiction L which has only e'isted as we $resently

conceive it over the $ast few hundred years, since 8uro$ean colonialism and

American chattel slavery began $eddling its mythology #ut des$ite being a

fiction, its effects are so real in our lives that it can be difficult to imagine

ourselves outside our $resent hell Afrofuturism offers us a way out through

the black imagination

!he Bfoundational $yramidC -$yramids come u$ a lot in Afrofuturism. of the

very loose Afrofuturist canon, omack said, includes the science fiction

writers4amuel 6elany and @ctavia #utler, and the musicians 4un

9a and >eorge *linton #ut des$ite the occasional references to music, the

eveningHs conversation dealt much more with writers than musicians -For amuch more com$lete e'$loration of Afrofuturism in music, see ?anre

#akareHs Afrofuturism takes flight: From 4un 9a to anelle /onae or Ashley

*larkHs Inside Afrofuturism: a 4onic *om$anion.

omack found Afrofuturism to be Ba ourney of self&discoveryC which she

encountered before she knew it had a name !he term itself was coined in

;;2 by the writer /ark 6ery but the ideas go back much further -indeed , a

century&old 8# 6u#ois science fiction story was rediscovered ust this

week., and omack found a lot of $eo$le were Bengaging these ideas but feltthat they were aloneC before a category tied it all together 4he said she had

loved both science and history as a kid, but had been taught to believe these

things had nothing to do with each other

http://thegrio.com/2015/12/03/siri-defines-bitch-black-slang/http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jun/12/rachel-dolezal-delusional-construction-perception-of-racehttp://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/samuel-delany-and-the-past-and-future-of-science-fictionhttp://www.theguardian.com/news/2006/mar/16/guardianobituaries.bookscommenthttp://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/jun/15/sun-ra-jazz-interstellar-voyagerhttp://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/jun/15/sun-ra-jazz-interstellar-voyagerhttp://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2014/may/21/psychedelic-soul-10-of-the-besthttp://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/jul/24/space-is-the-place-flying-lotus-janelle-monae-afrofuturismhttp://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/news-bfi/features/inside-afrofuturism-sonic-companionhttps://thenewblack5324.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/mark-dery-black-to-the-future.pdfhttps://thenewblack5324.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/mark-dery-black-to-the-future.pdfhttp://markdery.com/http://www.theguardian.com/books/2003/feb/22/featuresreviews.guardianreview30http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2015/12/01/_the_princess_steel_a_recently_uncovered_short_story_by_w_e_b_du_bois_and.htmlhttp://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2015/12/01/_the_princess_steel_a_recently_uncovered_short_story_by_w_e_b_du_bois_and.htmlhttp://thegrio.com/2015/12/03/siri-defines-bitch-black-slang/http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jun/12/rachel-dolezal-delusional-construction-perception-of-racehttp://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/samuel-delany-and-the-past-and-future-of-science-fictionhttp://www.theguardian.com/news/2006/mar/16/guardianobituaries.bookscommenthttp://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/jun/15/sun-ra-jazz-interstellar-voyagerhttp://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/jun/15/sun-ra-jazz-interstellar-voyagerhttp://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2014/may/21/psychedelic-soul-10-of-the-besthttp://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/jul/24/space-is-the-place-flying-lotus-janelle-monae-afrofuturismhttp://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/news-bfi/features/inside-afrofuturism-sonic-companionhttps://thenewblack5324.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/mark-dery-black-to-the-future.pdfhttps://thenewblack5324.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/mark-dery-black-to-the-future.pdfhttp://markdery.com/http://www.theguardian.com/books/2003/feb/22/featuresreviews.guardianreview30http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2015/12/01/_the_princess_steel_a_recently_uncovered_short_story_by_w_e_b_du_bois_and.html


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!o me, a tenent of Afrofuturism deals with black $eo$le being told they must

adhere to divisions which donHt e'ist, and only acce$t a limited number of

stories about ourselves, such that we have an e'tremely limited conce$t of

what material reality can be 9acism can give black Americans the im$ression

that in the $ast we were only slaves who did not rebel% that in the $resent, weare a $assive $eo$le beaten by $olice who cannot fight back% and that in the

future, we sim$ly do not e'ist

Advertisement

#ennett s$oke about how the three most im$ortant writings to him coming u$

were comic books, the #ible and the writings of 6elany )e said he believes

Afrofuturism has become Bmore relevant than in the early and mid&;;0sC

because back then heHd feel weekly that BI was living in a science fictionalenvironmentC !hese days, he says, Bthe rate at which I sense that now is five

times a dayC, considering the daily insanity of gun violence, $olice violence,

and the violence to the environment in the age of the anthro$ocene

@ffering an international $ers$ective on Afrofuturism, @ySidS s$oke about

watching 4tar ars and 4tar !rek in +igeria, and how he and friends Bho$ed

to see ourselves on screenC !oo often, he said, images of the African continent

only offered doom, gloom and terrorist attacks, full of Bfaceless brown $eo$le

used as $u$$etsC !o him, Afrofuturism offered a way out of the B$resentnatureC of de$icting black $eo$le in a limited way, and instead offers a vision

of of us with a Bshout out to the futureC

hen it comes to science fiction on the continent, @ySidS found the 200;

film 6istrict ; to be an Bawesome filmC but B$retty $roblematicC for +igerians

!his is why he says he has no interest in seeing #easts of +o +ation, with a

similar criti1ue as bell hooks had of 2 Mears A 4lave: Be have this fatigue of

sufferingC from only seeing B$eo$le slaughter each otherC

A recurring figure and discourse of Afrofuturism that hel$ imagine a different

reality are seen when the ca$tured slave is recast as the abducted alien )arris

noted this can em$loy certain tro$es but also Bmany ty$es of black resistanceC

4eeing black $eo$le as aliens, and imagining ourselves on other worlds, is

radical, omack noted, because black $eo$le have had their imaginations

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/oct/16/-sp-scientists-gather-talks-rename-human-age-anthropocene-holocenehttp://www.theguardian.com/culture/star-trekhttp://www.theguardian.com/film

afrofuturism resistance

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