Africanfuturism

Africanfuturism is a cultural aesthetic - spanning fiction, film, comics and visual art - built on African culture, history, mythology and point of view, imagined into technological futures without centering the West. The Nigerian-American writer Nnedi Okorafor coined the word in a 2018 social media post and set it out in her 2019 essay 'Africanfuturism defined', distinguishing it from Afrofuturism, which centers the African diaspora and especially the United States. The name is new; the current is not - Okorafor points to precursors such as Buchi Emecheta's The Rape of Shavi (1983) and Ben Okri's The Famished Road (1991). Today the field runs from Okorafor's Binti novellas and Tade Thompson's Rosewater to African animation, comics and visual artists such as Mary Sibande and Muchiri Njenga, with anthologies and the Nommo Awards consolidating the scene.

Defining characteristics

• African settings, cosmologies and languages at the centre of speculative futures
• Technology entwined with tradition, spirituality and indigenous knowledge
• Genre range: science fiction, fantasy, alternate history, horror and magical realism
• Vivid, pattern-rich visual design in artwork, covers and film
• Deliberate de-centering of the Western gaze and Western reference points

Key figures

• Nnedi Okorafor (b. 1974) — Coined the term; author of Who Fears Death and the Binti novellas
• Mary Sibande (b. 1982) — South African sculptor and photographer of the Sophie/Elsie alter-ego avatars
• Muchiri Njenga (fl. 2010s) — Kenyan artist working in film, animation, photography and installation

Example works

• Who Fears Death — Nnedi Okorafor (2010)
• Binti — Nnedi Okorafor (2015)
• Pumzi — Wanuri Kahiu (2009)

Sources

• Africanfuturism - Wikipedia encyclopedia

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