Black Futures: Shifting the Geography of the Future
By Lisa M. Anderson
In the past decade, we have seen the rise in popularity – and number – of science fiction and fantasy by African and African Diaspora writers. In a literary world that had been dominated by white authors (and by extension, white futures), these emerging and recognized writers have captivated fans of the genre and garnered an increasing number of fans. The most important contribution of these writers is that they imagine Black futures; in other words, these works shift the geography of the future to one in which Black peoples, places, and communities are centered.
There have long been writers imagining Black futures; we might remember W.E.B. Du Bois’ short story “The Comet” (1920), and there have been Afrofuturist readings of other even earlier novels (such as Martin Delany’s Blake, or the Huts of America, originally published in the Anglo-African Magazine in 1859 & 1861-62). Writers like Samuel L. Delany (CPA Lifetime Achievement Award Winner) and Octavia Butler opened the door for the generations of writers who would follow them. One of the most exciting trends has been newer fiction that is grounded in what Nnedi Okorafor calls africanfuturism and africanjujuism (what she calls her own work). These works not only center Black people, but also centers and imagines African peoples, cultures, and practices in the future. [1] I want to discuss two works here, both of which imagine African futures: Okorafor’s Binti series, which is a young adult trilogy of novellas, and Tade Thompson’s Rosewater trilogy.
The Binti trilogy (best in its collected form, Binti: The Complete Trilogy) introduces us to a young Himba girl, Binti, who is a mathematical genius. While she honors her Himba roots, she also yearns for more, which leads her to apply for, and be admitted, to Oomza University – and intergalactic university to which she must travel through space. Okorafor’s intergalactic university is populated by all variety of sentient beings, including insects and creatures similar to jellyfish. On Earth, the only humans we encounter are the Khoush, lighter skinned (and prone to discriminatory beliefs about the Himba), the Himba, and the Enyi Zinaria – dark skinned desert people, who are also the most technologically advanced. The Enyi Zinaria had contact with the Zinaria, beings from another planet, in their past; their embrace of the Zinaria prompted the Zinaria to gift them with advanced technology. In other words, it is a future African world, inhabited by African peoples, who blend traditional culture and technological advances. Okorafor normalizes African scientific advances, ecological stewardship, and Africa as a place of the future.
Thompson’s Rosewater trilogy explores the effects of an alien encounter in a future Nigeria. He expertly projects contemporary Nigeria into the near future (2050s and 2060s). Here, the people of Nigeria (and the planet) are affected by an alien species who have chosen Earth as their new home – they just need to replace the humans first. The early days of “Wormwood” seem somewhat positive, as the alien that has emerged near Lagos can heal people – but its healing is imperfect, resulting in reanimated people who had recently died, and ‘healing’ some people in bizarre ways. It appears to be generally benevolent, but eventually the true plans of the aliens are revealed; the population of their home world exists only as downloaded memories on a server, with which they intend to overwrite humanity.
Before emerging in Nigeria, Wormwood had previously emerged in London. There are echoes here of the effects of colonization (and indeed we are reminded about the violence of British colonization through several of the characters). Once people learn about the aliens’ plans, an organized resistance forms, strategizing ways to rid themselves, and the whole planet, of the not-so-benevolent alien colonizers. Their challenges and accomplishments are rooted in the history of anticolonial struggle and a technological future that is distinctly Nigerian.
Both texts – among many that are now being published by major science fiction/fantasy publishers – reveal the contours of Okorafor’s definition of africanfuturism. She writes in “Africanfuturism Defined” that “Africanfuturism is specifically and more directly rooted in African culture, history, mythology and point-of-view […] and it does not privilege or center the West” (10). These books, from an African perspective, embrace the variety of African peoples. In Binti, Okorafor’s Khoush, Himba, and Enyi Zinaria reflect cultural differences and biases between and among them; the Khoush, the lightest-skinned, believe that the Himba are ‘dirty’ and inferior; the Himba look down on the darker-skinned Enyi Zinaria. Tensions between tradition and the future are a central conflict in the novellas; Binti is chastised by her sisters and Himba friends for ‘abandoning’ them by leaving the planet for the university. Thompson’s work, which takes place almost entirely in Nigeria (except for a few chapters that recall the alien’s existence in London), uses the specificity of Nigerian cultures, ethnic groups, and languages in his near-future vision. There are clearly echoes of the colonial past; this time, however, the alien’s attempt is not extractive. It is a settler colonialism that envisions the elimination of the current population through substitution. The “Homians” plan to replace humans by replacing their cells with alien cells, then overwriting humans’ memories with the saved memories of the Homians.
In both cases, these authors acknowledge African pasts and the lingering effects of colonialism, even while they create visions of African futures and the potentialities of the various peoples of the continent. The Himba in Okorafor’s works create astrolabes – but these astrolabes are the latest technology – devices that are beyond today’s smartphone technology. Thompson’s Nigerians have created multiple kinds of robotic devices, including a ‘robot’ that people frequently assume is human. Imagining the continent as a place of technological advances, as a place that exists in the future, has the potential to shift common stereotypes about African and Diasporic peoples. That these works are increasingly popular – both are featured in a recent NPR story of people’s 50 favorite sci-fi/fantasy books of the past decade, and Okorafor is a Hugo and Nebula award winner – means that fans of the genre are increasingly being exposed to africanfuturism (and also to other Global South writers, stories, and traditions). These established (and emerging) writers have the potential to significantly shift the world of fantasy away from one devoid of Black people, to one in which African futures are commonplace.
Endnotes
[1] Black futures include diasporic futures; most afrofuturist work writes from a diasporic perspective, which often means locating the imagined worlds within a Western context (US, Canada, Caribbean, European). African futures focus on futures on the continent and are shaped by the peoples and cultures there. They take place among the peoples and places of the continent and imagine those futures specifically.
References
Mayer, Petra. “We Asked, You Answered: Your 50 Favorite Sci-Fi And Fantasy Books Of The Past Decade.” NPR. August 18, 2021.
Okorafor, Nnedi. Binti: The Complete Trilogy. New York City, NY: DAW Books, 2019.
Okorafor, Nnedi. “Africanfuturism Defined.” Africanfuturism: An Anthology. Ed. Wole Talabi. Chicago, IL: Brittle Paper, 2020.
Thompson, Tade. Rosewater. London: Orbit Books, 2017.
Cover Photo Credit: Kaylan Michel.
Dr. Lisa M. Anderson is an Associate Professor of Women and Gender Studies and African and African American Studies in the School of Social Transformation at Arizona State University. She is a semiotician by training, whose interests include the political economy of black women in television production, afrofuturism, queer black women’s lived experience of disease, and black feminist thought more broadly. Her undergraduate degree was in political theory, and she received her PhD from University of Washington-Seattle in Drama. She has published on African American theatre, black women playwrights and filmmakers, and is currently completing a book on black women in television. She teaches courses on feminist theory, feminist phenomenologies, intersectionality, black feminist thought, and race, gender and sexuality in science fiction.