Afrofuturism is a cultural
aesthetic
Aesthetics (also spelled esthetics) is the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature of beauty and taste, which in a broad sense incorporates the philosophy of art.Slater, B. H.Aesthetics ''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy,'' , acces ...
, philosophy of science, and history that explores the intersection of the
African diaspora
The African diaspora is the worldwide collection of communities descended from List of ethnic groups of Africa, people from Africa. The term most commonly refers to the descendants of the native West Africa, West and Central Africans who were ...
culture with science and technology. It addresses themes and concerns of the
African diaspora
The African diaspora is the worldwide collection of communities descended from List of ethnic groups of Africa, people from Africa. The term most commonly refers to the descendants of the native West Africa, West and Central Africans who were ...
through
technoculture and
speculative fiction
Speculative fiction is an umbrella term, umbrella genre of fiction that encompasses all the subgenres that depart from Realism (arts), realism, or strictly imitating everyday reality, instead presenting fantastical, supernatural, futuristic, or ...
, encompassing a range of media and artists with a shared interest in envisioning black futures that stem from Afro-diasporic experiences.
While Afrofuturism is most commonly associated with
science fiction
Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...
, it can also encompass other speculative genres such a
Afro-fantasy fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction that involves supernatural or Magic (supernatural), magical elements, often including Fictional universe, imaginary places and Legendary creature, creatures.
The genre's roots lie in oral traditions, ...
,
alternate history
Alternate history (also referred to as alternative history, allohistory, althist, or simply A.H.) is a subgenre of speculative fiction in which one or more historical events have occurred but are resolved differently than in actual history. As ...
and
magic realism
Magical realism, magic realism, or marvelous realism is a style or genre of fiction and art that presents a realistic view of the world while incorporating magical elements, often blurring the lines between speculation and reality. ''Magical re ...
, and can also be found in music.
The term was coined by American
cultural critic
A cultural critic is a critic of a given culture, usually as a whole. Cultural criticism has significant overlap with social and cultural theory. While such criticism is simply part of the self-consciousness of the culture, the social positions o ...
Mark Dery
Mark Dery (born December 24, 1959)''Contemporary Authors Online'', s.v. "Mark Dery" (accessed February 12, 2008). is an American writer, lecturer and cultural critic. An early observer and critic of online culture, he helped to popularize the ter ...
in 1993
and explored in the late 1990s through conversations led by
Alondra Nelson
Alondra Nelson (born April 22, 1968) is an American academic, policy advisor, non-profit administrator, and writer. She is the Harold F. Linder chair and professor in the School of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study, an independ ...
.
Ytasha L. Womack, writer of ''Afrofuturism: The World of Black Sci-Fi and Fantasy Culture'', defines it as "an intersection of imagination, technology, the future and liberation". She also follows up with a quote by the curator Ingrid LaFleur, who defines it as "a way of imagining possible futures through a black cultural lens". Kathy Brown paraphrases Bennett Capers' 2019 work in stating that Afrofuturism is about "forward thinking as well as backward thinking, while having a distressing past, a distressing present, but still looking forward to thriving in the future". Others have said that the genre is "fluid and malleable", bringing together technology, African culture, and "other influences".
Seminal Afrofuturistic works include the novels of
Samuel R. Delany
Samuel R. "Chip" Delany (, ; born April 1, 1942) is an American writer and literary critic. His work includes fiction (especially science fiction), memoir, criticism, and essays on science fiction, literature, sexual orientation, sexuality, and ...
and
Octavia Butler
Octavia Estelle Butler (June 22, 1947 – February 24, 2006) was an American science fiction writer who won several awards for her works, including Hugo, Locus, and Nebula awards. In 1995, Butler became the first science-fiction writer to recei ...
; the canvases of
Jean-Michel Basquiat
Jean-Michel Basquiat (; December 22, 1960 – August 12, 1988) was an American artist who rose to success during the 1980s as part of the neo-expressionism movement.
Basquiat first achieved notoriety in the late 1970s as part of the graffiti ...
and
Angelbert Metoyer, and the photography of
Renée Cox; the cosmic avant-garde jazz of
Sun Ra
Le Sony'r Ra (born Herman Poole Blount, May 22, 1914 – May 30, 1993), better known as Sun Ra, was an American jazz composer, bandleader, piano and synthesizer player, and poet known for his experimental music, "cosmic" philosophy, prolific ou ...
and his Arkestra; the explicitly extraterrestrial
mythos
Myth is a genre of folklore consisting primarily of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society. For scholars, this is very different from the vernacular usage of the term "myth" that refers to a belief that is not true. Instead, the ...
of
Parliament-Funkadelic
Parliament-Funkadelic (abbreviated as P-Funk) is an American musical collective, music collective of rotating musicians headed by George Clinton (funk musician), George Clinton, primarily consisting of the funk bands Parliament (band), Parliame ...
;
Earth, Wind and Fire with their overt Afrocentric symbolism, bold performance attire and hopeful visions of Black sovereignty;
Herbie Hancock
Herbert Jeffrey Hancock (born April 12, 1940) is an American jazz musician, bandleader, and composer. He started his career with trumpeter Donald Byrd's group. Hancock soon joined the Miles Davis Quintet, where he helped to redefine the role of ...
's partnership with Robert Springett and other visual artists, while developing his use of synthesizers. The
Jonzun Crew,
Warp 9,
Deltron 3030,
Kool Keith
Keith Matthew Thornton (born October 7, 1963), known professionally as Kool Keith, is an American rapper and record producer known for his surreal, abstract, and often profane or incomprehensible lyrics. Kool Keith has recorded prolifically both ...
, and the
Marvel Comics
Marvel Comics is a New York City–based comic book publishing, publisher, a property of the Walt Disney Company since December 31, 2009, and a subsidiary of Disney Publishing Worldwide since March 2023. Marvel was founded in 1939 by Martin G ...
superhero
Black Panther
A black panther is the Melanism, melanistic colour variant of the leopard (''Panthera pardus'') and the jaguar (''Panthera onca''). Black panthers of both species have excess black pigments, but their typical Rosette (zoology), rosettes are al ...
can also be cited.
History
Mid- to late 20th-century development in music
Afrofuturism within music represents a diaspora of music that is non-traditional, focusing on the topic of blackness, space, and technology.
It heavily features the artificial sounds of synthesizers and drum machines while incorporating lyrical themes of black history and cultural pride, progress, spirituality, and science fiction.
One of the earliest examples of this aesthetic can be seen in the film ''
Space Is the Place'' which depicts the free jazz band of
Sun Ra
Le Sony'r Ra (born Herman Poole Blount, May 22, 1914 – May 30, 1993), better known as Sun Ra, was an American jazz composer, bandleader, piano and synthesizer player, and poet known for his experimental music, "cosmic" philosophy, prolific ou ...
involved in a
science fiction
Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...
plot where the musician starts preparing a group of young black folks to colonize an outer planet, thus giving birth to a new afro-centric civilization in another planet.
Studies on Afrofuturistic music highlight the genre's challenging of sonic norms by blending elements found in Hip-Hop, Jazz, R&B, Funk, and Electronic music.
Melting together different sounds and cultures with Afrofuturist music emphasizes the otherworldly, alternative nature that defines most Afrofuturist works.
When performed live, the genre has been observed to combine distinct sounds and sound cultures across the African Diaspora. Jamaican-American party host, DJ Kool Herc, was a well-renowned DJ in the 1970s. He was one of the many disc jockeys on the 70s New York music scene responsible for mixing Jamaica's signature hefty, booming sound systems with R&B and Rap, bass-heavy African American genres. This combination maximized audience immersion and storytelling capabilities.
Present-day Afrofuturistic musicians, such as Hip-Hop duo,
Outkast
Outkast (sometimes written as OutKast) was an American hip-hop duo formed in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1992, consisting of Big Boi (Antwan Patton) and André 3000 (André Benjamin, formerly known as Dré). Widely regarded as one of the greatest an ...
, and Jazz composer,
Nicole Mitchell, have traces of DJ Kool Herc's multi-cultural influences in their song arrangements and performances, utilizing his signature beat isolation and sound systems decades later.
Afrofuturism was a label also retroactively applied to
George Clinton and his bands
Parliament
In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...
and
Funkadelic
Funkadelic was an American funk rock band formed in Plainfield, New Jersey in 1968 and active until 1982. As one of the two flagship groups of George Clinton's P-Funk collective, they helped pioneer the funk music culture of the 1970s.John, ...
with his magnum opus ''
Mothership Connection
''Mothership Connection'' is the fourth album by American funk band Parliament, released on December 15, 1975, on Casablanca Records. This concept album is often rated among the best Parliament-Funkadelic releases, and was the first to feature ho ...
'' (1975) and the subsequent ''
The Clones of Dr. Funkenstein'',
P-Funk Earth Tour, ''
Funkentelechy Vs. the Placebo Syndrome'', and ''
Motor Booty Affair''. George Clinton's work and appearance embody Afrofuturistic themes, sporting shiny, futuristic clothing both on and off stage, using sci-fi and cosmic album theming, and addressing Black history in his lyrics.
Parliament's Mothership Connection was recognized for its themes of Black liberation and space in song arrangement, lyricism, and album visual aesthetics. The album cover art depicts a Black person, dressed head-to-toe in chrome, hanging out of a UFO in space. The album also introduces two of Clinton's alter egos, the Lollipop Man and Star Child. Parliament Funkadelic's strong worldbuilding and establishment of individualism and escapism in their work have been partly attributed to their inclusion of characters and alter egos in their music. Alter egos remain a staple in Afrofuturistic music, with
Janelle Monáe
Janelle Monáe Robinson ( ; born December 1, 1985) is an American singer, songwriter, rapper and actress. She has received ten Grammy Award nominations, and is the recipient of a Screen Actors Guild Award and a Children's and Family Emmy Award. ...
, a notable contemporary musical artist, incorporating characters and sci-fi storylines into their Afrofuturistic music and album visuals.
This also applies to
Jimi Hendrix
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix (born Johnny Allen Hendrix; November 27, 1942September 18, 1970) was an American singer-songwriter and musician. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential guitarists of all time. Inducted ...
's work such as ''
Electric Ladyland
''Electric Ladyland'' is the third and final studio album by the Jimi Hendrix Experience, released in October 1968. A double album, it was the only record from the Experience with production solely credited to Hendrix. The band's most commercial ...
'' and "
Third Stone from the Sun".
Provoked by
Miles Davis
Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926September 28, 1991) was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th century music, 20th-century music. Davis ado ...
to use electric keyboards, Herbie Hancock quickly developed his taste for gadgets into an appreciation for electric and synthesized sounds. He did this in his solo career throughout the 1970s and 1980s, at the same time adopting tribal names for his group and increasingly using electronics in his music, in a techno-primitive direction. His record covers were a very important element in this aesthetic, involving artists such as Robert Springett,
Victor Moscoso and Nobuyuki Nakanishi.
In 1975, Japanese artist
Tadanori Yokoo
is a Japanese graphic designer, illustrator, printmaker and painter. Yokoo's signature style of psychedelia and pastiche engages a wide span of modern visual and cultural phenomena from Japan and around the world.
Career
Tadanori Yokoo, bo ...
used elements of science fiction, along with
Eastern subterranean myths, to depict an advanced civilization in his design of the cover art for African-American jazz musician Miles Davis's live album ''
Agharta''.
Other musicians typically regarded as working in or greatly influenced by the Afrofuturist tradition include reggae producers
Lee "Scratch" Perry
Lee "Scratch" Perry (born Rainford Hugh Perry; 20 March 1936 – 29 August 2021) was a Jamaican record producer, songwriter and singer noted for his innovative studio techniques and production style. Perry was a pioneer in the 1970s development ...
and
Scientist
A scientist is a person who Scientific method, researches to advance knowledge in an Branches of science, area of the natural sciences.
In classical antiquity, there was no real ancient analog of a modern scientist. Instead, philosophers engag ...
, hip-hop artists
Afrika Bambaataa
Lance Taylor (born April 17, 1957), also known as Afrika Bambaataa (), is a retired American DJ, rapper, and record producer. He is notable for releasing a series of genre-defining electro tracks in the 1980s that influenced the development of ...
and
Tricky, electronic musicians
Larry Heard,
A Guy Called Gerald
Gerald Rydel Simpson (born 1967), better known as A Guy Called Gerald, is a British record producer and musician. He was an early member of the electronic group 808 State, contributing to their debut LP '' Newbuild'' (1988) and hit single " ...
,
Juan Atkins
Juan Atkins (born September 12, 1962), also known as Model 500 and Infiniti, is an American record producer and DJ from Detroit, Michigan. ''Mixmag'' has described him as "the original pioneer of Detroit techno." He has been a member of the Belle ...
,
Jeff Mills
Jeff Mills (born June 18, 1963, in Detroit, Michigan), also known as "the Wizard", is an American DJ, record producer, and composer. In the late 1980s Mills founded the techno collective Underground Resistance with fellow Detroit techno pro ...
,
Newcleus
Newcleus was an American electro and old school hip hop group that gained popularity in the early 1980s. The group is primarily known for its 12-inch single "Jam-On's Revenge" (re-released as "Jam on Revenge (The Wikki-Wikki Song)" (1983)) and ...
and
Lotti Golden
Lotti Golden (born November 27, 1949) is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, poet and artist. Golden is best known for her 1969 debut album ''Motor-Cycle (album), Motor-Cycle'', on Atlantic Records.
Winner of the American Society of ...
& Richard Scher, writers of "
Light Years Away", described as a "cornerstone of early 80's beatbox afrofuturism".
During the 1980s, the burgeoning
Detroit techno
Detroit techno is a type of techno music that generally includes the first techno productions by Detroit-based artists during the 1980s and early 1990s. Prominent Detroit techno artists include Juan Atkins, Eddie Fowlkes, Derrick May, Jeff Mi ...
scene also developed a futurist vision specific to Detroit's suburban black community.
A newer generation of artists are creating mainstream Afrofuturist musicfor example,
Janelle Monáe
Janelle Monáe Robinson ( ; born December 1, 1985) is an American singer, songwriter, rapper and actress. She has received ten Grammy Award nominations, and is the recipient of a Screen Actors Guild Award and a Children's and Family Emmy Award. ...
,
Outkast
Outkast (sometimes written as OutKast) was an American hip-hop duo formed in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1992, consisting of Big Boi (Antwan Patton) and André 3000 (André Benjamin, formerly known as Dré). Widely regarded as one of the greatest an ...
,
Missy Elliott
Melissa Arnette "Missy" Elliott (born July 1, 1971), also known as Misdemeanor, is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, and record producer. She began her musical career as a member of the Contemporary R&B, R&B girl group 4 All the Sistas Arou ...
,
Solange, jazz composer
Nicole Mitchell and
Erykah Badu
Erica Abi Wright (born February 26, 1971), known professionally as Erykah Badu, is an American singer and songwriter. Influenced by rhythm and blues, R&B, Soul music, soul, and hip hop, Badu rose to prominence in the late 1990s when her debut al ...
.
Cultural criticism in the 1990s
In the early 1990s,
Mark Dery
Mark Dery (born December 24, 1959)''Contemporary Authors Online'', s.v. "Mark Dery" (accessed February 12, 2008). is an American writer, lecturer and cultural critic. An early observer and critic of online culture, he helped to popularize the ter ...
, in his 1993 essay "Black to the Future",
began to write about the features he saw as common in African-American science fiction. Dery dubbed this phenomenon Afrofuturism. Afrofuturist art has been written about by scholars like
Alondra Nelson
Alondra Nelson (born April 22, 1968) is an American academic, policy advisor, non-profit administrator, and writer. She is the Harold F. Linder chair and professor in the School of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study, an independ ...
,
Greg Tate,
Tricia Rose,
Kodwo Eshun, and others.
In an interview, Alondra Nelson explained Afrofuturism as a way of looking at the subject position of black people which covers themes of alienation and aspirations for a utopic future. The idea of "alien" or "other" is a theme often explored.
Additionally, Nelson says that discussions around race, access, and technology often bolster uncritical claims about a so-called "
digital divide
The digital divide is the unequal access to information technology, digital technology, including smartphones, tablets, laptops, and the internet. The digital divide worsens inequality around access to information and resources. In the Information ...
".
Nelson is of the opinion that the digital divide overemphasizes the association of racial and economic inequality with limited access to technology, and that this association then begins to construct blackness "as always oppositional to technologically driven chronicles of progress".
21st century
Contemporary Afrofuturism often explores metaphysical areas such as "cosmogony, cosmology, and speculative philosophy". A new generation of recording artists has embraced Afrofuturism through their music and fashion, including
Solange Knowles
Solange Piaget Knowles (; born June 24, 1986) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. She expressed an interest in music from an early age and had temporary stints as a backup dancer for Destiny's Child, which featured her older sister ...
,
Rihanna
Robyn Rihanna Fenty ( ; born February 20, 1988) is a Barbadian singer, businesswoman, and actress. One of the List of music artists by net worth, wealthiest musicians in the world, List of awards and nominations received by Rihanna, her vario ...
, and
Beyoncé
Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter ( ; born September 4, 1981) is an American singer, songwriter, actress, and businesswoman. With a career spanning over three decades, she has established herself as one of the most Cultural impact of Beyoncé, ...
. Other artists such as
Erykah Badu
Erica Abi Wright (born February 26, 1971), known professionally as Erykah Badu, is an American singer and songwriter. Influenced by rhythm and blues, R&B, Soul music, soul, and hip hop, Badu rose to prominence in the late 1990s when her debut al ...
,
Missy Elliott
Melissa Arnette "Missy" Elliott (born July 1, 1971), also known as Misdemeanor, is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, and record producer. She began her musical career as a member of the Contemporary R&B, R&B girl group 4 All the Sistas Arou ...
and
Janelle Monáe
Janelle Monáe Robinson ( ; born December 1, 1985) is an American singer, songwriter, rapper and actress. She has received ten Grammy Award nominations, and is the recipient of a Screen Actors Guild Award and a Children's and Family Emmy Award. ...
have expanded on these themes incorporating the use of cyborg and metallic visuals into their style.
Other 21st century musicians who have been characterized as Afrofuturist include singer
FKA Twigs
Tahliah Debrett Barnett (born 16 January 1988), known professionally as FKA Twigs (stylized as FKA twigs), is an English singer, songwriter, record producer, actor, and dancer. She was a backup dancer for numerous musicians, and made her musica ...
,
musical duo
Ibeyi,
musical artist
Spoek Mathambo, DJ/producer
Ras G, and musician and filmmaker
Flying Lotus
Steven Ellison (born October 7, 1983), better known as Flying Lotus or sometimes FlyLo, is an American record producer, DJ, filmmaker, and rapper. He has released seven critically acclaimed albums: ''1983'' (2006), ''Los Angeles'' (2008), '' Co ...
.
Janelle Monáe's work emphasizes Afofuturist themes in urban contemporary music. Her notable works include the music videos "Prime Time" and "Many Moons", which explore the realms of slavery and freedom through the world of cyborgs and the fashion industry. She is credited with proliferating Afrofuturist funk into a new neo-Afrofuturism by use of her ''
Metropolis
A metropolis () is a large city or conurbation which is a significant economic, political, and cultural area for a country or region, and an important hub for regional or international connections, commerce, and communications.
A big city b ...
''-inspired alter-ego, Cindi Mayweather, who incites a rebellion against the Great Divide, a secret society, in order to liberate citizens who have fallen under their oppression. This ArchAndroid role reflects earlier Afrofuturistic figures Sun Ra and George Clinton, who created their own visuals as extraterrestrial beings rescuing African-Americans from the oppressive natures of Earth. Other influences include ''
Blade Runner
''Blade Runner'' is a 1982 science fiction film directed by Ridley Scott from a screenplay by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples. Starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young, and Edward James Olmos, it is an adaptation of Philip K. Di ...
'' and ''
Star Wars
''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera media franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and Cultural impact of Star Wars, quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop cu ...
''. Additionally, Monáe expanded contemporary Afrofuturist explorations to literary media. In 2022, Monáe released a companion to her 2018 album, ''
Dirty Computer'', called ''
The Memory Librarian: And Other Stories of Dirty Computer''.
Janelle Monáe uses technology to shed light on current social and political issues which is a key factor of Afrofuturism. This is evident in ''The Memory Librarian: and Other Stories by Dirty Computer''. The first example of technology being used as a warning of what is to come if we do not proceed with caution and change our current socio-political climate, as well as a symbol for future and current ways of oppression. In this story, technology is used to wipe memories. Hence, its victims are reborn without knowing their past selves, only what they have been conditioned to believe according to the "Standards". Those who are in minority groups, such as BIPOC and the LGBTQ+, are seen as "Dirty" and must be wiped clean. Monáe expands on this on page fourteen when Seshet goes out with Alethia, "With New Dawn, any gender nonconformity is enough to get you a deviant code appended to your number-dirty computer, recommended for urgent cleaning- and she doesn’t want to flag anyone tonight". The "urgent cleaning" that Seshet contemplates is wiping out one's memory. This is shown visually in her short film ''Dirty Computer''. Monáe highlights how oppressors can easily use technology to control the oppressed.
The other two examples of how Monáe uses technology to showcase the relationship between humans is how AI is utilized in a more technologically advanced way as well as Seshet, the Director Memory Librarian, amongst others in an authoritative position able to access people's dreams and memories as a way to ensure they follow the "Standards" and are not classified as a "Dirty Computer".
Monáe's artistic vision extends beyond mere entertainment, serving as a reflection of present realities and a cautionary tale for the future. By embracing Afrofuturist themes and leveraging technology as a narrative device, Monáe invites audiences to confront uncomfortable truths and contemplate the potential consequences of unchecked power and systemic injustice. Through her music and storytelling, Monáe continues to use artistic expression to challenge societal norms for a more equitable and inclusive future.
Additional musical artists to emerge since the turn of the millennium regarded as Afrofuturist include
dBridge,
SBTRKT,
Shabazz Palaces
Shabazz Palaces is an American hip hop group from Seattle led by Ishmael Butler a.k.a. Palaceer Lazaro (formerly Butterfly of jazz rap group Digable Planets). Much of Butler's work as Shabazz Palaces has been made in collaboration with multi ...
,
Heavyweight Dub Champion,
and
Drexciya (with
Gerald Donald).
Other artists include visual artists Hebru Brantley as well as contemporary artist
Rashid Johnson, a Chicago native currently based in New York. In 2013, Chicago resident Ytasha L. Womack wrote the study ''Afrofuturism: The World of Black Science Fiction and Fantasy'', and William Hayashi has published all three volumes of his ''Darkside Trilogy'' which tells the story of what happens in America when the country discovers African Americans secretly living on the backside of the moon since before the arrival of Neil Armstrong, an extreme vision of segregation imposed by technologically advanced blacks.
Krista Franklin, a member of University of Chicago's Arts Incubator, is currently exploring the relation between Afrofuturism and the grotesque through her visual and written work with weaves and collected hair. Recently, she also created an audio narrative in collaboration with another Afrofuturist, Perpetual Rebel, called ''The Two Thousand and Thirteen Narrative(s) of Naima Brown'', which explores the ideas of identity and transformation within the context of hair and African-American culture.
The movement has grown globally in the arts. Afrofuturist Society was founded by curator
Gia Hamilton in New Orleans. Artists like
Demetrius Oliver from New York,
Cyrus Kabiru from
Nairobi
Nairobi is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Kenya. The city lies in the south-central part of Kenya, at an elevation of . The name is derived from the Maasai language, Maasai phrase , which translates to 'place of cool waters', a ...
,
Lina Iris Viktor from
Liberia
Liberia, officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country on the West African coast. It is bordered by Sierra Leone to Liberia–Sierra Leone border, its northwest, Guinea to Guinea–Liberia border, its north, Ivory Coast to Ivory Coast–Lib ...
, famed
Nigerian-American solar muralist, Shala., and
Wanuri Kahiu
Wanuri Kahiu (born 21 June 1980) is a Kenyan film director, producer, and author. She is considered to be “one of Africa's most aspiring directors, being part of a new, vibrant crop of talents representing contemporary African culture”. She ...
of Kenya have all steeped their work in the cosmos or sci-fi.
Today, Afrofuturism has been portrayed in popular movies like the feature film ''
Black Panther
A black panther is the Melanism, melanistic colour variant of the leopard (''Panthera pardus'') and the jaguar (''Panthera onca''). Black panthers of both species have excess black pigments, but their typical Rosette (zoology), rosettes are al ...
'' (2018). American costume designer
Ruth E. Carter brought her vision to life. To best represent her work, she borrowed ideas from true African designs. "To imagine the fictional African nation of
Wakanda, without the influence of
uropean colonizers Ms. Carter borrowed from
indigenous people
There is no generally accepted definition of Indigenous peoples, although in the 21st century the focus has been on self-identification, cultural difference from other groups in a state, a special relationship with their traditional territ ...
across the continent." In early February 2021, it was announced that the companies of
Idris Elba
Idrissa Akuna Elba Order of the British Empire, OBE ( ; born 6 September 1972) is an English actor and musician. He has received a Golden Globe Award as well as nominations for three BAFTA Awards and six Primetime Emmy Awards, Emmy Awards. He w ...
and his wife,
Sabrina Dhowre, would be developing an Afrofuturist
adult animated
An adult is an animal that has reached full growth. The biological definition of the word means an animal reaching sexual maturity and thus capable of reproduction. In the human context, the term ''adult'' has meanings associated with social and ...
,
sci-fi
Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...
, series, tentatively titled ''Dantai'', for
Crunchyroll
Crunchyroll is an American Video on demand#Subscription models, subscription video on-demand Over-the-top media service, over-the-top Streaming media, streaming service owned by Sony, Sony Group Corporation. The service primarily distributes fi ...
, which would be about a time when
biotech
Biotechnology is a multidisciplinary field that involves the integration of natural sciences and engineering sciences in order to achieve the application of organisms and parts thereof for products and services. Specialists in the field are kn ...
has "created an ever-widening gap between the haves and have-nots". The series was also described as an "afropunk sci-fi series".
In an April 2021 interview with
Den of Geek
''Den of Geek'' is a UK and US-based website covering entertainment with a focus on pop culture. The website also issues a biannual magazine.
History
''Den of Geek'' was founded in 2007 by Simon Brew in London. In 2012, DoG Tech LLC licensed ' ...
, Idris Elba he said the series is "mainly the brainchild" of his wife, who he described as a "super geek when it comes to anime." Russell Contreras, in
Axios
Axios commonly refers to:
* Axios (river), a river that runs through Greece and North Macedonia
* ''Axios'' (website), an American news and information website
Axios may also refer to:
Brands and enterprises
* Axios, a brand of suspension produ ...
, noted that Afrofuturism is growing in popularity, even as some worry it will be co-opted, and black writers announced in 2021, "Afrofuturist projects around gaming and virtual reality".
In February 2021, the Center for Afrofuturist Studies, located at Public Space One in Iowa City, celebrated its fifth anniversary, flourishing as a black artist space, and occupied by four artists (Antoine Williams, Donté Hayes, Deborah Goffe, and André M. Zachery), embodying Afrofuturism, flexibly defining the term, as envisioning black people in the future and how that "connects with science and technology and new discoveries" and how parts of black history shape "the future, community, self-determination,
ndworking towards a goal" according to the center's coordinator, Dellyssa Edinboro.
In February 2023, Megan Jordan of ''
Rolling Stone
''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason.
The magazine was first known fo ...
'' argued that the series ''
My Dad the Bounty Hunter'' is an "Afrofuturist marvel" which tells a futuristic and relatable story that "center
Black characters while expanding the audience’s imagination", provides thoughts of what the world could be "in true
Black sci-fi fashion", and normalizes "Black heroism for future generations".
The series premiered the same month. It was later renewed for a second season, as stated in May 2023.
Literature and comics
The creation of the term Afrofuturism, in the 1990s, was often primarily used to categorize "speculative fiction that treats African-American themes and addresses African-American concerns in the context of 20th-century technoculture,"
[Bould, Mark. "The Ships Landed Long Ago: Afrofuturism and Black SF." ''Science Fiction Studies'' 34.2 (July 2007): 177–186. ] but was soon expanded to include artistic, scientific, and spiritual practices throughout the
African diaspora
The African diaspora is the worldwide collection of communities descended from List of ethnic groups of Africa, people from Africa. The term most commonly refers to the descendants of the native West Africa, West and Central Africans who were ...
. Contemporary practice retroactively identifies and documents historical instances of Afrofuturist practice and integrates them into the canon. For example, the
Dark Matter
In astronomy, dark matter is an invisible and hypothetical form of matter that does not interact with light or other electromagnetic radiation. Dark matter is implied by gravity, gravitational effects that cannot be explained by general relat ...
anthologies edited by
Sheree Thomas feature contemporary
black science fiction, discuss Ralph Ellison's ''
Invisible Man'' in her introduction, "Looking for the Invisible", and also include older works by
W. E. B. Du Bois,
Charles W. Chesnutt, and
George S. Schuyler.
Lisa Yazsek argues that
Ralph Ellison
Ralph Waldo Ellison (March 1, 1913 – April 16, 1994) was an American writer, literary critic, and scholar best known for his novel '' Invisible Man'', which won the National Book Award in 1953.
Ellison wrote '' Shadow and Act'' (1964), a co ...
's 1952 novel, ''
Invisible Man'', should be thought of as a predecessor to Afrofuturist literature. Yaszek believes that Ellison does not offer any other futures so that the next generation of authors can.
A number of contemporary science fiction and speculative fiction authors have also been characterized as Afrofuturist or as employing Afrofuturist themes by one person or another.
Nancy Farmer
Nancy Farmer (born 1941) is an American writer of children's literature, children's and young adult books and science fiction. She has written three Newbery Medal, Newbery Honor books and won the U.S. National Book Award for Young People's Liter ...
won a
Newbery Honor
The John Newbery Medal, frequently shortened to the Newbery, is a literary award given by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), to the author of "the most distinguished contr ...
for her afrofuturist young adult novel ''
The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm.''
Steven Barnes
Steven Barnes (born March 1, 1952) is an American science fiction, fantasy, and mystery writer. He has written novels, short fiction, screen plays for television, scripts for comic books, animation, newspaper copy, and magazine articles.
Earl ...
has been called an Afrofuturist author for his alternate-history novels ''
Lion's Blood'' and ''
Zulu Heart''.
N.K. Jemisin,
Nalo Hopkinson
Nalo Hopkinson (born 20 December 1960) is a Jamaican-born Canadian speculative fiction writer and editor. Her novels – ''Brown Girl in the Ring (novel), Brown Girl in the Ring'' (1998), ''Midnight Robber'' (2000), ''The Salt Roads'' (2003), ' ...
, and
Colson Whitehead
Arch Colson Chipp Whitehead (born November 6, 1969) is an American novelist. He is the author of nine novels, including his 1999 in literature, 1999 debut ''The Intuitionist''; ''The Underground Railroad (novel), The Underground Railroad'' (2016) ...
have also been referred to as Afrofuturist authors. Butler inspired a movement with vision amongst the black speculative fiction writers. Octavia Butler's science fiction writings are associated with Afrofuturism.
[Sinker, Mark. "Loving the Alien." ''The Wire'' 96 (February 1992): 30–32.] Her storytelling subverts fixed binaries that emerge from systemic oppression, such as how her multi-ethnic and multi-species communities invite collaboration rather than hierarchy.
[Kilgore, De Witt Douglas and Ranu Samantrai. "A Memorial to Octavia E. Butler." ''Science Fiction Studies'' 37.3 (November 2010): 353–361. .] In
Samuel R. Delany
Samuel R. "Chip" Delany (, ; born April 1, 1942) is an American writer and literary critic. His work includes fiction (especially science fiction), memoir, criticism, and essays on science fiction, literature, sexual orientation, sexuality, and ...
's "The Mirror of Afrofuturism," in which he claims Afrofuturism as a genre does not exist, he explains how Butler, specifically her 2003 short story "
Amnesty
Amnesty () is defined as "A pardon extended by the government to a group or class of people, usually for a political offense; the act of a sovereign power officially forgiving certain classes of people who are subject to trial but have not yet be ...
", contains "something more powerful than any local notion of what creates racial distinctions
Portland State University Single Sign-On - Stale RequestHowever, the fourth book of the science fiction
Patternist series, ''
Wild Seed'', particularly fits ideas of Afrofuturist thematic concerns, as the narrative of two immortal Africans Doro and Anyanwu features science fiction technologies and an alternate anti-colonialist history of seventeenth century America.
[Canavan, Gerry.]
Bred to Be Superhuman: Comic Books and Afrofuturism in Octavia Butler's Patternist Series
." ''Paradoxa'' 25 (2013): 253–287. At the most straightforward sci-fi stories (likewise alluded to in this book as Sci-Fi and SF) is a social classification worried about parts of futurism, envisioned advances as well as between planetarism. Those focuses or direction take into consideration a wide scope of enunciations and theories regarding the dystopian or utopian parts of future (or potentially elective) lives or real factors, including, in numerous examples, contact with outsider others.
In other words, good fiction writing should not be judged by a person's color or race.
Outside of the
United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
and
North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...
, the african diaspora has developed specific Afrofuturism thematic in different territories. In the (French) Caribbean for example, authors like have developed a whole universe based on cultural and geographical specificities but still linked to the Afrofuturism thematics.
Tim Fielder's 2021 graphic novel ''Infinitum: An Afrofuturist Tale'' features the partially historical narrative of an immortal African king.
In February 2021, the
New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
reported that in the coming year, fans would see a number of graphic novels and comics with Afrofuturist themes, including some devoted to the fictional gene, and "reissues of Afrofuturist titles from comic-book houses like DC and Dark Horse."
[ This includes the new novels ''After the Rain'', ''Hardears'', ''Black Star'', and ''Infinitum'', the latter by Tim Fielder, a new installment of N.K. Jemisin's '' Far Sector'', '' The Black Panther'' by ]Ta-Nehisi Coates
Ta-Nehisi Paul Coates ( ; born September 30, 1975) is an American author, journalist, and activist. He gained a wide readership during his time as national correspondent at ''The Atlantic'', where he wrote about cultural, social, and political is ...
and many other re-issued comics like E.X.O., along with an upcoming animated series named '' Iwájú''. Around the same time, Kenyan artist Kevo Abbra, inspired by Afrofuturism in the 1990s, was interviewed, explaining how artistic expression has developed over time and his current artistic style. The first issue of the new ''Black Panther'' series was released on 16 February.
Art
Museum and gallery exhibitions
As a part of the MOMA's PS1 festival, King Britt
King Britt (born 1968) is an American record producer, composer, performer, educator, and DJ and record producer from Philadelphia. Britt is known for his eclectic mix of electronic, house, disco, techno, rave, experimental music, and other gen ...
curated ''Moondance: A Night in the Afro Future'' in 2014. From noon to six p.m. on 13 April, people could attend Moondance and listen to lectures, live music or watch dance performances in celebration of Afrofuturism in contemporary culture. Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture held a seminal group show of Visual Afrofuturists focusing on unambiguous science fiction and fantasy based art. The show, titled 'Unveiling Visions: The Alchemy of the Black Imagination' ran from 1 October 2015 – 16 January 2016. The closing night coincided with the Schomburg Black Comic Book Day. Unveiling Visions was curated by artist John Jennings (co-founder of artist duo, Black Kirby w/Professor Stacey Robinson) and Afrofuturist Scholar, Reynaldo Anderson (founder of The Black Speculative Arts Movement). The show featured artists such as Tony Puryear, Sheeba Maya, Mshindo Kuumba, Eric Wilkerson, Manzel Bowman, Grey Williamson, Tim Fielder, Stacey Robinson, and Shawn Alleyne. Unveiling Visions liner notes state: "exhibition includes artifacts from the Schomburg collections that are connected to Afrofuturism, black speculative imagination and Diasporan cultural production. Offering a fresh perspective on the power of speculative imagination and the struggle for various freedoms of expression in popular culture, Unveiling Visions showcases illustrations and other graphics that highlight those popularly found in science fiction, magical realism and fantasy. Items on display include film posters, comics, T-shirts, magazines, CD covers, playbills, religious literature, and more."
In April 2016, Niama Safia Sandy curated an exhibit entitled "Black Magic: AfroPasts / Afrofutures" at the Corridor Gallery in Brooklyn, New York. The multidisciplinary art exhibit looks at the relationship between magical realism and afrofuturism through the black diaspora. In a description of the collection, Sandy stated: "There's a lot of looking back and looking forward happening in this work... nd there's a lot ofcelebrating those journeys whether they are intentional or forced journeys."
The exhibition ''Afro-Tech and the Future of Re-Invention'' ran from 21 October 2017 until 22 April 2018 at Dortmunder U in Dortmund, Germany and looked at "speculative visions of the future and current developments in the field of digital technology by artists and inventors from Africa and the African diaspora...."
These Afrofuturist artists used their art as revolution in that they saw its purpose as inspiring black people to imagine new possibilities and futures.
"Black Metropolis: 30 Years of Afrofuturism, Comics, Music, Animation, Decapitated Chickens, Heroes, Villains and Negroes" was a one-man show focusing on the career of cartoonist and visual afrofuturist, Tim Fielder. The show, designed to travel over multiple gallery spaces, opened at New York Gallatin Galleries from 23 to 30 May 2016. Curated by Boston Fielder, the exhibit featured both published and unpublished work ranging from independent comics art for alternative magazine, '' Between C & D'' and mainstream comics work done for Marvel Comics. Black Metropolis was revived at The Hammonds House Museum in Atlanta, Georgia for the museum's 30th Anniversary, from 12 October–25 November 2018.
Afrofuturism Art coincides with Afrofuturism Literature occasionally, such as in science fiction comic books. Just as Afrofuturism explores possibilities, so do the art in Afrofuturism comic books. For example, Black Panther, the movie and comic book is a form of Afrofuturism Literature.
In 2021, the Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...
opened '' Before Yesterday We Could Fly: An Afrofuturist Period Room'', an art exhibition engaging themes of Afrofuturism in a "period room" format of installation, envisioning the past, present, and future home of someone who lived in Seneca Village, a largely African American
African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...
settlement destroyed to make way for the construction of Central Park
Central Park is an urban park between the Upper West Side and Upper East Side neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City, and the first landscaped park in the United States. It is the List of parks in New York City, sixth-largest park in the ...
in the mid-1800s.
In 2022, the Hayward Gallery
The Hayward Gallery is an art gallery within the Southbank Centre in central London, England and part of an area of major arts venues on the South Bank of the River Thames. It is sited adjacent to the other Southbank Centre buildings (the Royal ...
organised an exhibition of 11 contemporary artists from the African diaspora, who draw on science fiction, myth and Afrofuturism to question our knowledge of the world, curated by Ekow Eshun. Some of the artists included in the exhibition were Nick Cave
Nicholas Edward Cave (born 22 September 1957) is an Australian musician, writer, and actor who fronts the rock band Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. Known for his baritone voice, Cave's music is characterised by emotional intensity, a wide variety ...
, Rashad Newsome, Kara Walker
Kara Elizabeth Walker (born November 26, 1969) is an American contemporary painter, silhouettist, printmaker, installation artist, filmmaker, and professor who explores Race (classification of human beings), race, gender, human sexuality, sexual ...
, Hew Locke, Wangechi Mutu, Lina Iris Viktor and Ellen Gallagher.
Starting on March 24, 2023, and lasting a year, the NMAAHC opened an exhibit titled ''Afrofuturism: A History of Black Futures''. The museum also released an accompanying book called with the same name.
Themes
Feminism
Jared Richardson's ''Attack of the Boogeywoman: Visualizing Black Women's Grotesquerie in Afrofuturism'' assesses how the aesthetic functions as a space for black women to engage with the intersection of topics such as race, gender, and sexuality. The representation and treatment of black female bodies is deconstructed by Afrofuturist contemporaries and amplified to alien and gruesome dimensions by artists such as Wangechi Mutu and Shoshanna Weinberger.
Beyoncé
Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter ( ; born September 4, 1981) is an American singer, songwriter, actress, and businesswoman. With a career spanning over three decades, she has established herself as one of the most Cultural impact of Beyoncé, ...
's 2016 short film ''Lemonade
Lemonade is a sweetened lemon-flavored drink.
There are many varieties of lemonade found throughout the world.
In some parts of the world, lemonade refers to an un-carbonated, traditionally, homemade drink, using lemon juice, water, and a sw ...
'' included feminist afrofuturism in its concept. The film featured music duo Ibeyi, artist Laolu Senbanjo, actresses Amandla Stenberg
Amandla Stenberg (born October 23, 1998) is an American actress. She began her career as a child and received recognition for playing List of The Hunger Games characters#Rue, Rue in the action film ''The Hunger Games (film), The Hunger Games'' ( ...
, Quvenzhané Wallis
Quvenzhané Wallis ( ; born August 28, 2003) is an American actress and author. In 2012, she starred as Hushpuppy in the drama film ''Beasts of the Southern Wild'' (2012), for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress, becomi ...
, and Zendaya
Zendaya Maree Stoermer Coleman ( ; born September 1, 1996) is an American actress and singer. List of awards and nominations received by Zendaya, Her accolades include two Primetime Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe Awards, Golden Globe Award. I ...
, as well as YouTube singing stars Chloe x Halle
Chloe x Halle (pronounced "Chloe and Halle") is an American alternative R&B duo consisting of sisters Chloe Bailey, Chloe and Halle Bailey. At a young age, the sisters performed in minor acting roles before traveling from their hometown of Mable ...
, ballet dancer Michaela DePrince, and 2015 Sports Illustrated Sportsperson of the Year Serena Williams
Serena Jameka Williams (born September 26, 1981) is an American former professional tennis player. She was ranked as the List of WTA number 1 ranked singles tennis players, world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WT ...
, and the sophisticated womanist poetry of Somali-British writer Warsan Shire. The mothers of Trayvon Martin
Trayvon Benjamin Martin (February 5, 1995 – February 26, 2012) was a 17-year-old African-American from Miami Gardens, Florida, who was killing of Trayvon Martin, fatally shot in Sanford, Florida, by George Zimmerman, a 28-year-old Hispanic an ...
(Sybrina Fulton), Michael Brown (Lesley McFadden), Eric Garner (Gwen Carr) are featured holding pictures of their deceased sons in homage to the importance of their lives.
The grotesque
In D. Scot Miller's Afro-Surreal Manifesto, Afro-Surrealism is juxtaposed with European surrealism, with European surrealism being empirical. It is consistent with Trey Ellis' essay, "The New Black Aesthetic" in that the art seeks to disturb. Afro-Futuristic art samples from old art pieces updating them with current images. This technique calls to the forefront those past images and the sentiments, memories, or ideas around them and combines them with new images in a way that those of the current generation can still identify. Afro-Futuristic artists seek to propose a deviant beauty, a beauty in which disembodiment is both inhumane, yet distinct; Afro-Futuristic artists speculate on the future, where Afro-Surrealism is about the present.
Alienation
Afrofuturism takes representations of the lived realities of black people in the past and present, and reexamines the narratives to attempt to build new truths outside of the dominant cultural narrative. By analyzing the ways in which alienation has occurred, Afrofuturism works to connect the African diaspora with its histories and knowledge of racialized bodies. Space and aliens function as key products of the science fiction elements; black people are envisioned to have been the first aliens by way of the Middle Passage
The Middle Passage was the stage of the Atlantic slave trade in which millions of Africans sold for enslavement were forcibly transported to the Americas as part of the triangular slave trade. Ships departed Europe for African markets with manu ...
. Their alien status connotes being in a foreign land with no history, but as also being disconnected from the past via the traditions of slavery where slaves were made to renounce their ties to Africa in service of their slave master.
Kodwo Eshun locates the first alienation within the context of the Middle Passage. He writes that Afrofuturist texts work to reimagine slavery and alienation by using "extraterritoriality as a hyperbolic trope to explore the historical terms, the everyday implications of forcibly imposed dislocation, and the constitution of Black Atlantic subjectivities". This location of dystopian futures and present realities places science fiction and novels built around dystopian societies directly in the tradition of black realities.
Water
In many different Afrofuturist works, water and black women are symbolically linked in their connection to both the erasure and emergence of black life. These meanings, while seemingly contradictory, actually play off and inform each other.
Examples of Afrofuturist work dealing with the theme of water include the 2009 Kenyan film ''Pumzi
''Pumzi'' () is a Kenyan science-fiction short film written and directed by Wanuri Kahiu. It was screened at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival as part of its New African Cinema program. The project was funded with grants from the Changamoto arts ...
'', various songs in Beyonce's Lemonade
Lemonade is a sweetened lemon-flavored drink.
There are many varieties of lemonade found throughout the world.
In some parts of the world, lemonade refers to an un-carbonated, traditionally, homemade drink, using lemon juice, water, and a sw ...
, the work of Detroit Techno
Detroit techno is a type of techno music that generally includes the first techno productions by Detroit-based artists during the 1980s and early 1990s. Prominent Detroit techno artists include Juan Atkins, Eddie Fowlkes, Derrick May, Jeff Mi ...
group Drexciya, and Kara Walker's 2019 sculpture ''Fons Americanus.''
Reclamation
Afrofuturism has to do with reclaiming those identities or perspectives that have been lost. When Mark Dery coined the term, he saw Afrofuturism as giving rise to "a troubling antinomy: Can a community whose past has been deliberately rubbed out, and whose energies have subsequently been consumed by the search for legible traces of its history, imagine possible futures?" Furthermore, Afrofuturism is not restricted to any single medium; there are Afrofuturist novels and musical works. But whatever the medium, Afrofuturism involves reclaiming some type of agency over one's story, a story that has been told, throughout much of history, by official culture in the name of white power. It is for this reason that Dery says, "African-American culture is Afrofuturist at its heart."
Queerness
In her article “Race and Sexuality in Nalo Hopkinson’s Oeuvre; or, Queer Afrofuturism,” Amandine H. Faucheux coins the term "queer
''Queer'' is an umbrella term for people who are non-heterosexual or non- cisgender. Originally meaning or , ''queer'' came to be used pejoratively against LGBTQ people in the late 19th century. From the late 1980s, queer activists began to ...
Afrofuturism" to describe a certain sub-genre of Afrofuturist works that include themes of queerness, sexuality, and the social and personal meaning of the body. She defines queer Afrofuturism as “an intersectional approach to Afrofuturism that examines the complex and intricate relationships between race and sexuality”. Her article includes an exploration of the history of both Afrofuturism and black queer theory, as well as an in-depth exploration of some of author Nalo Hopkinson
Nalo Hopkinson (born 20 December 1960) is a Jamaican-born Canadian speculative fiction writer and editor. Her novels – ''Brown Girl in the Ring (novel), Brown Girl in the Ring'' (1998), ''Midnight Robber'' (2000), ''The Salt Roads'' (2003), ' ...
's works as prime examples of existing queer Afrofuturist literature. For Faucheux, the presence of queerness in Afrofuturism “illuminates the functions of racial and sexual metaphors in speculative contexts in general”.
In film
In film, Afrofuturism is the incorporation of black people
Black is a racial classification of people, usually a political and skin color-based category for specific populations with a mid- to dark brown complexion. Not all people considered "black" have dark skin and often additional phenotypical ...
's history and culture in science fiction film
Science fiction (or sci-fi) is a film genre that uses Speculative fiction, speculative, fictional science-based depictions of phenomena that are not fully accepted by mainstream science, such as Extraterrestrial life in fiction, extraterrestria ...
and related genres. ''The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
''s Ashley Clark said the term Afrofuturism has "an amorphous nature" but that Afrofuturist films are "united by one key theme: the centring of the international black experience in alternate and imagined realities, whether fiction or documentary; past or present; science fiction or straight drama". ''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
''s Glenn Kenny said, "Afrofuturism is more prominent in music and the graphic arts than it is in cinema, but there are movies out there that illuminate the notion in different ways."
With the release of ''Marvel
Marvel may refer to:
Business
* Marvel Entertainment, an American entertainment company
** Marvel Comics, the primary imprint of Marvel Entertainment
** Marvel Universe, a fictional shared universe
** Marvel Music, an imprint of Marvel Comics ...
's Black Panther
A black panther is the Melanism, melanistic colour variant of the leopard (''Panthera pardus'') and the jaguar (''Panthera onca''). Black panthers of both species have excess black pigments, but their typical Rosette (zoology), rosettes are al ...
'' in 2018, Afrofuturism was ushered into the cultural spotlight across the world cinematic stage. In North America alone, it made history as the third highest-grossing film in history, reviving mainstream interest in Afrofuturism. It defied stereotypes of Africa as disease- and war-stricken and fueled feelings of black pride
Black pride is a movement which encourages black people to celebrate their respective cultures and embrace their African heritage.
In the United States, it initially developed for African-American culture and was a direct response to white ...
in viewers.
In series
In 2023, ''Disney+
The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Di ...
'''s sci-fi animation series '' Kizazi Moto: Generation Fire'' revolved around afro-futuristic tales citing diverse culture themes as well as tales from Egypt
Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...
, South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...
, Kenya
Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country located in East Africa. With an estimated population of more than 52.4 million as of mid-2024, Kenya is the 27th-most-populous country in the world and the 7th most populous in Africa. ...
, Zimbabwe
file:Zimbabwe, relief map.jpg, upright=1.22, Zimbabwe, relief map
Zimbabwe, officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Bots ...
, Nigeria
Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...
and Uganda
Uganda, officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the ...
. ''Spiderman'''s executive producer Peter Ramsey supported the release of the series and stipulated "I really want people to come away with the idea that Africa really is as much part of pop culture as America or Europe or anywhere else." to CNN
Cable News Network (CNN) is a multinational news organization operating, most notably, a website and a TV channel headquartered in Atlanta. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable ne ...
.
Difference from Africanfuturism
In 2019, Nnedi Okorafor, a Nigerian-American writer of fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction that involves supernatural or Magic (supernatural), magical elements, often including Fictional universe, imaginary places and Legendary creature, creatures.
The genre's roots lie in oral traditions, ...
and science fiction, began strongly rejecting the term "afrofuturism" as a label for her work and coined the terms "Africanfuturism
Africanfuturism is a cultural aesthetic and philosophy of science that centers on the fusion of Culture of Africa, African culture, history, mythology, point of view, with technology based in Africa and not limiting to the diaspora. It was coined ...
" and " Africanjujuism" to describe her works and works like hers. In October 2019, she published an essay titled "Defining Africanfuturism" that defines both terms in detail. In that essay, she defined Africanfuturism as a sub-category of science fiction that is "directly rooted in African culture, history, mythology and point-of-view and does not privilege or center the West", is centered with optimistic "visions in the future", and is written (and centered on) "people of African descent" while rooted in the African continent. As such, its center is African, often does extend upon the continent of Africa, and includes the black diaspora, including fantasy that is set in the future, making a narrative "more science fiction than fantasy" and typically has mystical
Mysticism is popularly known as becoming one with God or the Absolute, but may refer to any kind of ecstasy or altered state of consciousness which is given a religious or spiritual meaning. It may also refer to the attainment of insight ...
elements. She differentiated this from Afrofuturism, which she said "positioned African American themes and concerns" at the center of its definition. She also described Africanjujuism as a subcategory of fantasy that "acknowledges the seamless blend of true existing African spiritualities and cosmologies with the imaginative."
In August 2020, Hope Wabuke, a writer and assistant professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln
A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Uni ...
of English and creative writing, noted that Afrofuturism, coined by Mark Dery, a white critic, in 1993, treats African-American themes and concerns in the "context of twentieth-century technoculture", which was later expanded by Alondra Nelson
Alondra Nelson (born April 22, 1968) is an American academic, policy advisor, non-profit administrator, and writer. She is the Harold F. Linder chair and professor in the School of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study, an independ ...
, arguing that Dery's conception of blackness began in 1619 and "is marked solely by the ensuing 400 years of violation by whiteness" that he portrayed as "potentially irreparable". Critical of this definition, saying it lacks the qualities of the "Black American diasporic imagination" and ability to conceive of "Blackness outside of the Black American diaspora" or independent from whiteness, Wabuke further explains how Africanfuturism is more specific and rids itself of the "othering of the white gaze and the de facto colonial Western mindset", free from what she calls the "white Western gaze" and saying this is the main difference "between Afrofuturism and Africanfuturism". She adds that, in her view, Africanfuturism has a different outlook and perspective than "mainstream Western and American science fiction and fantasy" and even Afrofuturism which is "married to the white Western gaze". Wabuke goes on to explain Africanfuturist and Africanjujuist themes in Okorafor's '' Who Fears Death'' and '' Zahrah the Windseeker'', Akwaeke Emezi's ''Pet
A pet, or companion animal, is an animal kept primarily for a person's company or entertainment rather than as a working animal, livestock, or a laboratory animal. Popular pets are often considered to have attractive/ cute appearances, inte ...
'', and Buchi Emecheta
Buchi Emecheta (born Florence Onyebuchi Emecheta; 21 July 1944 – 25 January 2017) was a Nigerian writer who was the author of novels, plays, autobiography, and children's books. She first received notable critical attention for her 1974 novel ...
's '' The Rape of Shavi''.
In February 2021, Aigner Loren Wilson of ''Tor.com
''Reactor'', formerly ''Tor.com'', is an online science fiction and fantasy magazine published by Tor Books, a division of Macmillan Publishers. The magazine publishes articles, reviews, original short fiction, re-reads and commentary on specul ...
'' explained the difficulty of finding books in the subgenre because many institutions "treat Africanfuturism and Afrofuturism like the same thing" even though the distinction between them is plain. She said that Africanfuturism is "centered in and about Africa and their people" while Afrofuturism is a sci-fi subcategory which is about "Black people within the diaspora", often including stories of those outside Africa, including in "colonized Western societies".
Wilson further outlined a list of stories and books from the genre, highlighting ''Africanfuturism: An Anthology'' (edited by Wole Talabi), Namwali Serpell's '' The Old Drift'', Nnedi Okorafor's ''Lagoon
A lagoon is a shallow body of water separated from a larger body of water by a narrow landform, such as reefs, barrier islands, barrier peninsulas, or isthmuses. Lagoons are commonly divided into ''coastal lagoons'' (or ''barrier lagoons'') an ...
'', Nicky Drayden's '' The Prey of Gods'', Oghenechovwen Donald Ekpeki's '' Ife-Iyoku, the Tale of Imadeyunuagbon'', and Tochi Onyebuchi's '' War Girls''. Another reviewer called Okorafor's ''Lagoon
A lagoon is a shallow body of water separated from a larger body of water by a narrow landform, such as reefs, barrier islands, barrier peninsulas, or isthmuses. Lagoons are commonly divided into ''coastal lagoons'' (or ''barrier lagoons'') an ...
'', which "recounts the story of the arrival of aliens in Nigeria", as an Africanfuturist work which requires a reader who is "actively engaged in co-creating the alternative future that the novel is constructing", meaning that the reader becomes part of the "creative conversation".
Gary K. Wolfe reviewed '' Africanfuturism: An Anthology'', which was edited by Wole Talabi, in February 2021. He credits Nnedi Okorafor for coining "Africanfuturism", noting its describes "more Africa-centered SF", although saying he is not sure whether her term "Africanjujuism", a parallel term for fantasy, will catch on. While saying that both are useful, he says that he does not like how they have to "do with the root, not the prefix", with "futurism" only describing a bit of science fiction and fantasy. He still calls the book a "solid anthology", saying it challenges the idea of viewing African science fiction as monolithic. Stories in the book include "Egoli" by T. L. Huchu, "Yat Madit" by Dilman Dila, "Behind Our Irises" by Tlotlo Tsamaase, "Fort Kwame" by Derek Lubangakene, "Rainmaker" by Mazi Nwonwu, "Fruit of the Calabash" by Rafeeat Aliyu, "Lekki Lekki" by Mame Bougouma Diene, and "Sunrise" by Nnedi Okorafor.
In 2022, Alan Muller, in ''Futures Forestalled … for Now: South African Science Fiction and Futurism'', critiqued the application of "Afrofuturism" to African speculative fiction, arguing that the term's roots in African-American cultural contexts limit its relevance to works produced in Africa. He contended that the prefix "Afro-" implies a diasporic identity and risks erasing African cultural specificities. Muller advocated for a more specific and context-sensitive approach, suggesting terms like "South African futurism" or "Zimbabwean futurism" that reflect local histories, cultures, and narratives more precisely.
''Financial Times
The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and also published digitally that focuses on business and economic Current affairs (news format), current affairs. Based in London, the paper is owned by a Jap ...
'' writer David Pilling wrote that Africancentrism "draws on the past, both real and imagined, to depict a liberated version of the future" which is planted in the African, rather than African-American, experience. He also notes criticism of ''Black Panther'' from some like Patrick Gathara, who says its depiction of Africa "differs little from the colonial view", and that one of Okorafor's books, '' Binti'', is being "adapted for television by Hulu
Hulu (, ) is an American Subscription business model, subscription streaming media service owned by Disney Streaming, a subsidiary of the Disney Entertainment segment of the Walt Disney Company. It was launched on October 29, 2007, initially as ...
", arguing that its success is part of a wave of Africanfuturism.
See also
* Black Abstractionism
* Black science fiction
* Cyberpunk
Cyberpunk is a subgenre of science fiction in a dystopian futuristic setting said to focus on a combination of "low-life and high tech". It features futuristic technological and scientific achievements, such as artificial intelligence and cyberwa ...
* List of Afrofuturist literature
* Speculative fiction by writers of color
* Vibranium
Vibranium () is a fictional metal appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics, noted for its extraordinary abilities to absorb, store, and release large amounts of kinetic energy. Mined only in the kingdom of Wakanda, the metal ...
Afro-fantasy
References
Further reading
Academic
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* Nelson, Alondra (Spring 2000). "Afrofuturism: Past-Future Visions." Color Lines: 34–37.
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* Dark Matter
In astronomy, dark matter is an invisible and hypothetical form of matter that does not interact with light or other electromagnetic radiation. Dark matter is implied by gravity, gravitational effects that cannot be explained by general relat ...
* '' Dark Matter: Reading the Bones''
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Other
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Afrofuturism: A History of Black Futures
Exhibitions.
Afrofuturism Has Always Looked Forward
Taylor Crumpton, Clever (August 24, 2020)
Afrofuturism
The Criterion Channel
How Black Women Are Reshaping Afrofuturism
Yes! (April 24, 2020)
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External links
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Afrofuturism – Literary and Critical Theory – Oxford Bibliographies
Black(s) to the Future – French
{{Authority control
1993 neologisms
Art movements
African-American culture
Science fiction genres
Futurism by region
African diaspora literature