Africanfuturism
Africanfuturism is a cultural
Writers of Africanfuturism include Nnedi Okorafor, Tochi Onyebuchi, Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki, Tade Thompson, Namwali Serpell, Wole Talabi, Suyi Davies Okungbowa.[4][5]
History
Early beginnings
Works of Africanfuturism have long existed and have been assigned to Afrofuturism. Themes of Africanfuturism can be traced back to Buchi Emecheta's 1983 novel The Rape Of Shavi and Ben Okri's 1991 novel The Famished Road.[6]
21st century
In 2019 and 2020, African writers began to reject the term Afrofuturism because of the differences between both genres with Africanfuturism focusing more on African point of view, culture, themes and history as opposed to Afrofuturism which covers African diaspora history, culture and themes.[7] The speculative fiction magazine Omenana and the Nommo Awards presented by The African Speculative Fiction Society launched in 2017 helped to widen the content of the genre.[8]
In August 2020, Hope Wabuke, a writer and assistant professor at the
In February 2021, Aigner Loren Wilson of
Literature and comics
Africanfuturism literature features speculative fiction which narrates events centered on Africa from an African point of view rather than a Western point of view. Works of Africanfuturism literature are still wrongly categorized as Afrofuturism.[citation needed]
Works of Nigerian American writer Nnedi Okorafor are often in the Africanfuturism genre with her works like Who Fears Death, Lagoon, Remote Control, The Book of Phoenix and Noor. She won a Hugo and Nebula award for her novella Binti, the first from the Binti trilogy which features a native Himba girl from Namibia in space.[11] Tade Thompson won a Arthur C. Clarke award for his Africanfuturist novel Rosewater about an alien dome in Nigeria[12] and Zambian writer Namwali Serpell's The Old Drift won the same award.
In 2020, Africanfuturism: An Anthology edited by
When
In comics, as of the end of 2022, so far a few Africanfuturism comics exist. Comic Republic Global Network, a Lagos-based publisher, is prominent in creating Africanfuturist superheroes like Guardian Prime.[16][17] Laguardia, a comic book by Nnedi Okorafor, is associated with Africanfuturism.[18]
Films and television
Africanfuturism movies are often scarce;[19] films like Black Panther have been criticized by some viewers,[20] who say that their depiction of Africa "differs little from the colonial view".[1] In recent times, Africanfuturist movies include Hello, Rain, Pumzi, and Ratnik. Several Africanfuturism novels have been optioned for live adaptation, including Binti and Who Fears Death.[1][19] In 2020, Walt Disney Studios and Pan African company Kugali announced that they would be co-producing an africanfuturist animated science fiction series, Iwájú, inspired by the city of Lagos.[21][22]
On July 5, 2023,
References
- ^ a b c Pilling, David (2021-02-25). "African Futurism is partly an attempt to grapple with the past". Financial Times. Retrieved 2021-10-07.
- ^ "Afrofuturism, African Futurism, and Writing Black Futures". theportalist.com. 2021-02-18. Retrieved 2021-10-08.
- ^ "Afrofuturism or African Futurism? Which is it?". Afrinomenon. 2020-10-03. Archived from the original on 2021-10-08. Retrieved 2021-10-08.
- ^ Umezurike, Chukwuebuka (January 23, 2022). "New Nigerian Literature Unsung Heroes". This Day. Retrieved March 30, 2022.
- ^ "African Futurism Books Every person needs to read". Afrinomenon. 2020-09-01. Retrieved 2021-10-08.
- ^ LA Review of Books. Archivedfrom the original on 29 August 2020. Retrieved 25 February 2021.
- ^ "Black History Month Spotlight: Afrofuturism and Africanfuturism". comicyears.com. Retrieved 2021-10-08.
- ^ "Los Angeles Review of Books". Los Angeles Review of Books. 2017-10-02. Retrieved 2021-10-08.
- ^ a b Wilson, Aigner Loren (2021-02-10). "Your Guide to Africanfuturist Science Fiction". Tor.com. Retrieved 2021-10-08.
- ^ Ncube, Gibson. "Aliens in Lagos: sci-fi novel Lagoon offers a bold new future". The Conversation. Retrieved 2021-10-08.
- ISBN 9780521429597, retrieved 2021-10-08
- ^ "African speculative fiction is finally getting its due". Washingtonpost. Archived from the original on 2022-02-18. Retrieved 2021-09-10.
- ^ "Brittle Paper Offers Africanfuturism: An Anthology for free in celebration of the publisher's 10th anniversary". BrittlePaper.com. Brittle Paper. Retrieved 25 December 2022.
- ^ Udenwe, Obinna. ""The Rise of Brittle Paper: The Village Square of African Literature"". The Village Square Journal. Retrieved 2 February 2019.
- ^ a b Wolfe, Gary K. (16 February 2021). "Gary K. Wolfe Reviews Africanfuturism: An Anthology, Edited by Wole Talabi". Locus Magazine. Archived from the original on 15 February 2021. Retrieved 16 February 2021.
- ^ "African Avengers: the comic book creators shaking up superhero genre". the Guardian. 2016-02-03. Retrieved 2021-10-08.
- ^ Digital comics change the way the world sees Africa - CNN Video, retrieved 2021-10-08
- ^ "Nnedi Okorafor's LaGuardia Wins 2020 Hugo Award for Best Graphic Story or Comic". Brittle Paper. 2020-08-12. Retrieved 2021-10-08.
- ^ a b Collins, Jason (2021-09-07). "What Nnedi Okorafor's 'Who Fears Death' Coming to HBO Could Mean for the Acceptance of Africanfuturism in the Mainstream". Black Girl Nerds. Retrieved 2022-05-08.
- ^ "Black Panther, Whitewashing: Colonialism and Neocolonialism Ideals in Marvel's Black Panther – Writing Anthology". central.edu. Retrieved 2023-04-17.
- ^ Aisha Salaudeen. "Disney announces 'first-of-its-kind' collaboration with African entertainment company". CNN. Retrieved 2021-10-13.
- ^ "Annecy: Disney, Africa's Kugali Present New 'Iwaju' Details – The Hollywood Reporter". 2021-06-16. Archived from the original on 2021-06-16. Retrieved 2021-10-13.
- Comicon.com. June 12, 2023. Archivedfrom the original on July 5, 2023. Retrieved July 4, 2023.
Kizazi Moto: Generation Fire adds new stories to African Futurism genre
- ^ a b Egan, Toussaint (May 2, 2023). "Afrofuturist animated series Kizazi Moto: Generation Fire coming to Disney Plus". Polygon. Archived from the original on May 3, 2023. Retrieved June 28, 2023.
an animated anthology dedicated to imagining the future from an African perspective.
- ^ Vourlias, Christopher (June 17, 2021). "Disney Taps Top African Toon Talents for Animated Anthology 'Kizazi Moto' (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Archived from the original on May 9, 2023. Retrieved June 28, 2023.
presenting 10 bold, wholly original visions of the future from a distinctly African perspective.
- ^ Vourlias, Christopher (June 26, 2023). "Why Disney+ Sci-Fi Anthology Series 'Kizazi Moto: Generation Fire' Is a 'Watershed Moment' for African Animation". Variety. Archived from the original on June 27, 2023. Retrieved June 28, 2023.
- Disney. Disney Plus. Archivedfrom the original on April 10, 2023. Retrieved June 29, 2023.
- ^ Tartaglione, Nancy (June 17, 2021). "Disney+ Sets Animated Sci-Fi Anthology 'Kizazi Moto: Generation Fire', Picks Up 'Kiya And The Kimoja Heroes' – Annecy". Deadline. Archived from the original on May 20, 2023. Retrieved June 28, 2023.
- ^ Cornall, Flo (June 27, 2023). "'Kizazi Moto: Generation Fire' brings Afro-futurism to Disney+". CNN. Archived from the original on June 27, 2023. Retrieved June 28, 2023.
- ^ Ramsey, Peter; Vorster, Lesego; Mogajane, Isaac; Green, Catherine (June 26, 2023). "Kizazi Moto: Generation Fire's Peter Ramsey and Directors on Disney+'s New African Sci-Fi Series". CBR (Interview). Interviewed by Sergio Pereira. Archived from the original on June 28, 2023. Retrieved June 28, 2023.
Further reading
- University of Calabar, Nigeria's Ojima Sunday Nathaniel & Jonas Egbudu Akung's 2022 article "Afrofuturism and Africanfuturism: Black speculative writings in search of meaning and criteria" in Research Journal in Advanced Humanities preferentially supporting Okorafor's 'Africanfuturism' "because Dery’s". . ." inappropriate". . . "Afrofuturism is clearly an African-American signification that provides no space for the African imaginary", then their focus seeks more completion in "a different set of criteria for evaluation and categorization of both concepts, and proposes five-point criteria—experience, authorship, language, black heroism and technology for their evaluation.".
- AfrikaIsWoke's 2021 article "The Difference Between African Futurism & Afrofuturism" which suggests that 'Black' is the perhaps the common general term comprising what have become narrowed in 'African' and 'Afro' when used as ethnic or racial terms, proceeding from Zambian queerist futurist author Masiyaleti Mbewe's distinction that "differences between African Futurism and Afrofuturism can best be understood as a natural byproduct of the fact that Africans in Africa, and Blacks in the diaspora have different life experiences that stem purely from the fact that they exist in different parts of the world."
- University of Kwazulu-Natal's Brett Taylor Banks' 2021 dissertation on "Okorafor’s Organic Fantasy: An Africanfuturist Approach to Science Fiction and Gender in Lagoon." by a European-African, reminding us that Africans now are not only Black, and Olive in the North, just as Americans have for half a millennium been not only Red but now Black, Yellow, White, and Brown, so geopolitical labels in the modern era of pervasive presumption of democracy's desirability deems interracial and genetic society politically correct. Overview page with abstract and link to downloadable copy of the actual dissertation. Notable, Banks "adapt[s] Francis Nyamnjoh’s convivial theory (2015) to estrange postmodernism from its western context, providing an African critical vocabulary".
- University of Ghana's black Nigerian-Finnish and Swedish Minna Salami's article "The Liquid Space where African Feminism and African Futurism Meet" in Feminist Africa, 2021, a journal of the Institute of African Studies and the University of Ghana, by this SOAS, University of London cross-cultural author who dubs herself a "Ms Afropolitan" and has received an Honorary Fellowship in Writing from The Hong Kong Baptist University.
- City College of New York's Damion Kareem Scott's 2021 chapter "Afrofuturism and Black Futurism: Some Ontological and Semantic Considerations" in Critical Black Futures, ed. P Butler.
- Africanfuturism: An Anthology edited by Wole Talabi, 2020, Brittle Paper, a defining collection of these newly named genres, has since October 2020 and is currently still offered for free on the publisher's website in celebration of the 10th anniversary of this publisher which has been called "the village square of African literature".
- Botswana-born York University's Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum's 2013 article "Afro-mythology and African Futurism: The Politics of Imagining and Methodologies for Contemporary Creative Research Practices" in Paradoxa's special publication No. 25 – Africa SF, ed. Mark Bould of UWE Bristol, precursing current diction before 'African' and 'Futurism' were concatenated as an emergent term, though titles by her colleagues in this collection use, in 2013, Technofuture, Afrofuturism and AfroSF, and Bould's introduction uses Africa SF.