Afrofuturism in Literature
Literary greats like Octavia E. Butler, Ralph Ellison, and W.E.B. Du Bois have also had a significant impact on the formation of the aesthetic of Afrofuturism. Using “technology to comment on the experiences of black people, to allow them to have more power to modify their present condition in order to imagine a different future” (Elia, Languages of Afrofuturism), these writers along with others in the Afrofuturist tradition place emphasis on the blatant erasure of Black cultures and histories in North America which is the cause of the subjugated position that Black Americans find themselves in in their contemporary society.
Published in 2015 as a part of a trilogy, Nnedi Okorafor’s critically acclaimed novella Binti captures the essence of Afrofuturism. It is such a masterful work that Okorafor won both the Hugo and the Nebula awards for this novella, two of the most prestigious awards for works within the science fiction genre.
The novella follows the protagonist Binti, a young girl, who is the first person of her ethnicity to be accepted into the most prestigious school in the galaxy, Ozama University. Binti reaches a crossroads, though, once she realizes that her acceptance to the university would mean that she would have to leave her community and her family. She wonders if being able to travel among the stars with strangers that do not know her customs or understand her on a cultural level would be worth losing her family. Too, Ozama University has gone to war with the Meduse, an alien race that is destructive, violent, and cruel, but only because the University wronged the Meduse. Binti is an exploration of identity and independence and provides nuanced commentary on facets of modern-day life such as growth, militarism, and colonialism.
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Octavia Butler’s 2001 novel, Wild Seed, follows a man named Doro who is a Nubian vampire that kills people unapologetically and is feared greatly. He, himself fears no one until he meets Anyanwu, the novel’s second protagonist. Anyanwu is an immortal Ibo woman who is able to change her physical appearance on a whim, but does so at the cost of absorbing the life sources of those that she embodies. She is without fear until she meets Doro. The novel takes readers on a journey from African jungles to the landscapes of American colonies as it follows the unique intertwining of these superhumans’ destinies.
Karen Lord’s novel The Galaxy Game (2014) imagines a future where all humans are born with mental powers. Rafi, the novel’s protagonist, has mental powers that are exceptionally powerful, so much so that he has the potential to control others. Rafi understands the gravity of his powers and the danger that could arise from them because he watched his father, who had the same mental abilities as him, abuse his power to hurt others.
The book follows Rafi as he attends an academy where training involves muzzling his powers so that he can learn how to control them and so to protect other students from him. Rafi finds difficulty in navigating the line between worrying about the potential dangers of his powers and the harsh treatment that he receives from his peers. The Galaxy Game is an exploration of the potential effects of childhood trauma and how humans are able to separate their own desires from other people’s expectations of them.