About Afrofuturism
Beginning in the 1950s, American science fiction authors began to imagine societies, worlds, universes in which the societal construction of race had been entirely transcended by the whole of the fictitious populations that inhabited these technologically advanced spaces. In these science fiction texts produced in magazines, novels, short stories, and so forth, humankind was often depicted "as one race, which has emerged from an unhappy past of racial misunderstandings and conflicts" (qtd. Bould, The Ships Landed Long Ago). This color-blindness consequentially led to the unmindful absence of characters of color. The acknowledgment of race being deemed beneath these post-racial societies was a postulation of the time assuming that humankind would inevitably forgo its perception of race because humans would realize how trivial the conception of race was once they’ve encountered extraterrestrial beings and robots- beings whose physical difference is much more significant than that of differences in skin color.
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Having a post-racial, color-blind future within science fiction which was created predominantly by white artists, writers, and filmmakers and omitting people of color as individualized, autonomous characters in these narratives, “the most obvious omission was that significant proportion of the population descended from the survivors of the West-African genocide, the Middle Passage, and slavery”(Bould, The Ships Landed Long Ago). From a space of longing for equal and fair representation within the science fiction tradition, Black artists gave birth to Afrofuturism in direct response to the lack of Black representation withing the science fiction genre.
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Coined in 1993 by cultural critic Mark Dery in his essay “Black to the Future”, Afrofuturism is blanketly defined as “African-American speculative fiction and signification” (qtd. Samatar, Toward a Planetary History of Afrofuturism). After decades of scholarly research that has arisen out of the elusive concept, Afrofuturism’s definition has since been expanded upon and made to be understood as a far more nuanced, self-contained genre of its own. Afrofuturism distinctly exists within an American context as it has its derivation from etymological history (Samatar, Toward a Planetary History of Afrofuturism). This is not to say that Afrofuturism disregards the African continent in its totality, rather it is completely plausible for an Afrofuturist work to incorporate or even base its content in traditional African contexts or environments. Sheree R. Thomas refers to Afrofuturism as a “speculative fiction from the African diaspora” (qtd. Yaszek, Afrofuturism, Science Fiction, and the History of the Future) which emphasizes the Afrofuturist's relation and acknowledgement of said relationship to the African continent.
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The Afrofuturism of the 20th century can best be characterized as “a program for recovering the histories of counter-futures created in a century hostile to Afrodiasporic projection and as a space within which the critical work of manufacturing tools capable of intervention within the current political dispensation may be undertaken” ( qtd. Anderson, Afrofuturism 2.0). This is essentially to say that Afrofuturism provides a safe space for black people- a space in which they are not subjugated by the racial oppressions, biases, and judgements of the contemporary society in which they live because, in this fantastical realm, their past histories were not sullied by dominative white forces that forced subjugation and systematic. Elizabeth C. Hamilton, assistant professor at Fort Valley State University defines Afrofuturism as follows:
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“A mechanism for understanding the real world situations of oppression in the contemporary world in the context of the ever-present past, while charting the future situation through the arts” (qtd. Hamilton, Afrofuturism and the Technologies of Survival).
This definition recognizes the retrospective nature that Afrofuturism must embody in order to reimagine counter-futures that reject the oppressions and racisms that are created by a white colonialist/imperialist regime. Modern Afrofuturism highlights how the institutionalized and individualized racial oppressions against people of color in the North American historical narrative has obstructed African Americans from reaching their full potential as contributors to their society.
As Afrofuturism progressed through the 20th century, it became increasingly recognized to be much more than a simple sub-genre of science fiction; Afrofuturism is not only a genre in-and-of itself, but has also become an aesthetic as its transdisciplinary nature allows it to traverse through the multiplicities of social and societal spheres. Several artists whose works range from literature to film, from visual arts to music have embraced the fundamentals of Afrofuturist thought as they propel promising images of imaginable black futures from the experiences of the Afrodiasporic peoples.
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Today, Afrofuturists no longer wondering whether or not there will be a future for person of the African diaspora as proto-Afrofuturists of the 19th century did, rather contemporary Afrofuturists are assured that a future where race exists is inevitable, and unlike 20th century Afrofuturists, 21st century Afrofuturists imagine a future where race will still be of importance to both the individual and the collective and will continue to shape individual identity. (Anderson, Afrofuturism 2.0) Today, the question of the Afrofuturist is not to have a future for people of color where their blackness is not overlooked or ignored, but it is deemed as valuable and reputable as all other races. Today’s Afrofuturists are taking back their rightful ownership of their voices and of their stories, directly confronting the white ruling class’s supposed power to define the lives and futures of Black Americans.
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Afrofuturism Explained: Not Just Black Sci-Fi
In this video, you learn about the ways in which Afrofuturism exists in other mediums such as art, literature, and music. By being able to exist in multimedia coupled with its cultural and social implications, Afrofuturism has become much more than just a genre, but an aesthetic all its own. Afrofuturism is a practice, a way of life, and an artform that allows for Black people to write a narrative for themselves.