Afrofuturism

See also: Black science fiction

Afrofuturism is an emergent literary and cultural aesthetic that combines elements of science fiction, historical fiction, fantasy, Afrocentricity, and magic realism with non-Western cosmologies in order to critique not only the present-day dilemmas of people of color, but also to revise, interrogate, and re-examine the historical events of the past. First coined by Mark Dery in 1993, Afrofuturism addresses themes and concerns of the African Diaspora through a technoculture and science fiction lens. Afrofuturism encompasses a range of mediums and artists who have a shared interest in envisioning black futures that stem from Afrodiasporic experiences. . Examples of seminal afrofuturistic works include the novels of Samuel R. Delany and Octavia Butler; the canvases of Jean-Michel Basquiat and the photography of Renée Cox; as well as the explicitly extraterrestrial mythoi of Parliament-Funkadelic and Sun Ra.

History

The afrofuturist approach to music was first propounded by the late Sun Ra. Born in Alabama, Sun Ra's music coalesced in Chicago in the mid-1950s, when he and his Arkestra began recording music that drew from hard bop and modal sources, but created a new synthesis which also used afrocentric and space-themed titles to reflect Ra's linkage of ancient African culture, specifically Egypt, and the cutting edge of the Space Age. Ra's film Space Is the Place shows the Arkestra in Oakland in the mid-1970s in full space regalia, with a lot of science fiction imagery as well as other comedic and musical material.

Afrofuturist ideas were taken up in 1975 by George Clinton and his bands Parliament and Funkadelic with his magnum opus Mothership Connection and the subsequent The Clones of Dr. Funkenstein, P Funk Earth Tour, Funkentelechy Vs. the Placebo Syndrome, and Motor Booty Affair. In the thematic underpinnings to P-Funk mythology ("pure cloned funk"), Clinton in his alter ego Starchild spoke of "certified Afronauts, capable of funkitizing galaxies."

In the late 1990s a number of cultural critics, notably Mark Dery in his 1995 essay Black to the Future, began to write about the features they saw as common in African-American science fiction, music and art. Dery dubbed this phenomenon “afrofuturism”.

According to the cultural critic Kodwo Eshun, British journalist Mark Sinker was theorizing a form of Afrofuturism in the pages of The Wire, a British music magazine, as early as 1992.

Afrofuturist ideas have further been expanded by scholars like Alondra Nelson, Greg Tate, Tricia Rose, Kodwo Eshun, and others. In an interview with Alondra Nelson, she explains 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 notes that discussions around race, access, and technology often bolster uncritical claims about a so-called “digital divide”. The digital divide overemphasizes the association of racial and economic inequality with limited access to technology. This association then begins to construct blackness “as always oppositional to technologically driven chronicles of progress.” As a critique of the neo-critical argument that the future’s history-less identities will end burdensome stigma, Afrofuturism holds that history should remain apart of identity, particularly in terms of race.

Chicago is home to a vibrant community of artists exploring Afrofuturism. Most notably, Nick Cave, known for his Soundsuits project, has helped develop younger talent as the director of the graduate fashion program at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Other artists include visual artists Hebru Brantley and Krista Franklin as well as photographer Rashid Johnson, a Chicago native currently based in New York.

Bibliography

• Dauphin, Gary. 2006. 'They Came Before the Matrix' (Afrofuturist Film)
• Dery, Mark. 1994. Black to the Future: Afro-Futurism 1.0
• Eshun, Kodwo. 1998. More Brilliant Than the Sun: Adventures in Sonic Fiction. Quartet Books.
• Eshun, Kodwo. 2003. 'Further Considerations on Afrofuturism CR: The New Centennial Review Volume 3, Number 2: 287–302
• Journal of the Society for American Music 2: Special issue on Technology and Black Music in the Americas, May 2008
• Nelson, Alondra. (2000) 'Afrofuturism: Past Future Visions' Colorlines (Spring)
• Nelson, Alondra. 2001. Afrofuturism: A Special Issue of Social Text. Duke University Press, ISBN 0-8223-6545-6.
• Rockeymoore, Mark A. 'What is Afrofuturism?'
• Science Fiction Studies #102: Special Issue on Afrofuturism, July 2007
• Weiner, Jonah. 2008. 'Lil Wayne and the Afronaut Invasion' Slate June 2008.
• Williams, Ben. 2001. 'Black Secret Technology: Detroit Techno and the Information Age' in eds. Nelson and Tu, Technicolor: Race, Technology, and Everyday Life. New York University Press, 154–176.
• Yaszek, Lisa. 'Afrofuturism: Science Fiction and the History of the Future' Socialism and Democracy
• Yaszek, Lisa. 2005. 'An Afrofuturist Reading of Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man' Rethinking History Volume 9, Nos. 2–3: 297–31

External links

• Afro-Futurism
• AfroGEEKS
• Afro-Netizen
• Black to the Future: Afro-Futurism 1.0 by Mark Dery
• BlueBlack Atlantis
• DAATHREKH
• 'Believe the Hype: Hype Williams and Afrofuturist Filmmaking' by Thomas DeFrantz
• 'They Came Before the Matrix' (Afrofuturist Film) by Gary Dauphin
• (Dj) Instantaneous | Afrofuturism Foundation
• Aker: Futuristically Ancient