Posts tagged "Afrofuturism"

“The Future Is African”

 

Future Africa just unveiled its ultra-modern campus in South Africa, with the dream of building a ‘transdisciplinary’ research center.
The legacy Future Africa is working towards is building a truly Pan-African research hub. Being able to say, years from now, that the center was instrumental in training a Kenyan Ph.D. student or a postdoctoral fellow who has gone home to launch a life-changing project in Nairobi, is an ambition worth chasing, Slippers says. “By providing quality research environment in Africa that connects to the global network, we don’t have to go to Sweden, Sweden can come here.”

Illustration (& header image) by Miriam Sugranyes for BRIGHT Magazine.

Alternate History: The Congo Goes Steampunk

Seattle novelist Nisi Shawl’s engrossing “Everfair” uses the genre of steampunk to re-imagine the horrific history of King Leopold II and the Congo Free State, with a more hopeful outcome.

Shawl’s novel diverges from the historical record when members of the socialist Fabian Society in Great Britain ally themselves with African-American missionaries to purchase from Leopold a territory to be christened “Everfair.” The land is to serve as a utopian safe haven for refugees and former slaves returning from the U.S. Unfortunately, Leopold’s thugs have other ideas, as does Mwenda, the native king of the land.

“Everfair” is a big, complex and engrossing saga, broad in ambition and deep in accomplishment. The time period stretches 30 years, from 1889 to 1919, with each chapter representing a jump of a few days or a few years, lending the story a grand sense of the sweep of history.

The narrative is presented from a variety of viewpoints, including that of an African-American missionary horrified by atrocities he witnesses, a young African refugee able to project her consciousness into animals, and an East Asian engineer capable of inventing machines that will change the world.

https://www.seattletimes.com/entertainment/books/everfair-a-grand-diverse-steampunk-story/

Interviews with Nisi Shawl:
https://www.apex-magazine.com/interview-with-nisi-shawl/
https://www.thebooksmugglers.com/2016/09/sff-conversation-nisi-shawl-everfair.html

Reviews:
https://boingboing.net/2016/10/26/everfair-a-diverse-ambitious.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/everfair-a-fantastical-utopia-amid-king-leopolds-hell/2016/08/31/71e12664-6fbb-11e6-8533-6b0b0ded0253_story.html?utm_term=.2a05ec75a944
https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/labors-of-hope-and-liberation-nisi-shawls-steamfunk-novel-everfair/#!
More:
www.nisishawl.com

Afrofuturism 101

Video by: Gina Barton, Victoria Massie, and Joe Posner Black people are rarely featured in sci-fi and fantasy films — that is, unless that black person is Will Smith. How do black people get to exist in the future? Afrofuturism, a scholarly and artistic movement that imagines the future through black people’s experiences is one answer. The term was coined in 1994 by culture critic Mark Dery in his “Black to the Future” essay.
In anticipation of her “Black Magic” exhibition, curator Niama Safia Sandy shares some of her favorite writers, artists and musicians contributing to the…