The Mother of Africanfuturism

 Africanfuturism is a sub-genre of Science Fiction coined by the author Nnedi Okorafor. Her stories center around ideas about motherhood, womanhood, and our relationship to care and the role of technology.

art by Christina Chung

Afrofuturism and Africanfuturism differ in a few ways. First of all Afrofuturism was coined by Mark Dery and strives to look at and recover ancient African ways, a way to recuperate the past because the present is so alienating. It interrogates technology and the history of technology has been used against black bodies, and in particular is rooted in the experience of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Finally Afrofuturism is centered on the African-American world view.  

Africanfuturism on the other hand is concerned with visions of the future and is centered on and predominately produced by black people of African decent. Because of this it is rooted in Africa, and is less concerned with what could have been and more interested in what is, what can, and what will be. There is inherent optimism. It also has a primarily non-western centered and is rooted and centered in Africa. Mystical elements of Africanfuturism draw on African beliefs and world views.

Further still is the subcategory called Africanjujuism. This is more of a fantasy genre that acknowledges African spiritualities and cosmologies alongside the fantastical. Time is more fluid and has non ridges distinctions and involves vast pantheons of African deities and mythological creatures. 

In Mother of Invention by Nnedi Okorafor, she addresses the tensions between human kind and nature. She tells the story of a pregnant woman named Anwuli, who gives birth during a pollen storm in future Nigeria. The pollen storm is the result of human over-involvement in nature, too much genetic engineering, and greed. By not taking into account the need to have balance, corporations manipulated nature to the detriment of the people living in this area. What Nnedi is highlighting here is that humans and nature are intimately connected, and cannot be separated. That over-manipulation of nature means that you are going to have severe impact on people and on the environment you are manipulating. 

She addresses many themes in her Africanfuturist stories. The balance of nature, the role of relationships and care, and what motherhood and womanhood look like now and in the future.