Toward a Planetary History of Afrofuturism

Abstract

This essay examines twenty-first-century African science fiction in the context of the history of Afrofuturism. The Pan-African vision of the Black Audio Film Collective, a British group active in the 1980s and 1990s, provides a framework for analyzing contemporary works by artists including Nnedi Okorafor, Tendai Huchu, Wanuri Kahiu, and Wangechi Mutu. The essay argues for the inclusion of African artists in the discourse on Afrofuturism and identifies points of convergence between African and African diasporic futurisms that require, and will reward, further research, such as posthumanism, time travel as resistance, and the philosophy of the remix.