Many narratives, whether it be for personal or cultural purposes, empower the writer or group of people the narrative is about through many different mediums such as books, film, or art. Among such empowering narratives, Afrofuturism is a particularly complex movement that caught my eye. In this blog post, we will delve into the cultural significance of Afrofuturism as a visionary movement that reimagines African and African diasporic experiences through science fiction, fantasy, music, and art, challenging dominant narratives and amplifying Black voices and perspectives in pop culture.
Introduction
In order to work toward a better future, we need to believe that future is possible.
–paraphrasing Angela Davis, Delan Bruce
What exactly is Afrofuturism? According to Delan Bruce, an associate editor at the University of California, Los Angeles, Afrofuturism is the “story of musicians, artists, writers, philosophers, fashion icons, filmmakers, costume and set designers, actors, activists and academics who have believed in a better future for Black people—and for all people.” Connecting the cultural aspects of ancient African traditions, societal life, and others, Afrofuturism analyzes and constructs futures/alternate realities through that lens.
While in part, it appears to be an aesthetic movement, Afrofuturism also serves as a movement for African Americans to heal and view history and the present introspectively. In Brandon Sutton’s article “Shadows Cast by Imaginary Worlds”, he quotes Lisa Yaszek, a scholar on Afrofuturism at the Georgia Institute of Technology, that Afrofuturism is an “‘international cultural and aesthetic movement.’… that seeks to reweave and disrupt dominant narratives regarding the relationship between science, technology, mysticism, and race.” By combatting Eurocentric, whitewashed narratives, Afrofuturism allows African Americans to celebrate their culture and ability without the limitations imposed by race.
History
Can a community whose past has been deliberately rubbed out, and whose energies have subsequently been consumed by the search for legible traces of its history, imagine possible futures?
– Mark Dery
In 1994, the term ‘Afrofuturism’ was coined by Mark Dery, a cultural critic, in his essay “Black to the Future”—however, prior to the phrase being coined, many African American intellectuals were exploring the concept of freedom in the genre of science fiction. For example, W.E.B. DuBois, one of the founders of the NAACP, published a short story called “The Comet.” “The Comet” was a post-apocalyptic story about a celestial object crashing into Earth, a black man and a white woman being the sole survivors in New York City. In film, Afrofuturism is explored in pieces such as Space is the Place, a tale about interplanetary time travel written by and featuring jazz composer, poet, and philosopher Sun Ra. Afrofuturism’s visual tropes and iconography is said to be laid down by his works starting in the 1950s. Shana Redmond, a professor of musicology and global jazz studies at Columbia University, remarks that the Afrofuturist movement highlights how Black music operates as a powerful protest strategy while developing the vision for new futures for African Americans.
Because Afrofuturism is closely rooted in traditional African culture, there are many symbols and concepts that tie back to ancestral knowledge or common proverbs. For example, the exploration of space ties to the vast, enlighted knowledge over thousands of years that some African tribes possessed such as the Dogon tribe. Stemming from the Akan people of Ghana, the Sankofa figure (seen below) represents proverbs that encourage learning from the past or “back to go forward.” According to Shantay Robinson, a Smithsonian Museum Correspondent, such concepts “lends crucial understanding to the ideas behind Afrofuturism. In a sense, Black people, whose past has been deliberately erased, are embracing Afrofuturism as a means to conceptualize their history and a tool for speculating on a more fruitful future.”
With a core focus on Afrodiaspora, themes such as alienation and displacement are prominent in Afrofuturistic media—displacement, however, covers a wider range of consequences, not only including the displacement on one’s homeland and culture, but also the displacement of such things from modern narratives and history. Afrofuturism challenges such displacement narratives of Africans being treated as aliens in a foreign land by presenting counter-narratives in the past and future.
Parliament-Funkadelic- The Mothership Connection (1976)
The mothership in this performance is said to be symbolic, as it portrays as a vehicle to the Black utopia.
Current Iterations and Legacy
I think it’s important to recognize how Afrofuturism really provides pathways for artists and others to express radical sentiment in their art and to speak about the black experience. And it conceptualizes Black futures without constraint, in a manner that creates a space for Black content.
– Kevin M. Strait
In the modern day, many modern iterations and hints of the legacy of Afrofuturism can be seen in fashion, music, technology, and film, such as Ryan Coogler’s 2018 movie Black Panther. It’s ability to imagine or speculate alternate universes different from our present reality, in recent years, may allow other people from different races and cultures to be part of an Afrofuturist world.
In the music industry, artists such as Erykah Badu, Missy Elliott, and Janelle Monáe embrace Afrofuturism, both having a voice and utilizing cyberpunk themes, tribal motifs, and other elements of African culture in a techno-inspired setting. Visual artists such as Lina Iris Viktor, Saya Woolfalk, and perhaps most notably, Tim Fielder, are also carrying on the modern iterations of Afrofuturism.
To borrow a quote from Fielder, a pioneer in comics, one of his works being a graphic novel adaptation of his work Matty’s Rocket, he states:
“These kids are able not to see themselves in environments that are expansive, both technologically and in terms of social mores and gender.”
The heroic adventures set in a futuristic setting provides a space for African youth to explore and be proud of their heritage, as well as reflect upon their experiences to look toward their own futures. Through the constant practice of reflection and cultural pride, the Afrofuturism Movement in media continues to empower many Africans to this day.
