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Science Fiction and Afrofuturism

A group of pyramids on a sandy landscape and a star-filled sky.
Credit: Pixabay.com




This weekend saw the release of the Black Panther movie which I plan to see Monday (since that’s a holiday). That is, if I can find a copy of the 1970 issue, number 74, of Avengers that co-stars the African super hero and read it by tomorrow. I just finished reading the previous issue that I purchased a couple of weeks ago not knowing it was going to be a two-parter. I don’t like to simultaneously watch a movie and read a book (including comic book) involving the same character since doing so causes me to confuse the storylines. But the movie, Black Panther, is perfect timing—February is Black History Month. It’s great to see more science fiction stories featuring black characters, since the genre has traditionally been very white.


There are a lot of great African-American sci fi and fantasy writers and not just in recent times. There are ones going as far back as, believe it or not, the beginning of the 20th century with W.E.B. DuBois. Yes, he wrote some science fiction! The movement known as Afrofuturism is bringing to light these writers as well as new ones. If this term, “Afrofuturism”, is new to you, here’s how I define it in this excerpt from a 2014 post:

Afrofuturism: I found out about this African science fiction movement when I was looking at the website for a British convention called Sci-Fi: Days of Fear and Wonder . . . . The con is featuring an event there called “Inside Afrofuturism” which is a conference of African science fiction writers, directors and other artists. Afrofuturism is a movement by black people exploring and expressing their race and heritage through science fiction and fantasy in all mediums. Even though this term is unheard of by most people, the movement has really been going on since the 1960s with Samuel Delany’s work and Jazz/funk musician Sun Ra’s who actually did a movie in the early ‘70s that I saw a clip of and seems really neat; it’s called Space is the Place. What I feel is so great about finding out about this literary and art movement is that it shows that science fiction and fantasy is not really the all-white genre that it’s been made to seem. . . .


Here are some more links that discuss Afrofuturism:

“What Is Afrofuturism?” (From Ebony.com) 


This is another earlier post here at the Fantastic Site where I compare Martin Luther King’s vision of a nation of equality to the visions of science fiction writers, particularly the optimistic visions meant to benefit all people. But at the end of the post is another list of links to articles about Afrofuturism that you will find very informing and interesting. This list even includes an article about the Black Panther’s utopic, high-tech home country of Wakanda.


Even though the term “Afrofuturism” is not used in this article, I believe the topic discussed is a very big part of the movement since much cosplay involves science fiction and fantasy characters and character creation. The writer, Talynn Kel, gives a really good discussion about how some African-American science fiction/fantasy fans identify with their love of the genre through costume design. It’s a very lengthy article (which I haven’t even finished reading yet) but perhaps rightfully so since it gives in-depth information into how black cosplayers identify with speculative fiction characters and depict them according to their own culture through costuming.


Next time, I plan to have for you a mini film review of It, which I just saw on DVD a couple nights ago and thought was supernaturally super! If I see the Black Panther movie before then, maybe I’ll give a mini review of that as well.

Until then . . .


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