An Introduction To African Speculative Fiction AKA Africanfuturism

The first time I heard the term ‘speculative fiction’ I thought it meant serious fiction. I assumed it was fiction so serious it forced people to speculate–to think deeply about the issues raised in the very serious fiction piece. Now, I don’t know whether that is where you are on your journey to understand the literary world, but like with everything I give you, we’d talk about speculative fiction and speculative fiction in African literature. Before then, allow me to create a definition that will clear all your speculations about speculative fiction. *wink-wink

Speculative fiction is an umbrella term for fiction that comprises of science fiction or fantasy, or a blend of two or more of the sub-genres apocalyptic, horror, contemporary fantasy, etc that depart from reality. It is fiction about a world distinct from the world we know—could be a future world or an alternate world–or fiction about this very world but with happenings that make us question just how much that fictional world really resembles ours.

Speculative fiction is not literary fiction and because of this (our strange preoccupation with serious fiction) it has been relegated to the magazines with a particular taste for it (talking Omenana) and readers who intentionally seek it out. That leaves the rest of us in the dark and away from the beauty that is a world reimagined. Someone once said this about speculative fiction ‘You mean like children’s comics?’ No, we don’t mean comics and I would leave the stewing for the comic lovers reading this.

Speculative fiction in Africa is nothing new. We have works as far back as 1991 (anything older than the year 2000 is old to me) with Ben Okri’s The Famished Road bending realism into magic and fantasy, and a few other works having mythological elements in them. While Speculative fiction has been here a while, this goldmine is still not widely known.

This could, in part, be due to the reluctance of many writers to classify their works under speculative fiction causing it to suffer from a lack of representation especially compared to Africa’s preferred ‘Literary Fiction’. So, now that it is trying to make itself known with more contemporary writers delving into it, it is sort of like the middle child suddenly becoming very vocal and reminding everyone they exist. Strange thing that. Who are you, again?

This shouldn’t surprise you though–it is in our ‘highbrow’ approach to what African fiction should look like. Take my post on African horror for example.

In African literature, speculative fiction has a name sweet to the tongue—Africanfuturism. Africanfuturism/Africanjujuism is a subgenre of the broader speculative fiction, and refers to science fiction, fantasy, or a blend of two or more of the sub-genres apocalyptic, horror, contemporary fantasy, etc that depart from reality and is steeped in African cultures and experience.

In her blog in 2019, Nnedi Okorafor, the pioneer of the term, said it best:

“Africanfuturism is similar to ‘Afrofuturism’ in the way that blacks on the continent and in the Black Diaspora are all connected by blood, spirit, history and future. The difference is that Africanfuturism is specifically and more directly rooted in African culture, history, mythology and point-of-view as it then branches into the Black Diaspora, and it does not privilege or center the West. Africanfuturism is concerned with visions of the future, is interested in technology, leaves the earth, skews optimistic, is centered on and predominantly written by people of African descent (black people) and it is rooted first and foremost in Africa.”

Amen.

For context, Afrofuturism is a term coined in 1994 by Mark Derry which refers to speculative fiction based on the experiences of the African diaspora and written by and for African-Americans.

So, Africanfuturism is speculative fiction from Africa.

Now, speculative fiction in African literature, aka, africanfuturism is a brand of fiction that pushes the boundaries of what it means to be fiction. With most fiction, we write out our imaginations and create worlds that, though they don’t exist, mirror our world. With speculative fiction you can mold your own children with clay (The Grit Born by Frances Ogamba _ The Dark Magazine), book-jump (Mayowa and the Sea of Words by Chibundu Onuzo) or even go to college on another planet (Binti by Nnedi Okorafor).

With speculative fiction, there is vast room for both the improbable and impossible, and with African culture (spanning the cultures of the 54 countries that make up Africa) there is enough fodder in mythologies and tradition from which to pick and on which to base your speculative fiction.

Because I don’t gatekeep (I can’t because Obasanjo’s internet is free to all) here’s a list of magazines where you can find good African speculative fiction and some anthologies dedicated to africanfuturism:

• Omenana Magazine (First magazine that comes to mind when you think of African speculative fiction, really. Check out all their anthologies.)
• FIYAH Literary Magazine (Submitted to them, and though my work was rejected, there was a nice little feedback in the mail with praise for my work alongside ways to improve the piece. Because of this, there is a soft spot in my heart for FIYAH, and if you are into Black speculative fiction, you’d probably also find a soft spot in your heart for them.)
• African Futurism: An Anthology edited by Wole Talabi.
• The Year’s Best African Speculative Fiction (2021) edited by Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki (You can get the subsequent volumes too)
• Dominion: An Anthology of Speculative Fiction from Africa and the African Diaspora edited by Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki and Zelda Knight. 

A few blog posts ago we spoke about horror in African literature and I mentioned that we don’t have as much horror as we should. I could say the same for speculative fiction, except that it would be a lie. We have them—just maybe under different categories and mostly as short stories in weirdly named anthologies.

If you want to dive in but you’re feeling overwhelmed, here’s a nice place to start (before you jump into the anthologies I listed above and venture out on your own to find the Africanfuturistic novels out there): Ogechukwu Samuel’s Children of the Night. It’s a short and vivid piece, which makes it easily digestible for the uninitiated.

Once you’re done with that, you will be ready for Modupeoluwa Shelle’s How to Know Your Father Is a God. Yup, startling title, zapping story (You’d see my pun is intended when you read it).

Finally, after you have whet your appetite with these awesome pieces, grab a drink and cozy up with the free and amazing African Futurism: An Anthology, the coco and the Big Zaddy that led to the existence of today’s topic, africanfuturism.

You’re welcome, and see you Tuesday! Don’t forget to leave a comment and share.