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Afro-Futurism
By Mark Rockeymoore*
What is afrofuturism?
At first thought, perhaps, an oxymoron.
On second thought, a vision of fluffy, puffy afros crowning multi-hued
afronauts - juxtaposed atop a sterile, ivory vision of technological
progression - is born; space ships and colonization, galactic empires and
trans-planetary corporations. Further speculation inevitably conjures up
nightmares of oppression at an almost unimaginable scale as the vagaries
of the human soul are pit against the relentless drive of technology.
Wondrous conceptions exist: Herbert's Dune, Asimov's Foundation and
Brin's Uplift War come immediately to mind.
Or perhaps the term gives rise to more contemplative dreamscapes, in which
the future approximates the past in a more organic, holistic understanding
of the human condition.
Civilizations have coexisted before, in synch with the Earth's natural
rhythms, each another and the biosphere. Examples abound: Kemet, Sumeria,
Mesoamerica, India. Terraced gardens amidst the rainforested mountain
ranges of the equator. Pre-Saharan expanses of irrigated plain in
northern Afrika. Cultivated forestland and ceremonial mounds in
mid-latitudinal America.
Ancient monuments of cyclopean conception witness the passage of time, the
world across. Only ruins of these civilizations remain, yet they provide
a model of truly integrative theocratic dynasties that ensured the
existence of poverty-free, moral based societies girded by certain
knowledge of humanity's inherent divinity rather than its original sin.
The future meets the past in the crucible of the present.
There exists, deep within the ebony recesses of the net noir, a
diverse community that skirts the quantum-dusted fringes of the new
afrikan technotronic space, awash in a blaze of neon, shining sites
proclaiming knowledge born, revolution and reinvigorated ancestral memory;
space that serves as enclaves of exploration for three generations of
diasporic afrikans as they interact and explore the issues shaping the
melanated perspective.
There is a tradition of black emancipatory thought, inextricably
linked to western civilization and its evolution, that has proffered
various works of a speculative nature pertaining to the physical or
spiritual omnipresence of the Afrikan archetype within a western
framework. A serialized novel like Schuyler's "Black Empire" would be one
example. Even recent contributions - especially those that press those
boundaries and explore the possibilities of human interaction,
sociologically or biologically - such as Octavia Butler's "Mind of my
Mind" or Nalo Hopkinson's "Brown Girl" serve to exemplify this worldview.
According to afrofuturist Alondra Nelson, a colleague named Mark Dery was
the first to use the term afrofuturism in his edited collection "Flame
Wars", among other places. He defined the term thusly: "Speculative
fiction that treats African-American themes and addresses African-American
concerns in the context of 20th century technoculture--and more generally,
African American signification that appropriates images of technology and
a prosthetically enhanced future --might for want of a better term, be
called "Afro-futurism."
Since that moment in time, afrofuturism has expanded to embrace the
entire, colorful world. As expressions of the possibilities that
afrofuturism heralds, these examples and definitions cover but a fraction
of the whole. There are also the soulful intonations of Sun Ra, DJ
Spooky, Busta Rhymes, the Wu-Tang Clan, Public Enemy and others who
straddle the razor's edge of the digital divide; the visual and aural
artists redefining the way we think about ourselves by adding layers of
contextual blackness in a multi-media format, accessed by varying levels
of understanding and acceptance.
It is questionable whether or not afrofuturism possesses specific traits
or characteristics because its expressions are as diverse as the Afrikan
diaspora and the experiences shared by those who compose it. The only
framework that can possibly contribute to an understanding of what
afrofuturism is would be the overarching cultural system within which it
has gestated. Because afrofuturism is transnational - disdaining place
and localized adaptations for a more holistic global extent - this
'overarching cultural system' can only be defined as Marimba Ani's global
white supremacy system. In this view, cultural icons like Nat Turner,
Akhenaton, Nkhrumah, Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, Martin, Malcolm and
countless others were the afrofuturists of their day.
Afrofuturism is the antithesis of futurism. Countless science fiction
novels, comic books and movies laud the inexorable nature of progress
and, by extension, the global white supremacy system as well as the
understanding that this system espouses a future that progresses in stages
or flights of mental evolution, shuttling from mechanical to molecular to
digital to cellular modalities, at which point science and magic become
almost indistinguishable to the uninitiated and the god-concept is finally
subsumed. The most inclusive of these extrapolations do indeed challenge
the social structure of white supremacy but most retain the hierarchical
dependencies of left-brained, materially oriented thinking. This tendency
does seem to evolve as western society adapts to the wider availability of
information as well as the increased exposure of xenophobic populations to
ethnically diversified surroundings and traditionally holistic
cosmogonies.
Of course, there has always been the pagan tradition of ancient Europe,
personified by the Kemetian-taught Druids - not to mention the mysticism
of the east, of yin and yang, also kemetian-taught - that has informed the
european weltanshau, from the prehistoric mythos of the celtic Tuatha de
Danaan and the kemetian-derived greek pantheon of gods and goddesses, to
the present day wiccan and new age revolution.
The interplay of race, culture and time coalesce in the moment, revealing
the barest, most tantalizing glimpse of what afrofuturism could be and
perhaps has always been.
Afrofuturism is not science-fiction. It is not a mechanical, technology
driven vision of the future because an afro ain't never been about
anything constricting or orderly, in the hierarchical sense. Rather, an
afro is free-flowing, loving the wind. Changing, shifting and drifting on
the breeze, bending this way, puffing out or just plain swaying gently
from side to side, following the whimsical inclinations of the melanated
person upon who's head it is perched. An afro can be taken from, it can
be added to, yet it still retains its own natural structure, its own
spiral and bouncy nature. It is flexible, yet patterned. It is about
synthesis and holism. It is about accepting the kitchens and working the
waves on the crown. It is about dreading, locking and following the
patterns of nature where they lead, yet following a laterally delineated
order. It is about the interplay between dominant and recessive genes.
It is about diversity. It is about knowing purposes and determining the
placement of diverse variables within their proper context.
Afrofuturism is about knowledge. It is about intuitively understanding
the harmonics of the Earth and solar system, their electromagnetic
interactions: the effect of a butterfly in Brazil upon a hurricane in
France, the weather patterns of the Earth, the living cycles of our days
and nights and the stilling of the mind. The rotation and evolution of
the galaxy and the oneness of the universe. The true, inner connectivity
between each being on this planet. The simplicity of knowing truly, what
love is. It is about the science of relationships, of clearing the mental
and spiritual debris from one's life in a healthy, systematic fashion. Of
cleansing the body, not only our own, but that of the earth that we, as a
culturally diverse people, have helped to subjugate. It is about
shattering the walls separating the sciences and realizing the oneness of
all creation. Knowing, and loudly declaiming its presence and purpose in
the larger scheme of creation. Afrofuturism simply is!
It is also a one-world philosophy. Not only because of the secret history
of Afrika's primacy in early human cultural and physical evolution, but
also because it is a sane alternative leading to a sustainable future.
Afrofuturism is inclusive, yet it is very much aware that each thing,
person, institution and body politic has its place and time and that each
must fulfill its inherent purpose. This aspect makes afrofuturism more
than a political or literary/artistic discourse since it approaches the
metaphysical in its insistence upon realizing the fullest expression of
each and every aspect of its existence. It becomes a way of life, a way
of thinking holistically.
As far as its adherents are concerned, they are - again - as diverse as is
the Afrikan diaspora. Perhaps they can be characterized as possessing an
interest in current affairs and technology, or perhaps they are more
interested in ancient afrikan sciences and the historical evolution of the
various ethnic groupings of biological Afrikans spread across the world,
to include western Europeans, Asians, Native Americans or Australian
Aborigines. Or perhaps they cannot be characterized at all, being too
diverse.
To clarify that statment in the context of this discussion, current
studies in genetics and race are recommended to the discerning reader
which suggest that - racially, in the truest, biological sense of the
matter - we are ALL Afrikans, not only because of the fact that at some
point in the not-so-distant past certain segments of Afrikan society
migrated to different parts of the world for different reasons and lost or
forgot who their cousins were, but also because of the fact that we are
all internally Afrikan, or black, the color of carbon, the basic building
block of life; not to mention the key of life and the brain itself,
neuromelanin and its external manifestation, melanin. Blackness is
within and without.
Regardless of the individual afrofuturist' area of interest, her
perceptions of the world contribute fundamentally to his understanding
of the present moment. These perceptions are subject to the controlling
factors of education, experience and intuition, any of which can and must
be present within any afrofuturist framework.
The 'understanding of the present moment' that is formed by an
afrofuturist can perhaps be characterized as possessing a critical focus
upon true, universal equity and proper utilization of all resources -
biological, mineral and ethereal - guarding against complacency and rigid
structure delineated from a centralized source, preferring to consult and
accept guidance from numerous, yet symbolically related bodies of
information before taking action or forming conclusions. All things exist
in a state of flux. Of motion. Understanding the applicability of that
statement to all things and how to express that understanding as it
pertains to the furtherance of the natural order is fundamental to an
afrofuturist understanding.
The kemetian tree of life cosmogology, precursor to the Jewish Kaballah,
explores the relationship between humanity and the cosmos through the
triumvarate of philosophy, science and spirit. Through the processes of
historical diffusion and localized adaptation, the basic precepts of these
all-encompassing 'behavioural texts' have girded the underlying truth of
the 'universalizing religions', to include Buddhism, Christianity and
Islam, all of which have sent varying shafts of ethical light into the
darkness of human ignorance, allowing for the cultivation of the higher
emotions for a relatively few adherents. The alchemical sleight of hand,
as it were, transforming base materials into the spirit-gold of ethical
enlightenment.
The 'understanding of the present moment' is also affected by the
individual afrofuturist's conception of future possibilities. In fact,
the subjective exploration of these possibilities is also a necessary
condition for considering oneself an afrofuturist. Nat Turner,
Akhenaton, Nkhrumah and all of the ancestors mentioned earlier have
possessed this gift, this ability to transcend their cultural milieu and
dream the dreams of the soul, the quantum realities of an infinite
creation, of universe overlapping universe and endless possibilities,
allowing them to deepen their understanding of the present moment and
giving them the divine right and strength to make their visions manifest
through their own actions and through us, their descendants.
The moment is the real, the domain of the afrofuturist. The future and
past are fluid and ever-changing, possessing the ability to morph
instantly into social texts capable of accentuating the diverse realities
of the melanated mind during fabulous flights of intution, delving into
the nature of perception and birthing successive moments from the
contemplation of those that have passed and those that are yet to come.
Outside of the constricting vagaries of time and logical progression, only
the now is real. The afrofuturist domain lies somewhere external - yet
integrally connected - to physical incarnation, to include the dreams and
desires of progenitors and progeny alike, unto infinite generations, to
encompass the geo-physical perfection of the pyramids as well as
current ground-breaking, world-shaking research being done by melanated
scientists the world over as they chafe beneath the shackles of the global
white supremacy system. Afrofuturism simply is and always will be,
regardless of the social and political context of its practitioners, for
it truly is a necessary expression of blackness, the key to life, both
within and without.
Mark Rockeymoore
Copyright February, 2000
*Mark Rockeymoore is a geographer and sci-fi novelist.
Write to him c/o grisso@TheAfrican.Com.
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