African Futurism is different from Afrofuturism because African Futurism is rooted in Native African experiences and aesthetics whilst Afrofuturism focuses on Black diaspora experiences and aesthetics.
African Futurism is a developing movement that professes to separate itself from Afrofuturism.
This excert from an interview of Masiyaleti Mbewe reflects the difference between African Futurism and Afrofuturism.
“Initially, I and other people I know went around calling ourselves Afrofuturists. We’re only now trying to detangle that identity.
Over time, I started feeling uncomfortable calling myself an Afrofuturist. There have been criticisms about Afrofuturism and how it was coined by a white man.
Even though Africans have been producing speculative content for years, it’s like we waited for a white man to just name it.
Speaking with my friend, spoken-word performer Philipp Khabo Koepsell, recently, we noticed that the prefix “Afro-” is the label used all the time to describe anything done by black people. Why can’t we define things ourselves?
In short, Masiyeleti Mbewe, a Futurist Creator in her own right suggests that a distinction can be or at the least ought to be made between African Futurist works by Africans with a strong Native African Influence, and those originating in the Black diaspora which she considers Afrofuturistic.
Fundamentally, she contends that although Futurist works may be produced by Black Creatives, its necessary to recognise the different Cultural influences and experiences reflected in Black Futurist works in order to appreciate the difference between African Futurism and Afrofuturism.
These differences between African Futurism and Afrofuturism can best be understood as a natural byproduct of the fact that Africans in Africa, and Blacks in the diaspora have different life experiences that stem purely from the fact that they exist in different parts of the world.
Furthermore, she points out that the generally accepted definition of Afrofuturism as
In particular, she points out it is also important to appreciate the difference between African Futurism and Afrofuturism because the term Afrofuturism itself is not Black in origin suggesting that the term Afrofuturism may actually be a reductionist interpretation of Black Art that uses the “Afro” prefix as a simplistic signifier of Black Futurist works whilst denying their complexity and differenct places of origin, and by extension the diversity of the Black experience.
The result is that we have a generic label for describing Black Futurist works that does not distinguish between African Futurist works from the African Continent and Afrofuturist works of the diaspora because the term Afrofuturism does not cater to the entire spectrum of Black experience and is tailored more towards describing Black Futurist works originating in the diaspora experience and Consciousness.
African Futurist works can be distinguished from Afrofuturist which bear the subconscious imprint of their Diaspora Western Paradigm origins because they predominatly rely on what Masiyaleti describes as “spacey landscapes..”
This observation that focuses on the different dichotomies of expression between works of African Futurism and those of Afrofuturism can be extended to other Afrofuturist Motifs like Black Comic Book Characters which may potentially reduce Afrofuturism to an attempt by Black Futurists to place themselves within established Sci-Fi narratives rather than going beyond them.
The main difference between African Futurism and Afrofuturism perhaps derives from the fact that Afrofuturism is an exercise in addressing Black Diaspora Alienation and Cultural Assimilation in the Cultural Phenomenon of Science Fiction experienced by Blacks in the Western diaspora expressed by
Potentially therefore, by continuing to use the label ‘Afrofuturism’ we may perpetuate problems in Afrofuturism by inadvertently limiting the scope and motifs of Black Futurist works to those that already exist in the Science-Fiction of the past and present that Blacks feel excluded from, and wish to participate or see themselves reflected in.
This is perhaps another reason why it may be useful to differentiate between African Futurism and Afrofuturism.
Nevertheless, whilst at times it may be possible or even useful to make a distinction between Afrofuturist Black Futurist works of the diaspora and the African Futurist works of the African Continent, the reality is such a distinction may not be necessary or even desirable provided that Black Creators themselves define their Futurist works on their own terms, and in accordance with their own unique influences.
Both the African Futurism of Native African experience and the Afrofuturism of the Black Diaspora experience are equally important to the development of Black Futurist works, and perhaps the most critical aspect of the difference between African Futurism and Afrofuturism is not to focus on the distinction, but rather to be aware that Black Futurism is a tool to expand on both the Native African and Black Diaspora experience to avoid the pitfalls that Masiyaleti observes rather eloquently:
“Afrofuturism can be very one-dimensional. Globally, the African diaspora is having different experiences, even though we’re all black.
There’s different places where we intersect, but there’s still marked differences.
Most of my travels have been around Africa and I’ve lived in various African countries, so, for me, it’s about pan-African futurism.
It’s based on my experiences in these spaces, based on my exposure to the folklore and mythology of different African spaces and how they’ve affected my life.
But it goes further: for me, the aesthetics associated with Afrofuturism – black people in space, spacey landscapes – is not enough. In the future, when all of us have gone past whatever we’re going through right now, the colonial remnants and whatnot, there should be no concept of gender or race.
All of these things should be dismantled…”
