What is Afrofuturism in simple terms?

Afrofuturism is a cultural aesthetic that combines science-fiction, history and fantasy to explore the African-American experience and aims to connect those from the black diaspora with their forgotten African ancestry.

What is Afrofuturism theory?

Afrofuturism comprises cultural production and scholarly thought—literature, visual art, photography, film, multimedia art, performance art, music, and theory—that imagine greater justice and a freer expression of black subjectivity in the future or in alternative places, times, or realities.

What is Afrofuturism film?

In film, Afrofuturism is the incorporation of black people’s history and culture in science fiction film and related genres. The 2018 film Black Panther was a major box-office success and contributed to Afrofuturism becoming more mainstream.

What is Afrofuturism in media?

Afrofuturism addresses themes and concerns of the African diaspora through technoculture and speculative fiction, encompassing a range of media and artists with a shared interest in envisioning black futures that stem from Afro-diasporic experiences.

Is Afrofuturism good or bad?

Afrofuturism gives us a platform to thrive in our own culture, where we imagine ourselves achieving greatness without external influence. This was a tool used several years ago and is still valuable today… imagining a better future in the contemporary era. Afrofuturism also serves as a symbol of hope.

What are examples of Afrofuturism?

A Beginner’s Guide To Afrofuturism: 7 Titles To Watch And Read

  • Black Panther.
  • Janelle Monáe’s Dirty Computer.
  • Tomi Adeyemi’s Children of Blood and Bone.
  • Octavia E.
  • Nnedi Okorafor’s Shuri: The Search for Black Panther.
  • The Wiz.
  • Sun Ra’s Space is the Place.

What is the goal of Afrofuturism?

Afrofuturism evaluates the past and future to create better conditions for the present generation of Black people through the use of technology, often presented through art, music, and literature.

How does Black Panther represent Afrofuturism?

Furthermore, Black Panther uses Afrofuturism as a means of portraying blackness in a way that it is not in resistance to whiteness.

What is the point of Afrofuturism?

How is Afrofuturism important?

What are the themes in Black Panther?

5 themes in ‘Black Panther’ that illustrate nuances within the African Diaspora

  • Pan-Africanism -vs- Nationalism.
  • Being African -vs- Being An “Outsider”
  • Multiple Identities of “Africanness”
  • African Sovereignty, Self-Determination, and Colonization.
  • Role and Appearance of the Women.

What is the meaning of the term Afrofuturism?

Dery uses the term Afrofuturism to define “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.”

How is Afrofuturism related to science fiction genre?

( Dery 1994: 136) Lisa Yaszek interprets Dery’s definition in two-parts: “as the first part of Dery’s definition suggests, Afrofuturism is closely related to science fiction as an aesthetic genre…However, as Dery argues in the second half of his definition, Afrofuturism is not only a subgenre of science fiction.

When did Mark Dery invent the term Afrofuturism?

The term ‘Afrofuturism’ was coined in 1990s by, cultural critic, Mark Dery in his edited collection Flame Wars: The Discourse of Cyberculture.

Who is the founder of the Afrofuturism movement?

However, a number of key works do provide effective introductions to the movement’s tenets, aesthetics, significance, and history. Dery 1994 coined the term Afrofuturism and offered an early introduction to and definition of the movement.