But particularly innovative is how Lagoon imagines a bold alternative future in which there is a liberation of identities and desires from rigid norms. A mythical spider called Udide Okwanka, for example, recounts the story – which is also told from multiple perspectives. Lagoon cheerfully disregards many literary norms. Considered especially against the background of the phenomenal success of the sci-fi blockbuster movie Black Panther, Okorafor’s rich body of work matters when it comes to the representation of black lives.Īs I have observed in my analysis, Lagoon, through its shapeshifting alien protagonist, challenges long held ideas of how gender and sexual identities are considered in Africa. Okorafor is on an upward global sci-fi trajectory, especially with the adaption of her acclaimed novella Binti into a major TV series – among several proposed projects involving her African protagonists. She explains in her blog that Africanfuturism is “concerned with visions of the future” and that “it’s less concerned with ‘what could have been’ and more concerned with what can/will be.”
Nigerian-American novelist Nnedi Okorafor calls her brand of sci-fi “Africanfuturism”.
Wainaina was in favour of looking beyond the despair that has plagued and continues to plague Africa.Īfrican science fiction is a literary genre which tries to imagine utopic futures of the continent. In his satirical essay How to Write About Africa, the late Kenyan writer and journalist Binyavanga Wainaina advocated for a rethinking of clichéd and stereotypical representations of the continent.
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