Skip to Main Content

A Guide to Speculative Fiction at Gustavus Library: Africa & the African Diaspora

A guide to speculative fiction created by Visiting Librarian Abe Nemon in 2021/2022.

Speculative Fiction Authors of Africa
and the African Diaspora

Primary Sources for Afrofuturism, Africanfuturism, and Africanjujuism

Mark Dery's definition of Afrofuturism in "Black to the Future : Interviews with Samuel R. Delany, Greg Tate, and Tricia Rose" (1994):

Speculative fiction that treats African-American themes and addresses African-American concerns in the context of twentieth- 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.

Nnedi Okorafor's definition of Africanfuturism and Africanjujuism, introduction to Africanfuturism : an anthology (2020) (free via BrittlePaper.com):

I am an Africanfuturist and an Africanjujuist.
Africanfuturism is a sub-category of science fiction. Africanjujuism is a subcategory of fantasy that respectfully acknowledges the seamless blend of true existing African spiritualities and cosmologies with the imaginative. [...] 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.

M. Haynes' definition of Black Speculative Fiction (M. Haynes blog - "Black Speculative Fiction Definitions"):

Black Speculative Fiction is an umbrella term for speculative texts with an emphasis on the people and culture of the African Diaspora. It is referred to as "Black” and not African, African-American, Haitian, etc. to show that the label includes ALL people of the Diaspora and places their culture, experiences and THEM at the forefront of these imaginative works. For a people who have been told constantly that they have no history or future, that they can never be super or a hero, and that their very existence is a nightmare, Black Speculative Fiction allows them to imagine themselves outside of what the world has told them they must be. Black Speculative Fiction challenges global anti-Blackness and forces readers, Black or otherwise, to accept the polylithic nature of Blackness.

Panelist Biographies

  • "Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki is an African speculative fiction writer and editor from Nigeria. He won the Nommo Award for best short story by an African in 2019, the 2020 Otherwise Award, and the HWA diversity grant. He has been a finalist for the Nebula, Locus, BSFA, BFA, Sturgeon, This Is Horror, and Nommo awards." - Source: Tordotcom
  • He goes by Ekpeki for short.
  • "Zelda Knight is a USA Today bestselling author, British Fantasy Award-winning editor, and diverse bookseller. She writes speculative romance for all orientations. She’s also the publisher and editor-in-chief of Aurelia Leo, an independent Nebula Award-nominated press based in Louisville, Kentucky." - Source: Tordotcom
  • "Wole Talabi is a full-time engineer, part-time writer and some-time editor from Nigeria. His stories have appeared or are forthcoming in Lightspeed Magazine, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Terraform, Omenana, Abyss & Apex, The Kalahari Review, the anthologies Imagine Africa 500, Futuristica Vol. 1 and several other places." - Amazon bio
  • Editor of Africanfuturism : An Anthology, available as a free download at Brittlepaper.com.
  • Author of the short story collection Incomplete Solutions.
  • Wole has several new projects coming in the near future, including a new short story collection Convergence Problems, three novels, and a shared universe project, "Sauúti is an imagined civilisation designed by and for African speculative writers"

Additional Links:

Histories

Anthologies

Classics of Speculative Fiction by Authors of Africa and the African Diaspora

African Authors

African American Authors

Afro-Caribbean and British Commonwealth Authors

This work is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0