Afrofuturism & Joy

When reading the two pieces for today, what stood out to me most was the centrality of hope and joy to the literary movement of Afrofuturism. In many science fiction or speculative fiction novels, the world of the future or the world of technology reveals the consequences of humanity’s actions in a mostly negative, threatening way. This writing often works as a warning—if we don’t change course, this may be in store for us. I know this to be true for several monumental works in science and speculative fiction such as The Handmaid’s Tale and The Parable of the Sower. Even more current novels (especially concerning climate change) explore the horrors that our action (or inaction, rather) that might arise. In these pieces, however, the future is not something we fear or form which we flee. Instead, the authors in the Afrofuturism movement seek to redefine the futures we’ve imagined by reclaiming the past—specifically with race and past injustices in mind. 

I find it interesting that many stories written by white authors (and, often straight and cis-gendered men) showcase a fear of the future. The world the characters explore is one in which freedom and rights are few and far between and the dreams of expansion and discovery barely stay alight as tyrannical governments or alien species attempt to assert their dominance. I’m not sure who said it, but someone commented that these worlds the authors fearfully create are reality for many queer, BIPOC people. Those who fall outside the normative structure of our society (white, straight, cis, male) have already experienced this “futuristic” dystopia. There’s little creativity when the atrocities you fearfully write are the lived experienced of millions of people. And, what I find disheartening is that these stories don’t encourage change or any form of atonement, but usually incites fear, hatred, and tenacious conservatism. After all, the present day and the past seem to be utopias for the oppressors who built them. There’s nowhere to go but down if you’re at the top.

But with Afrofuturist stories, the future holds promise. So much change has already happened for the better—the best is yet to come. Additionally, many stories featuring Black characters often are expected to discuss traumatizing subjects like racism and other forms of oppression. It’s expected that people of color ought to center their lives around what hurts them most—and how their oppressors often see them. Instead, stories like the McCoy Game center on Black joy. This centrality of joy functions as an act of resistance. Black people and other people of color are more than what they’re discriminated as—they have full lives overflowing with all that is human: joy, pain, heartache, disappointment, satisfaction, and much more. For centuries, those in power sought to exclude people of color from the future. But these stories counter this narrative as they not only display joy, but also confidently imagine a future that includes them.