Afrofuturism / Rebirth of a Nation

The journal Callaloo, recently issues a call for papers on Afrofuturism which described the movement as follows:

"Afro-Futurism is an emergent literary and cultural aesthetic that combines elements of science fiction, historical fiction, fantasy and magic realism with non-Occidental cosmologies in order to critique not only the present-day dilemmas of people of color, but also to revise, interrogate, and re-examine the historical events of the past. Examples of seminal Afro-Futuristic works include the novels of Samuel R. Delany and Octavia Butler; the vibrant, frenetic canvases of Jean-Michel Basquiat and the provocative photography of Rene Cox; as well as the extraterrestrial mythos of Parliament-Funkadelic and Sun Ra, and the recombinant sonic texts of Paul D. Miller/DJ Spooky."

I think it will take some time for me to elaborate my thoughts on Afrofuturism as whole, anything I would say now would just be the tip of the iceberg. But I remember being pleasantly shocked and amazed to discover that a conscious movement existed along these lines because it seemed to sum up many of the creative goals which I try to achieve in my own poetry. (O.k. let me not front, I'm just a Black Trekkie trying to sound deep... lol). But I really can identify several of the "afrofuturist" themes in my poetry and I wonder what's the best way to come to terms with that fact. (Should I merely note the co-incidence and ignore the movement, or is it worthwhile to stop and actually explore this line alot further?)

In any case, once the label exists, it seems to open up a fissure where we can start to ask a whole series of questions. Is there a distintively Black attitude towards computers and technology? Can you build a ghetto/barrio in cyberspace? Is it possible to keep it "virtually real"? Why does science fiction seem like such a predominantly white genre? In many imaginings of the future (for example, even the Bahai faith's) humanity will be united and mixed in a kind racism-free wonderland. So will there still be Black people in a bazillion years? Why do most of the aliens on Star Trek look like white people with silly putty on their faces? And the list goes on. Much of the identity politics engaged in by people of African descent involves looking back to some idealized possibly mythical African past. So what will it mean to be Black in the future?

One of, if not the, the most important things I took away from Frantz Fanon's Wretched of the Earth is the idea that culture is something living and dynamic. Fanon gives the example of the colonized intellectual who goes to Europe and feels inferior, but then has a counter-reaction where they embrace a fossilized folkloric static idea of their own culture. They wear certain clothes. And practice certain rituals. And eat certain foods. Because "these are the traditions of my people" but in reality "the people" have already moved on to something new. It's not about wearing dashikis because the ancestors used to. The trick is to just live with "the people" and then do whatever makes sense. And remember change is a part of life.


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I recently saw DJ Spooky perform "Rebirth of a Nation" which was a modern reply to D.W. Griffiths racist, but cinematically important silent film "Birth of a Nation" about the Civil War Reconstruction, and the Birth of the KKK. (Scenes from the original film were distilled, repeated, edited, combined with superimposed computer-generated images, and throughout "That Subliminal Kid" (another monicker of Miller's) was dj-ing on stage. The new film began with a sequence combining images of flags from all over the world juxtaposed to interesting political effect.

But that leads me to the most disturbing realization I had while watching the film: If I take "North" and "South" out of their normal context within United States history and instead think of "North" and "South" on the global scale, then all my normal associations of heroism and villany get overturned. So is the film really about the United States, racism and slavery or is it about nationalism and globalization in the contemporary world?

The global South is obviously being exploited by the global North and probably should "secede" in different ways (i.e. reclaim and maintain their autonomy in the interests of their citizens). Globalization really does threaten an older, traditional (possibly more humane ways of life. This is exemplified in the recent concept of Jihad vs. McWorld where "jihad" isn't specifically Islamic but also includes other struggles in many parts of the world towards local control and autonomy (whether in the Basque region of Spain, the nationalist struggles in the former Yugoslavia or the former Soviet Union, or anywhere else on Earth).

It was honestly a bit disturbing (in a good sense) to see DJ Spooky play around with those associations of "North" and "South". It makes me want to get a new compass.