Afrofuturism. Seeing ourselves in the future.

This movement, this declaration of life, is the culmination of being long denied and underappreciated. For the longest, our representation has been grossly limited by the perceptions and prejudices of a dominant society that viewed us on the fringe. In popular media, the black image was shackled by stereotype. In the field of science fiction, we were an invisible on thought.

To that, we say no more!

In another post, on another blog, I wrote about the correlation between the literature of a people and their perception of themselves. There, I described the historical ties that science fiction had towards the dominant society’s shaping the perception of their future via futuristic landscapes and the heroes who travelled among the distant futures. Then I spoke about the growing interest in science fiction in Africa at the exact time that many on the continent are making strides in technology and science.

And so it is with us. The road has been long, and pioneers often had to travel alone on the path they blazed. But as we embrace the future, we begin to shape it in our image. Our past, our present. The future born of a new understanding and acceptance of both. The melding of the mystic and the futurist. The griot and the scribe. Writer and artist. We work to shape the future with our words, our art, our expression of self definition reaching not only for the stars, but to travel the vast, mysterious expanse that holds them. We are here, and we will only grow in legion.