Afrofuturism

Afrofuturism is a cultural aesthetic that explores the African American and broader Black experience and seeks to connect members of the Black diaspora with their heritage through the lens of science, technology and imagined futures. The tendency weaves together elements of science fiction, history, cosmology, African myth and fantasy in order to reimagine the past and project alternative futures in which Black people are full subjects and creators. The term was proposed by the cultural critic Mark Dery in his essay 'Black to the Future' (1993; reprinted in Flame Wars, 1994), but the practice has deeper roots, notably in the music of Sun Ra, who from the 1950s developed a cosmic mythology, and later in the work of the band Parliament-Funkadelic and the writer Octavia Butler. In the visual arts Afrofuturism is engaged by artists using collage, digital media and installation. Afrofuturism reflects on the legacies of slavery and colonialism, on questions of identity, technology and liberation, offering visions of worlds free of racial oppression, and it has become influential in film, fashion, literature and music.