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The Evolution of African Fantasy and Science Fiction
Francesca T Barbini
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The Evolution of African Fantasy and Science Fiction
Francesca T Barbini
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About This Book
The articles by Polina Levontin and Robert S Malan are currently nominated for the BSFA Awards.
“The Evolution of African Fantasy and Science Fiction” is the second Call for Papers of Academia Lunare, the non-fiction arm of Luna Press Publishing.
These papers explore the theme through the emergence of African SFF, the forces shaping its development down the ages, and the dangers of expectations. We also examine its effect on literature and portrayals in popular entertainment.
Featuring papers from Peter J. Maurits, Nick Wood, Ezeiyoke Chukwunonso, Polina Levontin and Robert S. Malan.
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ACADEMIA LUNARE
Call For Papers 2017
The Evolution of African Fantasy and Science Fiction
Edited By
Francesca T Barbini
![](OEBPS/image/Luna_Press_Logo-plgo-compressed.webp)
Editor Foreword © Francesca T Barbini 2018
Articles © is with each individual author 2018
A portion of Polina Levontin's article has appeared in 'Scientists in Nigerian/Western Science Fiction' published in Foundation: The International Review of Science Fiction, Spring 2018.
First published by Luna Press Publishing 2018
The Evolution of African Fantasy and Science Fiction © 2018. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission of the copyright owners. Nor can it be circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without similar condition including this condition being imposed on a subsequent purchaser.
www.lunapresspublishing.com
ISBN-13: 978-1-911143-52-9
On the Emergence of African Science Fiction By Peter J. Maurits1
The aim of this article is to contribute to the understanding of the emergence of contemporary science fiction on the African continent (ASF), occurring around the year 2007. Based in part on theories of the emergence of European and American SF, I suggest that we may consider ASF a new phase in the joint tradition of science fiction and utopian writing that responds to both contemporary and non-contemporary narrative dystopian traditions. I suggest that ASF could build and maintain momentum due to the spread of new media on the African continent, due to Afro- and techno-optimism, and the effects of the global financial crisis (GFC) on discursive regimes connected to the narrative utopia.
When the number of African science fiction publications increased during the 2000s, a heated debate on the origin of the genre occurred alongside it. Centring on the seemingly neutral question of, âis African science fiction (ASF) a new, old, local or alien cultural form?â, the very nature of what African cultural production should or could be was perceived to be at stake. Dilman Dila summarises this well in his blogpost âIs Science Fiction Really Alien to Africa?â (2015). âAfrican writersâ, he says, âforever have to defend their work.â They are expected to write about the âproblems of their societiesâ, and when they do, âsomeone wonder[s] why they only write about misery and gloom on the continentâ. When they write science fiction they are called ââcopycatââ, or worse, are told that Africans are unable to âwrite such storiesâ. Clearly, as Dila implies, there is no reason to claim that writersâ geographical locations more or less entitle or enable them to use a genre, especially because the contemporary literary system is a âworld-literary systemâ (Moretti, 2000:56). That term connotes the movement of literary (but also cinematographic) forms over the entire globe (on unequal terms) and the formation of new forms resulting from the convergence of traveling form and local content. Dila describes this process relative to the formation of contemporary ASF, when he indicates that, while some stories draw on âpopular Western films and booksâ, they also draw on local âfolk talesâ, and so on (2015).
Dila continues to discuss some common misconceptions, and the importance of ASF writersâ position in the world-literary system, making his account, arguably, one of the more valuable contributions to the debate. Nevertheless, while Dila pursues the âis ASF newâ question, I want to suggest displacing it and the normativity associated with it altogether. In my understanding, cultural forms are a function, or are symptomatic, of their historical context, roughly meaning that (in this case) a genre emerges for specific historical reasons. It would follow that the presence or absence of a specific cultural form is not a qualitative indicator of a (or part of a) cultural systemâas is implied in the debateâbut rather an effect of a context of production. More importantly, it follows that to better comprehend the ASF phenomenon, the question of âis ASF new?â loses importance to that of âwhat are the historical reasons for ASFâs emergence?â, which is the main question of this essay.
To answer this question, ASFâs emergence date must be determined. I suggest doing so based on the sudden increase in the number of (known) publications that could be considered ASF. Based on several attempts to list ASF narratives,2 it appears that there were about 10 ASF publications between 1900 and 1950, about 9 in the next 30 years, around 5 in the 1980s, and 5 in the 1990s. Then, there seems to have been 4 in 2007, 5 in 2008, 6 in 2009, and hundreds from 2010 onwards. This allows for determining more precisely the moment of what Geoff Ryman calls ASFâs âlift-offâ (2017: 2)âwhat I call emergence. That term, then, which I broadly understand following Raymond Williams (1977), does not refer to the publication of individual narratives, but to the start of a consistent and continent-wide increase in the number of ASF publications over an extended period. Based on these numbers, it appears that this increase occurred around 2007.3
Such periodisation allows us to move on to our question of why ASF emerged. In particular, I am interested in examining how theories of emergence of European and American SF (ESF, AmSF) may inform our understanding of ASFâs emergence. As it is likely that this perspective is not exhaustive, my aim is adding to the existing literature rather than providing a complete account. In brief, I will suggest that ASF ...
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Citation styles for The Evolution of African Fantasy and Science Fiction
APA 6 Citation
[author missing]. (2018). The Evolution of African Fantasy and Science Fiction (1st ed.). Luna Press Publishing. Retrieved from https://www.perlego.com/book/2174505/the-evolution-of-african-fantasy-and-science-fiction-pdf (Original work published 2018)
Chicago Citation
[author missing]. (2018) 2018. The Evolution of African Fantasy and Science Fiction. 1st ed. Luna Press Publishing. https://www.perlego.com/book/2174505/the-evolution-of-african-fantasy-and-science-fiction-pdf.
Harvard Citation
[author missing] (2018) The Evolution of African Fantasy and Science Fiction. 1st edn. Luna Press Publishing. Available at: https://www.perlego.com/book/2174505/the-evolution-of-african-fantasy-and-science-fiction-pdf (Accessed: 15 October 2022).
MLA 7 Citation
[author missing]. The Evolution of African Fantasy and Science Fiction. 1st ed. Luna Press Publishing, 2018. Web. 15 Oct. 2022.