Afrofuturism and World Order

Reynaldo Anderson

• Publisher: Ohio State University Press
• Year: 2025
• Print ISBN:
  9780814259559
  9780814215944
• eBook ISBN:
  9780814284308
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Literary Criticism
• Index: Literature

In Afrofuturism and World Order, Reynaldo Anderson delves into the evolution of Black speculative thought and Afrofuturism from the early twentieth century to the present day. By locating Afrofuturism within an African geography of reason, he situates the past, present, and future of people of African descent at the intersection of speculative philosophy, science fiction, futurology, artificial intelligence, climate change, and geopolitics. Historically, Afrofuturism theorized futures for Black Americans through merging their lived experiences with science fiction, technology, music, and art. Drawing from adaptations in Black culture and speculative thought during the Cold War, Anderson addresses the shifting focus of the genre from American to transnational, as well as the implications of modern existential threats such as the COVID-19 pandemic. By tracing the Black speculative tradition from its overlaps with Africana esotericism and certain African diaspora regions, to its intersections with astroculture and modernism, to the works of Malcolm X, Amiri Baraka, W. E. B. Du Bois, and Octavia Butler, to the aesthetic politics of the Black Speculative Arts movement, and beyond, Anderson illuminates how Afrofuturism participates in an increasingly multipolar world.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title Page
• Series Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Introduction The Second Race for Theory
• Chapter 1 The New Atlantis, the Anglo World Order, and the Genesis of Afro-Modernity
• Chapter 2 The Rising Tide of Color and Creating a New Race
• Chapter 3 The Rise of the Deep State and the Technostate
• Chapter 4 The Dark Enlightenment and the Collapse of the Anglo Liberal World Order
• Chapter 5 The Nommo of the Black Speculative Turn
• Chapter 6 AI Nationalism and the New World Order
• Epilogue Dark MAGA, BRICS+, and the Biofunk Era: A Brave New World Order
• Acknowledgments
• References
• Index