Ko Afrofuturism Chii?
On the 25th of April, at the recently opened Artopia Park, the Pan Afrikan Poets Cafe hosted an Open Heart Lab, an interactive creative session, themed Ko… Afrofuturism Chii? The session, facilitated by Sista Zai, an Australian-based Zimbabwean poet and organised by Batsirai Chigama Zimbabwean poet and author, was an explorative critique on what Afrofuturism is, if and how it applies to our creative endeavours.
As a fan of Afrocentric literature with a penchant for what I like to call “my beautiful dark and twisted African fantasy” with reviews on literary works that have been classified as Afrofuturism, Africanfuturism and others in spaces yet to be named, I was curious and excited to be a part of this experience.
Sista Zai, who is a Phd Candidate studying Creative Writing at the University of Melbourne, had a carefully structured plan on sharing what they had learnt about Afrofuturism, so that individually and collectively, participants of the workshop would be knowledgeable about the definitions, to apply to their own work and or craft better-suited narratives. While the objectives were largely achieved, the interactive discussion deviated from structure and took a life of its own, evoking thought-provoking insights and reflections on identity, imagination and the future.
Without delving into the academics, Sista Zai shared dyanmics of Afrofuturism as experienced from the perspective of a scholar-artiste in Australia, feeling a need to connect more with home, a place that is like a best-friend, whom you are forgetting, while living in a land which to date, still has a disenfranchised community; making story-telling a political endeavour — are you really free when your oppressor grants you freedom?
The introduction sparked a discussion as to how home can be a place that feels unfamiliar, even to those who are still at home, how colonialism violently uprooted a large part of our identity and culture in a systematic and deliberate venture, and to counter that, we will need an equally deliberate and intentional attempt at re-centering our identity. Most African cultures concept of time means the future, present and past are decentralised — So when we imagine a future, whose values, beliefs and ideals are we bringing forward into that future?
A very interesting perspective shared was how the concept of Afrofuturism is taken to mean futuristic tech, high concept art and fashion… places like Wakanda, yet it could be something as simple as imagining a world where everyone is truly free.
The future begins with our imagination — Whose imagination are we living in?
One of the sessions included a world-building activity, where participants were grouped and tasked with envisioning a world in which they were characters in a village where they had super-powers, how life would be there and how they would interact with others…
It was a fun exercise, that helped stimulate creativity and imagination grounded in characters derived from individual identities and expanding outwards into limitless worlds. There was a fun feedback session as people shared their worlds which included: an origins world like Katanga, meaning the first to be created, or Zvaringana a world where everything was perfectly balanced, Chiraradze a tumultuous place that had once been colonised into an improper fraction but had healed and prospered… and one without a name but with fire at its heart.
What is Afrofuturism? We followed Nnedi Okorafor‘s journey from trying to fit into the afrofuturism label then defining africanfuturism and africanjujuism; which can intersect intersect at times, but with one a subcategory of science fiction and the latter a subcategory of fantasy that respectfully acknowledges the seamless blend of true existing African spiritualities and cosmologies with the imaginative.
The concluding sentiments were that while its important to define our own identities and the labels we embrace or adopt, it’s important to not get lost in the academics — sometimes, a story is just a story.
What does Afrofuturism mean to you?
Yesterday is past, tomorrow never comes, all we have is today… and the ability to dream and imagine… What If…
Becoming The Muse 
Your thoughts.. if you will?