Throughout this chapter, the power of ingenuity and imagination has been a constant theme in constructing avenues of liberation. The ability to envision new ways of being allows individuals to rupture the veil of reality in favor of a future that is not bound by the current limitations of society. As discussed in the previous chapter “Fugitive Knowledge,” Afrofuturism provides a cosmic tear where authors and artists seek to build alternative worlds that lay beyond the stifling realities of the present in order to terraform spaces that lay outside of anti-blackness. Utopian world-making at its nucleus is a form of societal critique. Often, the focal points of these creations expose the roots of injustice and oppression. By utilizing themes present in science fiction, artists can transcend into a dimension that escapes the earthly woes in favor of uncharted cosmologies that lay beyond the wakes of the Atlantic.
BIPOC communities, for generations, have fought against the effects of erasure. Their contributions to science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics (STEAM) have been actively minimized to create and instill a social/educational hierarchy prioritizing Western knowledge over the subaltern. By centralizing Western thought as the universal standard, Black scientific discoveries are pushed beyond the horizon of comprehension. This negation of mainstream scientific recognition sheds doubts on the authenticity of Black ingenuity. This extreme absurdity can be seen in the various conspiracy theories that claim extraterrestrials are the original architects of the Great Pyramids. These steps of erasure go beyond limiting Afrikan cosmologies, epistemologies, and genealogies and even carry over into the literary realm of science fiction, where Black bodies are all but forgotten.
Before the emergence of Afrofuturism, the pages of science fiction novels treated Black characters as if they were antimatter. This disparity of inclusion in the future only becomes more obtrusive once sci-fi movies become box-office successes. For generations, Billy Dee Williams' portrayal of Lando Calrissian in the Star Wars franchise and his Star Trek counterpart Nichelle Nichols’ Lieutenant Nyota Uhura were the only Black bodies orbiting space. Either accidentally or by design, the exclusion of communities of color in the future reveals a larger narrative of anti-blackness. Author and Afrofuturism scholar Ytasha Womack illustrates how the legacy of racial prejudice has even distorted the lens of speculative thinking by explaining:
It’s one thing when black people aren’t discussed in world history. Fortunately, teams of dedicated historians and culture advocates have chipped away at the propaganda often functioning as history for the world’s students to eradicate that glaring error. But when, even in the imaginary future—a space where the mind can stretch beyond the Milky Way to envision routine space travel, cuddly space animals, talking apes, and time machines—people can’t fathom a person of non-Euro descent a hundred years into the future, a cosmic foot has to be put down.[93]
Womack’s observation highlights the need for individuals to think beyond the limiting scope of anti-blackness and claim a future where celestial bodies can be Black. These calls of action are often fulfilled by Black creatives whose imaginations are untethered to the limiting gravity of the present. Artists such as Octavia E. Butler, George Clinton, Audre Lorde, and Sun Ra imagine and compose spaces of futurity where Black life no longer resides in the darkness of the margins but rather is reaffirmed and realigned amongst the center where the light allows the seeds of enlightenment to emerge.
The ability to perceive and envision the impossible rips the veil of contemporary reality and lets alternative ways of existence enter the consciousness. Jazz composer Sun Ra explains, "the impossible attracts me, because everything possible has been done and the world didn’t change.”[94] The impossible is at the heart of Afrofuturism, where the ability to bend reality becomes synonymous with unfettered possibilities. Fueled by cosmic aspirations, these fissures of freedom truly inspire marvel notions of becoming. The futurity of Black art will continue to flourish as new celestial creatives reach beyond the pedestrian shortcomings of existing conditions and embrace what resides past the constellations of our known universe. Whether it be the envisioning of spaces such as Ryan Coogler’s Wakanda in Black Panther or Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s prophetic dream for America, the Black imaginary will continually explore the unperceived as a means of charting a course to a secure speculative future where emancipatory realities are non-fiction.
Endnote
[92] Saidiya Hartman, “Under the Blacklight: Storytelling While Black and Female: Conjuring Beautiful Experiments,” YouTube, August 5, 2020, 37:13 to 37:26, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGS5aP5Vi7g.
[93] Ytasha Womack, Afrofuturism: The World of Black Sci-Fi and Fantasy Culture (Chicago: Lawrence Hill Books, 2013), 7.
[94] Sun Ra, The Immeasurable Equation: The Collected Poetry and Prose, eds. James Wolf and Hartmut Geerkin (Wartaweil: Enterplanetary Koncepts, 2005), 457.
