The (Infra)Structural Limits and Utopian Horizons of Lagos_2060’s Africanfuturism

Authors

  • Hugh C. O'Connell University of Massachusetts Boston

Keywords:

Africanfuturism, African Science Fiction, Utopianism, postcolonial science fiction, infrastructure, African Futures

Abstract

This essay maps the relationship between two relatively nascent sf discourses – Africanfuturism and world-sf – in order to think about the notion of African futurity in relation to the contemporary global world-system. Taking Nnedi Okorafor’s definition as a starting point, it examines how Africanfuturism dovetails with what Mark Bould, following in the path of Warwick Research Collective, has recently argued for as a properly world-sf, whereby due ‘to sf’s global perspectives and its commitment to building coherent imaginary worlds, it frequently maps out, responds to, critiques, and/or champions the world-system.’ One way of forging this connection is through a focus on infrastructure. If infrastructure entails a number of overlapping valences with their own internal contradictions, then it also provides a key object for thinking the similar contradiction within sf world-building between the neoimperial implications of the developmentalism of the futures industry on one hand, and the postcolonial decentering of utopian sf world-building on the other. In order to concretize these ideas, the essay concentrates on sf coming out of Nigeria, since it is one of the most prominent sites of production and content for the post-millennial boom in African sf, and focuses particularly on the Ayodele Arigbabu-edited anthology Lagos_2060: Exciting Sci-Fi Stories from Nigeria (2013). Doing so, the essays argues, allows us to limn the neoliberal limits and utopian horizons embedded within Africanfuturist world-building.

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Published

2022-10-31

Issue

Vol. 8 No. 2 (2022)

Section

Special Issue Articles

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