Further Considerations on Afrofuturism

Further Considerations on Afrofuturism Author(s): Kodwo Eshun Source: CR: The New Centennial Review, Vol. 3, No. 2, globalicities: possibilities of the globe ( summer 2003), pp. 287-302 Published by: Michigan State University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41949397 Accessed: 03-11-2015 03:43 UTC Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/ info/about/policies/terms.jsp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. Michigan State University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to CR: The New Centennial Review. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 142.132.1.147 on Tue, 03 Nov 2015 03:43:31 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Further Considerations on Afrofuturism KODWO ESHUN - somesilicon, some a teamofAfrican fromthefuture archaeologists Imagine - excavating a site,a museum somewet,somedry carbon, fromtheir past: a discsareidentifiable as belongmuseum whoseruinedocuments andleaking the theearlytwenty-first century. patiently through Sifting ingtoourpresent, StatesofAfrica, theUSAF, would ourarchaeologists rubble, fromtheUnited conbestruck inthetwentieth byhowmuch Afrodiasporic subjectivity century thecultural In theirAgeofTotal stituted itself through projectofrecovery is neverlost.Onlytheartofforgetting. Recall,memory Imaginethemrecontheconceptual moment framework ofourcultural fromthose structing fragments. Whataretheparameters the moment, edgeofthat ofthat framework? THE WAR OF C 0 U N T E R M E M 0 RY In our time,the USAF archaeologistsurmise,imperialracismhas denied blacksubjectstherightto belongto theenlightenment project,thuscreating an urgentneed to demonstrate a substantive historicalpresence.Thisdesire has overdetermined BlackAtlanticintellectual cultureforseveralcenturies. • 287 This content downloaded from 142.132.1.147 on Tue, 03 Nov 2015 03:43:31 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

288 • FurtherConsiderationson Afrofuturism To establishthehistoricalcharacterofblackculture,to bringAfricand its subjects into historydenied by Hegel et al., it has been necessaryto situatthatcontestthecolonialarchive,thereby assemblecountermemories ingthecollectivetraumaofslaveryas thefoundingmomentofmodernity. THE FOUNDING TRAUMA SmallActs, novIn an interview withcriticPaul Gilroyin his 1991anthology elistToniMorrisonarguedthatthe Africansubjectsthatexperiencedcap- and slaverywerethefirstmoderns.They abduction,mutilation, ture,theft, underwentreal conditionsof existentialhomelessness,alienation,dislocation,and dehumanizationthat philosopherslike Nietzschewould later modern.InsteadofcivilizingAfricansubjects,the defineas quintessentially forced dislocation and commodificationthat constitutedthe Middle was renderedforever suspect. Passage meantthatmodernity these traumascontinue indicate that over reparation Ongoingdisputes whatittook era.It is nevera matterofforgetting to shapethecontemporary so longto remember. Rather,thevigilancethatis necessaryto indictimpemustbe extendedintothefieldofthefuture. rialmodernity FUTURISM FATIGUE defineditselfas an ethicalcommitBecausethepracticeofcountermemory ofconceptual themanufacture thedead,and theforgotten, mentto history, was understoodas an toolsthatcouldanalyzeand assemblecounterfutures unethicalderelictionof duty.Futurologicalanalysiswas looked upon with Such attitudesdominatedthe academy suspicion,wariness,and hostility. the1980s. throughout with For Africanartists,thereweregood reasons fordisenchantment When Nkrumahwas deposed in Ghana in 1966,it signalledthe futurism. collapseofthefirstattemptto buildtheUSAF.The combinationofcolonial revengeand popular discontentcreatedsustained hostilitytowardsthe African plannedutopias of Africansocialism.For the restof the century, intellectualsadopted variationsof the positionthat Homi Bhabha (1992) This content downloaded from 142.132.1.147 on Tue, 03 Nov 2015 03:43:31 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

KodwoEshun • 289 termed"melancholiain revolt." This fatiguewithfuturity carriedthroughto BlackAtlanticculturalactivists, who,littlebylittle,ceased to participatein theprocessofbuildingfutures. toscrollthrough the as theyusetheiremulators Imaginethearchaeologists thatthefuture is a chronopoitis a commonplace files.In theirtime, fragile as hostileand as treacherous as thepast.As the liticalterrain, a terrain areamazed archives, siftthetwenty-first-century they patiently archaeologists hadonthese Theyaretouched bytheimpactthisrealization forgotten beings. andfathers mothers ofthose ofAfrofuturism, by bytheseriousness founding showed towards thenot-yet, towards theresponsibility they becoming. CONTROL THROUGH PREDICTION A culturalmomentwhendigFastforward to theearlytwenty-first century. invokedto hide thepresentin all its unhappiitopianfuturesare routinely ness. In this context, inquiry into production of futures becomes does not seek to ratherthantrivial.The fieldofAfrofuturism fundamental, Rather,it aims to extendthattradidenythe traditionof countermemory. the intercultural vectorsof Black Atlantictemporality tionby reorienting towardstheprolepticas muchas theretrospective. as much as retrospecIt is clear thatpowernow operatespredictively oftheimpeCapitalcontinuesto functionthroughthedissimulation tively. rial archive,as it has done throughoutthe last century.Today,however, and delivery of poweralso functionsthroughtheenvisioning, management, reliablefutures. In the colonial era of the earlyto middle twentiethcentury,avant- gardistsfromWalterBenjaminto FrantzFanonrevoltedin thename ofthe futureagainsta powerstructure thatreliedon controland representation of thehistoricalarchive.Today,thesituationis reversed.The powerfulemploy futurists and drawpowerfromthefuturestheyendorse,therebycondemnto livein thepast.The presentmomentis stretching, ingthedisempowered slippingforsome intoyesterday, reachingforothersintotomorrow. This content downloaded from 142.132.1.147 on Tue, 03 Nov 2015 03:43:31 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

290 • FurtherConsiderations on Afrofuturism SF Capital Powernow deploysa mode the criticMarkFisher(2000) calls SF (science the positivefeedbackbetween fiction)capital. SF capital is the synergy, futurism future-oriented mediaand capital.The alliancebetweencybernetic is a directgenerator and "NewEconomy"theoriesarguesthatinformation circulatesas an ofeconomicvalue.Information about the futuretherefore importantcommodity. increasingly It existsin mathematicalformalizations such as computersimulations, economicprojections, weatherreports,futurestrading,think-tank reports, consultancypapers and throughinformaldescriptionssuch as science- and fictioncinema,science-fiction novels,sonicfictions, religiousprophecy, such as the venturecapital.Bridgingthe two are formal-informal hybrids, marketfuturist. globalscenariosoftheprofessional bythecomputerboomofthe1990s, Lookingbackat themediagenerated it is clearthatthe effectof the futuresindustry-definedhereas the interfictional oftechnoscience, media,technological projection, sectingindustries - has been to fuelthe desirefora technology boom. and marketprediction located Giventhiscontext,it wouldbe naïveto understandsciencefiction, intothe as merely withintheexpandedfieldofthefutures prediction industry, alternative socialrealities. or as a Utopianprojectforimagining farfuture, in SamuelR. Delanys stateSciencefictionmightbetterbe understood, "a significantdistortionof the present"(Last Angelof ment,as offering History1995).To be moreprecise,sciencefictionis neitherforward-looking norUtopian.Rather,in WilliamGibsonsphrase,sciencefictionis a means the present(cited in Eshun 1998).Looking throughwhichto preprogram back at the genre,it becomesapparentthatsciencefictionwas neverconcernedwiththe future,but ratherwithengineeringfeedbackbetweenits futureand itsbecomingpresent. preferred fromThe TrumanShowto Hollywood's1990slove forsci-techfictions, be seen as TheMatrix,fromMen in Blackto Minority , can therefore Report power of computernetproduct-placedvisions of the reality-producing works,whichin turncontributeto an explosionin the technologiesthey hymn.As New Economyideas takehold,virtualfuturesgeneratecapital.A subtleoscillationbetweenpredictionand controlis being engineeredin This content downloaded from 142.132.1.147 on Tue, 03 Nov 2015 03:43:31 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

KodwoEshun • 291 whichsuccessfulor powerfuldescriptionsof the futurehave an increasing abilityto drawus towardsthem,to commandus to makethemflesh. THE FUTURES INDUSTRY Science fictionis now a researchand developmentdepartmentwithina futuresindustrythat dreamsof the predictionand controlof tomorrow. Corporatebusinessseeksto managetheunknownthroughdecisionsbased on scenarios,whilecivilsocietyrespondsto futureshockthroughhabitsformattedby science fiction.Science fictionoperatesthroughthe powerof the driveto rewritereality,and the will to denyplausibility, falsification, whilethescenariooperatesthroughthecontroland predictionofplausible alternative tomorrows. Boththe science-fiction movieand the scenarioare examplesofcybernetic futurismthattalks of thingsthathaven'thappenedyetin the past tense. In this case, futurismhas littleto do withthe Italian and Russian theseapproachesseekto modelvariationovertimeby rather, avant-gardes; oscillatingbetweenanticipationand determinism. thesitewiththeir ImaginetheAll-African Archaeological Program sweeping chronometers. and the ashes. on Again again,theysift Imaginethereadouts their to thedangerously , indicators portables pointing highlevelsofhostile Thisarea showsextreme levels density ofdystopic projections. forecasting, thearchaeologists' ownexistence that,ifaccurate,wouldhaverendered TheAAAPknowsbetter: suchstatistical delirium revealstheferimpossible. vidwishdreamsofthehostmarket. MARKET DYSTOPIA Ifglobalscenariosare descriptionsthatare primarily concernedwithmakfirstpriority is to recogingfuturesafeforthemarket,thenAfrofuturisms nize that Africaincreasinglyexists as the object of futuristprojection. Africansocial realityis overdetermined by intimidatinglobal scenarios, economic weather doomsday projections, predictions,medicalreportson This content downloaded from 142.132.1.147 on Tue, 03 Nov 2015 03:43:31 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

292 • FurtherConsiderationson Afrofuturism all ofwhichpredictdecades ofimmisAIDS, and life-expectancy forecasts, erization. Thesepowerful ofthefuturedemoralizeus; theycommand descriptions us to buryourheads in ourhands,to groanwithsadness.Commissionedby multinationals and nongovernmental organizations(NGOs),thesedevelopmentalfuturisms functionas the otherside of the corporateutopias that makethefuturesafeforindustry. Here,we are seducednotbysmilingfaces intoa screen;rather, we are menacedbypredatoryfutures staringbrightly thatinsistthenext50 yearswillbe hostile. Withinan economythatrunson SF capitaland marketfuturism, Africa is alwaysthe zone ofthe absolutedystopia.Thereis alwaysa reliabletrade in marketprojectionsforAfricassocioeconomiccrises.Marketdystopias aim to warnagainstpredatory but alwaysdo so in a discoursethat futures, aspiresto unchallengeable certainty. THE MUSEOLOGICAL TURN For contemporary Africanartists,understandingand intervening in the ofthisdimensionconstitutesa chronopolitical productionand distribution act. It is possible to see one formthat this chronopoliticalintervention Africanartistssuch as mighttakebylookingat theworkofcontemporary GeorgesAdeagboand Meshac Gaba. In thetraditionofMarcelBroodthaers and FredWilson,bothartistshaveturnedtowardsmuseologicalemulation, thuslayingbare,manipulating, the conmocking,and criticallyaffirming of institutional and framework knowledge. textualizing historicizing ArtMuseum"is "atonce a criticismofthemuseGabas "Contemporary ological institutionas conceived in developed countries,as well as the This institution. ofa possiblemodelfora nonexistent Utopianformulation a strucdual nature,criticaland Utopian,is relatedto theartist. . . founding ofexisting turewherethereisn'tone,withoutlosingsightofthelimitations models thatbelong to a certainsocial and economic orderbased in the harsherrealitiesofdomination" (Gaba 2002). This content downloaded from 142.132.1.147 on Tue, 03 Nov 2015 03:43:31 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

KodwoEshun • 293 Proleptic Intervention Taking its cue fromthis "dual nature"of the "criticaland Utopian,"an art project mightwork on the exposure and reframingof Afrofuturist futurisms thatact to forecastand fixAfricandystopia.For the contempo- raryAfricanartistof2005,theseprojectionsofrelentlessocialdisastercontaincertainconceptualimplications. The Africanartistthatresearchesthis dimensionwillfinda space for distinctkindsofanticipatory designs,projectsofemulation,manipulation, into a brightcorporatetomorrowby ads fullof parasitism.Interpellation facessmilingat screensmaybecome a bitterjoke at the expenseof multinationaldelusions.The artistmightreassemblethe predatoryfuturesthat insistthenext50 yearswillbe ones ofunmitigatedespair. then,is concernedwiththe possibilitiesforintervention Afrofuturism, theenvitheprojected,theproleptic, withinthedimensionofthepredictive, and thefutureconditional. sioned,thevirtual,theanticipatory This implies the analysis of threedistinctbut partiallyintersecting the worldof mathematicalsimulations;second,theworldof spheres:first, informaldescriptions;and third,as Gilroy(2001) points out in Between formsof the mainCamps, the articulationof futureswithinthe everyday for streamofblackvernacularexpression.Havinglookedat theimplications Africanart throughthe firstand the second dimensions,we now turnour is obligedto attentionto thethird.To workwiththismaterial,Afrofuturism and technofuturology, approach the audiovisionsof extraterrestriality, sciencefictionswithpatienceand seriousness. intheir downtime. liquidgel Theysitroundtheir Imaginethearchaeologists real cities World Scenarios, for computers possible futures through generating scenarios. SetinLagos,withother a videogamethatassembles alternative variables tofollow, thegameinvites userstospecify fortransportation, options and industrial wastedisposalresidential commercial consumption, energy The visions what those choices will mean returns of forlifein zoning. game 2240. This content downloaded from 142.132.1.147 on Tue, 03 Nov 2015 03:43:31 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

294 • on Afrofuturism FurtherConsiderations Black Atlantic Sonic Process Itis difficult to conceiveofAfrofuturism withouta placeforsonicprocessinits and syncopated modes.Thedailylifeworld ofblackververnacular, speculative, nacularexpression artpractice.Nonethemaybe anathemato contemporary offutures less,thesehistories passedmustbe positionedas a valuableresource. an installation thattheartistGeorges thatusesthe Imagine Adeagbocreated albums tobuilda newmyth artwork 1974-1980 ofParliament-Funkadelic from fantasies fromthecultural memory ofthis cycleofpolitico-socio-racio-sexual arenowdiscovering era.Imagine thatthearchaeologists fromthefuture frag... ments fromthatwork, yesterdays techno-fossils fromtomorrow's Afrofuturism studiesthe appeals thatblack artists,musicians,critics, in momentswhereanyfuture was made and writershavemadeto thefuture, difficult forthemto imagine.In 1962,the bandleaderand composerDuke Ellingtonwrote"The Race For Space" (Ellington1993),a briefessay that attemptedto pressthe futureintothe serviceof black liberation.By1966, however,MartinLutherKing,in his text"WhereDo We Go FromHere?" achievements was couldarguethatthegapbetweensocialand technological deep enoughto call theveryidea ofsocialand economicprogressintoquestion(Gilroy2001). Afrophilia In Excelsis BetweenthedemiseofBlackPowerin thelate 1960sand theemergenceofa withBob Marley, theAfrodiasporic in themid-1970s popularPan-Africanism thatinvokeda libmusicalimaginationwas characterised byan Afrophilia Africanmodererationist idyllofAfricanarchaismwiththeidea ofscientific bothheldin an unstablebut usefulequilibrium. nity, This equilibriumwas personified,in populist terms,by the Egyptological fantasiasof Earth,Wind,and Fire.The oscillationbetweenprewas establishedin the1950s industrialAfricaand scientific Africa,however, withSun Ra, the composerand bandleaderwhose lifeworkconstitutesa self-created cosmology. This content downloaded from 142.132.1.147 on Tue, 03 Nov 2015 03:43:31 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

KodwoEshun • 295 THE COSMOGENETIC MOMENT In 1995,the London-basedgroupBlackAudio FilmCollectivereleasedThe Connection Last AngelofHistory, also knownas TheMothership , theiressayfilmwhichremainsthe most elaborateexpositionon the convergenceof nomadic ideas thatis Afrofuturism. Throughthepersonaofa time-traveling The Last created a network as the Data known Thief, AngelofHistory figure and diaspora. Africansonic of links between music, space, futurology, as the distributed processesare here reconceivedas telecommunication, componentsof a code to a black secrettechnologythatis the keyto diasto allowsAfrofuturism The notionofa blacksecrettechnology poricfuture. reacha pointofspeculativeacceleration. at thecracked screenofthemicrovideo squinting Imaginethearchaeologists vaultsofWest thatshowstheData Thieftrapped in thehistory installation ... Africa EdwardGeorge Black Audio directorJohnAkomfrahand scriptwriter integrateda thesis fromcriticJohnCorbetťs "BrothersfromAnother Planet,"a 1993essaywhosetitlereferences JohnSayless 1983science-fiction movieof an alien that takes on AfricanAmericanidentityto escape his interstellar and Georgetakeup in particulartheoeuvres captors.Akomfrah Lee Perry, ofSun Ra and his group,theArkestra; composer, reggaeproducer, and Parliament-Funkadelic funk and architech of dub reggae; songwriter, producerGeorgeClinton,threefiguresanalyzedin termsoftheiruse ofthe recordingstudio,the vinylrecord,and the supportof artworkand record label as thevehicleforconceptalbumsthatsustainmythological, programmatic,and cosmologicalworldpictures. Corbettpointedto Ras group,theArkestra; Perry's1970srecordingstuConnection dio, the Black Ark;and the Mothership , Parliaments1974-1981 albumcycleto arguethat"largelyindependentofone other,each is working witha sharedset ofmythological imagesand icons such as space iconograand theidea ofspace exploration." phy,theidea ofextraterrestriality This content downloaded from 142.132.1.147 on Tue, 03 Nov 2015 03:43:31 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

296 • FurtherConsiderationson Afrofuturism IDENTIFICATION CODE UNIDENTIFIED ofsequencers,samplers,synBythe1980s,theemergentdigitaltechnology thesizers,and softwareapplicationsbeganto scrambletheabilityto assign and thereby racializemusic.Familiarprocessesofracialrecognition identity werebecomingunreliable.Listenerscouldno longerassumemusicianswere raciallyidenticalto theirsamples. Ifracialidentification and obscureto the listener, became intermittent forthemusician,a dimensionofheteronomy becameavailable.The humanmachine interfacebecame both the conditionand the subject of Afrofuturism. The cyborgfantasiesoftheDetroittechnoproducers,suchas Juan Atkinsand DerrickMay,wereused bothto alienatethemselvesfromsonic and to feelat homein alienation.ThelmaGoldensnotestowardsthe identity formulation of a twenty-first-century "post-black"aestheticdescribethis than it culturalmomentof studio-basedsonic processmoresatisfactorily does gallery-based visualpractice. THE IMPLICATIONS OF REVISIONISM sketchedabovetendto overlapwithhisGilroyarguesthatthearticulations toricalflashpoints. To analyseblackpopularfuturesin thiswayis to situate ifnotas themas falloutfromsocial movementsand liberationmovements, directpartsof those movements.These momentsmaybe historicizedby and Black movementsuchas BlackChristianEschatology politico-spiritual traditionsuch as theNationofIslam Power,and postwarpolitico-esoteric and theStolenLegacythesis. (NOI), Egyptology, Dogon cosmology, The Nation of Islams eschatologycombineda racialized account of humanoriginwitha catastrophictheoryof time.Ogotomelli,the Dogon providedan astronomical knowledgeofthe"SiriusB" Dog Star,elabmystic, Marcel Griauleand GermaineDieterlen, oratedby Frenchethnographers and superiorAfricanscientificknowlthatdemonstrated a compensatory edge. African desireto recoverthelost gloriesofa preindustrial Egyptology's Bernais Before Martin past was animatedby a Utopianauthoritarianism. BlackAthena(1988),GeorgeG. M. James'sStolenLegacy(1989) simultane- This content downloaded from 142.132.1.147 on Tue, 03 Nov 2015 03:43:31 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

KodwoEshun • 297 ouslyemphasisedthe whiteconspiraciesthatcoveredup the stolenlegacy ofAfricanscience,reversing Hegelianthoughtbyinsistingupon theoriginal Africancivilization. ManiThe reactionary Afrofuturism is byno meansnaivelycelebratory. chaenismoftheNationofIslam,theregressive compensationmechanisms and thetotalisingreversalsofStolen ofEgyptology, Dogonesquecosmology, evident.Byexcavating thepolitareimmediately Afrocentricity Legacy-style a lineageofcompetingworldical momentsofsuchvernacularfuturologies, the views that seek to reorienthistorycomes into focus. In identifying emergenceand disseminationofbeliefsystems,it becomescriticalto analyze how,in Gilroy'swords,"evenas the movementthat produced them fades,thereremainsa degreeoftemporaldisturbance." episodesthatdisBycreatingtemporalcomplicationsand anachronistic turbthelineartimeofprogress,thesefuturisms adjustthe temporalogics thatcondemnedblack subjectsto prehistory. Chronopolitically speaking, these revisionisthistoricitiesmaybe understoodas a series of powerful rates. thepresentat different competingfuturesthatinfiltrate Revisionistlogic is shared by autodidact historianslike Sun Ra and suchas intellectuals GeorgeG. M. JamesofStolenLegacy; and contemporary ToniMorrison,GregTate,and Paul D. Miller.HerargumenthattheAfrican slavesthatexperiencedcapture,theft,abduction,and mutilationwerethe firstmodernsis importantforpositioningslaveryat theheartofmodernity. The cognitiveand attitudinalshiftdemandedby her statementalso yokes The and binds crueltyto temporality. philosophytogetherwithbrutality, so as to disabuse effectis to forcetogetherseparatedsystemsofknowledge, of innocence. apparatusesofknowledge their Afrofuturism can be understoodas an elaborationupontheimplications thesis.In a 1991interviewwiththe writerMark of Morrisonsrevisionary culturalcriticGregTate suggestedthatthebar betweenthesignifier Sinker, and the signifiedcould be understoodas standingforthe Middle Passage that separatedsignification (meaning)fromsign (letter).This analogyof racial terrorwithsemioticprocess splicedthe worldof historicaltrauma withthe apparatusof structuralism. The twogenealogiescrossbredwitha disquietingforcethatcontaminatedthelatterand abstractedtheformer. This content downloaded from 142.132.1.147 on Tue, 03 Nov 2015 03:43:31 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

298 • FurtherConsiderations on Afrofuturism THE USES OF ALIENATION Afrofuturism does not stop at correcting thehistoryofthefuture.Noris it a simplematterof insertingmoreblack actorsinto science-fictionarratives.These methodsare onlybabystepstowardsthe moretotalizingrealization that,in GregTate's formulation, Afrodiasporicsubjects live the thatscience-fiction writersenvision.Blackexistenceand sciestrangement ence fictionare one and thesame. In TheLast AngelofHistory, Tate arguedthat"The formitself,theconventionsof the narrativein termsof the way it deals with subjectivity, focuseson someonewho is at odds withthe apparatusofpowerin society and whoseprofoundexperienceis one ofculturaldislocation,alienationand Most science fictiontales dramaticallydeal withhow the estrangement. individualis goingto contendwiththese alienating,dislocatingsocieties and circumstancesand thatprettymuchsums up the mass experiencesof blackpeople in thepostslavery twentieth century." At the century'start,Dubois termedthe conditionof structuraland psychologicalalienationas doubleconsciousness.The conditionof alienation,understoodin its mostgeneralsense,is a psychosocialinevitability thatall Afrodiasporic artuses to itsownadvantagebycreatingcontextsthat Afrofuturism's liesin assemspecificity encouragea processofdisalienation. mediatedpracticesin blingconceptualapproachesand countermemorial orderto access tripleconsciousness,quadrupleconsciousness,previously inaccessiblealienations. thatlater, onthatnight, thesiteis sealedoff, ready forthenext after Imagine dreams oneofthearchaeologists theAAAPhaveallbeendisinfected, day,after Mansdreamofhearing Louis ; therealisation oftheInvisible ofsixturntables tothe "What DidI HavetoDo toBeSoBlackandBlue"multiplied Armstrongs powerof6. The Extraterrestrial Turn as a hyperbolic uses extraterrestriality Afrofuturism tropeto explorethehisofforcibly toricalterms,theeveryday imposeddislocation,and implications This content downloaded from 142.132.1.147 on Tue, 03 Nov 2015 03:43:31 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

KodwoEshun • 299 the constitutionof Black Atlanticsubjectivities:fromslave to negroto colouredto évoluéto blackto Africanto AfricanAmerican. Extraterrestriality therebybecomes a point of transvaluationthrough whichthisvariationovertime,understoodas forcible can become mutation, a resourceforspeculation.It shouldbe understoodnotso muchas escapism, but ratheras an identification withthe potentiality of space and distance withinthehigh-pressure zone ofperpetualracialhostility. authors It is not thatblack subjectivities are waitingforscience-fiction to articulatetheirlifeworlds. itis thereverse.The conventionsofsciRather, ence fiction,marginalizedwithinliterature yetcentralto modernthought, can functionas allegoriesforthe systemicexperienceofpost-slavery black subjectsin the twentiethcentury.Science fiction,as such,is recastin the lightofAfrodiasporic history. Afrofuturism therefore stagesa seriesof enigmaticreturnsto the constitutive traumaofslaveryin thelightofsciencefiction.Isolatingthe enigmaticphrase"Apocalypsebin in effect"fromthe 1992PublicEnemytrack "Welcometo the Terradome," Mark Sinkers1992essay "Lovingthe Alien" to readthatslaveryfunctioned as arguedthatthislyriccouldbe interpreted an apocalypse experiencedas equivalentto alien abduction:"The ships landedlongago:theyalreadylaidwastewholesocieties,abductedand genet. . . Africand America- and so byextenicallyalteredswathesofcitizenry. sion Europeand Asia- are alreadyin theirvariouswaysAlienNation." Temporal Switchback Afrofuturism ofrecurapproachescontemporary digitalmusicas an intertext ringliterary quotationsthatmaybe citedand used as statements capableof and fantasizing The lyricalstateimaginatively reordering chronology history. mentis treatedas a platform forhistoricalspeculation.Socialrealityand sciencefictioncreatefeedbackbetweeneach otherwithinthesamephrase.The alienencountersand interplanetary abductionspeopleexperiencedas delusionsin theColdWarpresenthad alreadyoccurredin thepast,forreal. Allthesymptomspecificto a close encounterhad alreadyoccurredon a giantscale.The collectivedelusionoftheclose encounteris transplanted This content downloaded from 142.132.1.147 on Tue, 03 Nov 2015 03:43:31 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

300 • FurtherConsiderations on Afrofuturism to theMiddlePassage.The effect is notto questiontherealityofslavery, but to defamiliarize it througha temporalswitchbackthatreroutesits implica- tionsthroughpostwarsocial fiction,culturalfantasy, and modernscience fiction,all of whichbegin to seem like elaboratewaysof concealingand trauma. admitting Black-Atlantean Mythos In 1997,this aestheticof estrangement was pursuedto its limit-point by thegroupofenigmaticproducers, and designersoperDrexciya, synthesists, from Detroit. In the liner notes to their CD The Quest, Drexciya(1997) ating proposed a science-fictionalretelling of the Middle Passage. The "Drexciyans"are water-breathing, aquatically mutated descendants of "pregnantAmerica-boundAfricanslaves thrownoverboardby the thousands duringlabourforbeingsickand disruptive cargo." Couldit be possibleforhumansto breatheunderwater? A foetusin its wombis certainly mothers alivein an aquaticenvironment. Is itpossible thattheycouldhavegivenbirthat sea to babiesthatneverneededair? Recentexperiments haveshownmiceableto breathe a preliquidoxygen, mature humaninfant savedfromcertaindeathbybreathing liquidoxygen its underdeveloped through lungs.Thesefactscombinedwithreported ofGillmenand SwampMonsters in thecoastalswampsofthe sightings SouthEastern United Statesmaketheslavetradetheory feasible. startlingly In treatingGilroys The BlackAtlantic(1993) as a science fictionwhichis thendevelopedthroughfour-stage and mutationfrom analysisofmigration Africato America,Drexciyahaveconstructeda Black-Atlantean mythology In on the code black thatsuccessfully of speculates evolutionary subjectivity. turn,theirprojecthas inspireda seriesof paintingsby the contemporary and responsesin theform AfricanAmericanabstractartistEllenGallagher, ofessaysbythecriticsRuthMayerand Ben Williams. extendeditselfintospace. FortheirGrava Drexciyasprojecthas recently StarRegistry 4 CD, releasedin 2002,thegroupcontactedthe International This content downloaded from 142.132.1.147 on Tue, 03 Nov 2015 03:43:31 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

KodwoEshun • 301 in Switzerland to purchasetherightsto namea star.Havingnamedand registeredtheirstar "Grava4,"a new installmentwithintheirongoingsonic fictionis produced.In wrappingtheirspeculativefictionaroundelectronic compositionsthatthenlocate themselvesaroundan existingextraterrestrialspace, Drexciyagrantthemselvesthe imperialrightto nominateand colonize interstellar space. The absurdityof buyingand owninga distant starin no waydiminishesthe contractualobligationof ownershipthatthe therefore becomes the platgroupenteredinto.The processof ratification statementthatfuses formforan unexpectedintervention: a sono-fictional withthejuridical,and thesynthetic withthecartographic. themetaphorical Contractualfactmeetssonicfictionmeetsastronomicalmappingin a coloaudiovisualimaginationin advance of milinizationof the contemporary tarylanding. as a programforrecovTo conclude:Afrofuturism maybe characterized createdin a centuryhostileto Afroeringthe historiesof counter-futures diasporic projectionand as a space withinwhich the criticalwork of withinthecurrentpoliticaldistoolscapableofintervention manufacturing and mutation pensationmaybe undertaken.The manufacture, migration, of concepts and approaches withinthe fieldsof the theoreticaland the exemfictional,the digitaland the sonic,the visual and the architectural considered as a multimedia the field of Afrofuturism plifies expanded project distributed acrossthenodes,hubs,rings,and starsoftheBlackAtlantic. theimperative As a toolkitdevelopedforand byAfrodiasporic intellectuals, to code, adopt,adapt, translate,misread,rework,and revisionthese concepts,undertheconditionsspecifiedin thisessay,is likelyto persistin the decades to come. REFERENCES Homi. 1992. Postcolonial andPostmodern Guilt. InCultural edited Bhabha, Studies, Authority andPaulaTreichler. NewYork: Nelson, byLawrence Grossberg, Cary Routledge. Bernal. Martin. 1988. Black Athena: TheAfroasiatic Roots Vol.1,The Civilization. ofClassical This content downloaded from 142.132.1.147 on Tue, 03 Nov 2015 03:43:31 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

302 • FurtherConsiderationson Afrofuturism Press. 1785-1985. Fabrication Greece, N.J.: University Piscataway, Rutgers ofAncient In from Another Planet. Extended 1993. Brothers Corbett, John John. Play:Sounding off from DukeUniversity 1994. Durham: Press, CagetoDr.Funkenstein. disk. TheQuest. SVE-8. 1997. Liner Notes. Compact Submerge Drexciya. In Tucker. 1993. The Race for The Duke Duke. Reader, Space. byMark Ellington edited Ellington, NewYork: Oxford Press. University inSonic Fiction. London: More Brilliant ThantheSun : Adventures Kodwo. 1998. Eshun, Quartet Books. 2000. Mark. SFCapital. Fisher, Themepark magazine. XI.Ostfildern, Meshac. 2002. Short Guide toDocumenta Gaba, HatjeCantz. Germany: Mass.: Atlantic: andDouble-Consciousness. Paul.1993.TheBlack Modernity Cambridge, Gilroy, Harvard Press. University InSmallActs:Thoughts onthe A Meeting ToniMorrison. . 1994.Living with Memory: London: Tail. Politics Serpent's ofBlackCultures. Allen Lane. . 2001. Between Camps. IsStolen 1989. Greek G.M.[1954] Stolen James, Philosophy. Philosophy Egyptian George Legacy: Khalifahs BookSellers. Reprint. London: BlackAudioFilm 1995.Directed Akomfrah. TheLastAngel ofHistory. byJohn Collective, C4/ZDF. Arena Tate.Unpublished Mark. 1991. Interview with Mark Sinker, transcript, magazine. 96(June . 1992. theAlien. TheWire 1992). Loving This content downloaded from 142.132.1.147 on Tue, 03 Nov 2015 03:43:31 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions