Erykah Kangbeya
DARE Project: Afrofuturism as Future Imagineering
Program(s) of Study: Political Science, Honours
Project Supervisor: Sylvia Bawa
This research project will yield foundational findings regarding the possibilities brought about by a movement that centers Black perspectives and concerns.
Project Description:
Over two decades ago, theorist Kodwo Eshun diagnosed the collective imagination with the refusal to see the existence of an African social reality beyond doomsday economic projections, medical reports of AIDS epidemics, and short life expectancy predictions (2003). Yet, such positioning forecasts the kind of decades of immiserization that incites despair and leaves the continent out of any critical engagement with the practice of future thinking (Eshun, 2003). Afrofuturism arose from the need to reframe such dystopian futurisms in a way that uncovers historical veracity, exists outside of colonial schemes, addresses Afrodiasporic concerns, and exceeds discursive confines (Guthrie, 2019). It is concerned with the creation of a counter-future and an associated exploration of the futuristic Black subject position. The philosophical movement insists on the centering of this subject’s knowledge and its subjectivities (Eseonu & Okoye, 2023). What, then, could an Afro-centric future look like? This project examines the existing literature and multidisciplinary work on the subject over the last 20 years to determine what qualifies as Afrofuturism. The research specifically addresses the following questions: (1) Is Afrofuturism a project in knowledge reclamation? (2) What constitutes Afrofuturism and who are the main contributors to the field?The Dean’s Award for Research Excellence (DARE) - Undergraduate enables our students to meaningfully engage in research projects supervised by LA&PS faculty members. Find out more about DARE.