What Makes Science Fiction and Fantasy Afrocentric?

by

Stafford Battle

The publishing world has seen the swelling growth and profitability of Black romance and urban novels. Booksellers and public libraries are stocking their shelves with publications that offer gritty tales of the dark mean streets or outrageous Black gangsters. But there is another wave on the horizon, another genre that may soon rival the expensive cars, dangerous pimps and desperate ex-cons—a rising tide of titles that offer hi-tech space ships, cunning barbarians, and savvy time travelers featuring African Americans characters in Black sci-fi and fantasy. Black science fiction (or Afrofuturism), as well as “Sword and Soul,” loosely can be defined as an intellectual and cultural movement that explores the African American relationship with new technology, musings of the future, and heroic fantasies.

Sci-fi and its cousins featuring characters of Caucasian background have been around since Jules Verne and H. G. Wells in the 1800s. But what defines Black sci-fi? It is more than simply putting a dark tan on Flash Gordon or giving Superman kinky hair. In my humble opinion, before any fantasy, sci-fi, or other speculative fiction story can be classified as Black or African American oriented, it must meet at least three of the following five conditions:

• The author should be of African heritage

• The main character should be Black

• The setting should be in Africa or Harlem

• Social conditions should be unique to people of color

• The narrative or dialogue should resonate with “Blackness”

The Author Should be of African Heritage

An obvious indicator that a sci-fi novel truly may be Afrocentric is if its author is Black. Samuel Delany, Charles Saunders, Octavia Butler, Steven Barnes, and many others are Black authors who write Afrocentric sci-fi. Yet, all good writers have the ability to offer stories told from a variety of viewpoints. Delany, winner of the Nebula Award for 1966 and 1967, offers stories where skin color is not an issue and is not even mentioned. In Butler’s Xenogenesis Series, aliens are the main characters with only an occasional appearance of a person of color. Conversely, Mike Resnick, a White author who has won five Hugo Awards, creates well-crafted sci-fi tales about Africa and people of African descent in Kirinyaga: A Fable of Utopia and Ivory: A Legend of Past and Future.

Main Character

African American readers yearn for strong Black characters in their sci-fi and fantasy literature; male or female, hero or villain. On the Web at the Black Science Fiction Society or the Black Author Showcase, bloggers complain of not having enough Black superheroes. Personally, I’d rather see more Black villains, more would-be-world-conquerors, psychotic punishers seeking bloody revenge, and mad geniuses constructing grandiose schemes of self-gratification. Without the Joker, Batman would be a sad vigilante chasing purse snatchers in dark alleys. Strong Black sci-fi villains give us even stronger Black heroes and noteworthy, award-winning authors. My vote for the strongest Black villain would be Doro in Octavia Butler’s Wild Seed and Mind of My Mind.

The Setting: Africa or Harlem

Most Sword and Soul is set in Africa or an analogue of an Africa-like place on a different planet or other reality. Harlem, New York, or a similar urban neighborhood also can be a proper geographic location for Black sci-fi. George Schuyler’s Black Empire uses Harlem and Africa as important backdrops. These locales allow characters to interact with people of color and be closely involved with the failures and successes of people at the street or village level. Of course, Black people inhabit every corner of the planet, but it’s where Black communities have traditionally endured and prospered that makes this type of setting an important element in Black sci-fi. It is impractical, however, for a novel to include only one setting, but at the very least, the main characters should travel and have some significant interaction in Africa or in an urban community.

Historical or Social Conditions Unique to People of Color

Until around the 18th Century, slavery was not primarily inflicted upon a person solely because of color or race. Anyone who lost a war or the favor of the king or chief could be tossed into slavery. However, in America, the heartless bondage of human beings became a uniquely Afrocentric institution. Jim Crow and human rights issues also most adversely affected African Americans. Using time travel, Butler’s Kindred was an illuminating example of the effects of slavery on Black and White people, past and present. African Americans have a special influence on world culture, not just limited to music (blues, jazz, or hip hop) and sports (basketball, boxing); for instance, Black soldiers faced unique circumstances at home and on the battlefield. African American airmen and tank commanders faced serious issues from friend and foe. Black fiction should employ these unique and special circumstances in a story.

Narrative and Dialogue

Thank the lucky stars, that most first-rate, modern writers don’t over populate their work with slang, jargon, or southern dialect that makes reading tedious and painful: “You wants to keep ‘way fum de water as much as you kin, en don’t run no resk, ‘kase it’s down in de bills dat you’s gwyne to git hung.” – Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Yet, good writers can subtly select the right words and context to let readers know that a Black character is speaking. The very best writers can create characters who change their patterns of speech depending upon to whom the characters are speaking, known as code-switching. Moreover, the language and description of events in a Black speculative work must be “hip” as well as reflective of the collective mind of the Black diaspora.

This assessment of what makes fiction “really” Black is by no means a rigorous dissertation nor critical analysis of the conditions that must occur to guarantee the ethnicity of a literary work because there are so many exceptions to the rules. Consider these thoughts to be general guidelines to make the promotion of Black sci-fi and fantasy more effective.