Description
Book SynopsisExplores the ways in which African writers have approached speculative fiction through in-depth articles on the use of language, terminology and the genealogy of the works. Over the past two decades, there has been a resurgence in the writing of African and African diaspora speculative and science fiction writing. Recent discussions around the "rise of science-fiction and fantasy" in Africa have led to a push-back, in which writers and scholars have suggested that science fiction and fantasy is not a new phenomenon in African literature, but that the deep past of the African world and its complex and mysterious foundations still register in burgeoning modern literary productions. Such influences can be seen in early twentieth-century writers such as D.O. Fagunwa's classic novel (1938) Ogboji Ode ninu Igbo Irunmale (The Forest of a Thousand Daemons: A Hunter's Saga), the mythopoeia of Elechi Amadi's The Concubine (1966) as well as the dystopian writing of Buchi Emecheta in The Rape of Shavi (1983). This volume shows this long tradition of speculative literature in examining African classics such as Kojo Laing's Woman of the Aeroplanes (1988) and the oeuvre of Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o. The volume also critically examines modern African texts from writers including Nnedi Okorafor, Namwali Serpell and Masande Ntshanga, as well as critically looking at the terms 'Afrofuturism' and 'Africanfuturism' vis-à-vis their particular cultural aesthetics and suitability in describing tradition rooted African speculative arts. This volume also includes a Literary Supplement. Guest Editors: LOUISA UCHUM EGBUNIKE (Associate Professor in African and Caribbean Literature, Durham University) and CHIMALUM NWANKWO (Writer-in-Residence, Department of English and Literary Studies, Veritas University, Abuja, Nigeria). Series Editor: Ernest N. Emenyonu (Professor of Africana Studies at the University of Michigan-Flint) Reviews Editor: Obi Nwakanma (Fellow, Department of English University of Central Florida).
Trade ReviewThis constructive volume 39 of African Literature Today arrives with absorbing focus on the inherently speculative nature of African writing. The articles, interviews, literary supplements comprising short fiction, poetry and reviews will enchant lovers of black speculative fiction. [...] This is truly a worthwhile read. * Aurealis *
Table of ContentsEDITORIAL ARTICLE Introduction: Science & Speculative Fiction - What is Past and Present . . . and What is Future? LOUISA UCHUM EGBUNIKE and CHIMALUM NWANKWO ARTICLES 'Being very human in one of the most inhuman cities in the world': Lagos as a Site of Africanfuturist Invasion in Lagoon and Godhunter JANELLE RODRIQUES Southern Africannearfutures: black-tech, ambivalence, and speculation in Namwali Serpell's The Old Drift and Masande Ntshanga's Triangulum JEFFREY G. DODD Woman of the Aeroplanes and the Prediction of the Future CHUKWUNONSO EZEIYOKE Re-membering the Past: Black Panther, Sovereignty, and the Cultural Politics of Africanfuturism KAYODE ODUMBONI African Counter-utopias: from Counter-narratives to the Presentification of Alternative Worlds ERIC TSIMI Shifting the Frame: Re-imagining Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart and Arrow of God as Speculative Narratives CLARA IJEOMA OSUJI Contemporary Ugandan Speculative Fiction: A Passing Fad or an Emerging Canon? EDGAR NABUTANYI Moving the Centre: Positions and Locations of African Speculative Fiction JAMES ORAO FEATURE ARTICLE Reimagining Transracial Intimacy: The Cartography of Decolonial Love in Leila Aboulela's Something Old, Something New' and Tomi Adeaga's 'Marriage and Other Impediments' GABRIEL BAMGBOSE INTERVIEWS With Chigozie Obioma LOUISA UCHUM EGBUNIKE With Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o KADIJA GEORGE With Chiagozie Fred Nwonwu KUFRE USANGA LITERARY SUPPLEMENT 'Poison for the Dogs' (Short Story) ESHITIKA L. LUTOMIA 'Wherever Something Stands Something Else Must Stand Beside It' (Short Story) A. ONIPEDE HOLLIST 'The Song-Warrior' (Short Story) REGINALD OFODILE 'Answers that will not be swallowed' (Poem) 'When a bitch eats her young' (Poem) 'This is how' (Poem) 'A Daughter, Coming Undone' (Poem) 'Crumbs' (Poem) 'Not Crying' (Poem) IQUO DIANAABASI 'The String of Discord' (Poem) "Destiny's Dish" 'Tasha' (Poem) AISHA UMAR 'African Children' (Poem) TIJANI ABDULLAHI OLANIYI 'Nun's Twilight Call' (Poem) CLARA IJEOMA OSUJI 'To Mokwugo Okoye - A Forsaken Freedom Fighter' (Poem) IFEOMA OKOYE REMEMBERING ELDRED JONES (1925-2020) Farewell, Othello's Countryman NIYI OSUNDARE Professor Eldred Jones: A Humanist and Critic ELIZABETH I.A. KAMARA TRIBUTE Chukwuemeka Ike: An Administrator with a Cinematic Imagination AUSTINE AMANZE AKPUDA REVIEWS Sakui Malakpa, Black Professor, White University OBI NWAKANMA Daria Tunca (ed), Conversations with Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie KATE HARLIN Ernest Emenyonu, The Literary History of the Igbo Novel: African Literature in African Languages KUFRE USANGA Jack Mapanje, Greetings from Grandpa OLUFEMI DUNMADE Ada Uzoamaka Azodo & Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo (eds), Resident Alien and Other Stories: An Anthology of Immigrant Voices from Africa and the African Diaspora INI UKO
