0:00:00.837,0:00:03.190 ♪ (frenetic music) ♪ 0:00:09.424,0:00:11.121 (applause) 0:00:13.616,0:00:15.167 My talk 0:00:16.558,0:00:19.271 [is] about Afrofuturism and the African. 0:00:20.451,0:00:23.958 Afrofuturism is considered[br]what speculative fiction, 0:00:23.958,0:00:27.398 myths, legends, science fiction, 0:00:27.398,0:00:33.346 and the stories of that genre[br]are to African Americans, 0:00:33.346,0:00:37.903 Africa, Africa of the Diaspora,[br]and black people in general. 0:00:38.714,0:00:43.215 What Denenge Akpem refers it to is[br]what blackness looks like in the future, 0:00:43.215,0:00:44.892 real or imagined. 0:00:47.100,0:00:52.065 Now, the history of Afrofuturism[br]comes from America 0:00:52.065,0:00:56.377 and was first coined[br]by a man called Mark Dery. 0:00:56.377,0:00:58.894 When he started [br]talking about Afrofuturism, 0:00:58.894,0:01:01.944 he talked about the idea of literature-- 0:01:02.395,0:01:05.199 so the books[br]that Octavia Butler would write 0:01:05.199,0:01:06.939 and things like that-- 0:01:06.939,0:01:10.863 but then it also moved[br]into a new region, of music, 0:01:10.863,0:01:14.491 so we would have people[br]like Sun Ra and George Clinton-- 0:01:14.491,0:01:18.169 but for me, especially Sun Ra because [br]he has a special place in my heart. 0:01:18.169,0:01:22.641 He believed that he came[br]from the planet Saturn 0:01:22.641,0:01:26.570 and came to Earth to spread[br]the message of love and peace. 0:01:27.409,0:01:30.598 Like in his movie "Space Is the Place" 0:01:30.598,0:01:34.909 he introduces the idea of alien 0:01:34.909,0:01:38.162 to black people in America. 0:01:40.826,0:01:44.045 But that was very specifically[br]about African Americans, 0:01:44.045,0:01:48.486 and I wanted to find a place[br]for Afrofuturism in Africa. 0:01:48.879,0:01:51.928 The first place that that led me[br]to is Mount Kenya, obviously, 0:01:52.545,0:01:56.143 where the god of Mount Kenya lives[br]according to the Kikuyu tradition. 0:01:56.143,0:01:59.112 So Mwene Nyaga is seated[br]on top of this mountain, 0:01:59.112,0:02:04.116 and he introduced our Adam and Eve,[br]Gikuyu and Mumbi, 0:02:04.431,0:02:07.109 and from that we're descendants[br]of the nine children. 0:02:09.024,0:02:14.633 But even before the idea[br]of the myth of Gikuyu and Mumbi, 0:02:14.633,0:02:17.248 the idea of Afrofuturism, 0:02:17.248,0:02:21.708 or legends, and myths, and stories[br]were told to me by my mother. 0:02:21.708,0:02:25.416 She is a great storyteller[br]as well as a pediatrician 0:02:25.416,0:02:30.663 so I'd have to say that her stories[br]were truly science fiction, truly. 0:02:30.663,0:02:31.887 (laughter) 0:02:31.954,0:02:35.294 I remember her telling me stories[br]about the way if I ate the pumpkin, 0:02:35.294,0:02:37.462 my hair would grow. 0:02:37.462,0:02:39.995 Or if ... --[br]which is strange -- 0:02:40.625,0:02:44.865 if I attach leeches to my nipples,[br]my breasts would grow. 0:02:46.578,0:02:48.351 And also ... 0:02:50.781,0:02:51.851 I did it. 0:02:51.851,0:02:52.956 (laughter) 0:02:54.197,0:03:00.729 And also she would talk about the way[br]that in the Kikuyu tradition, 0:03:00.729,0:03:03.302 if you circle the Mugumo tree seven times, 0:03:03.302,0:03:04.884 you would change sex. 0:03:05.722,0:03:08.617 Growing up, obviously,[br]past my mother's stories, 0:03:08.617,0:03:12.547 I began to read stories of my own,[br]and they were inevitably filled 0:03:12.547,0:03:17.443 with the ogre and the young girl[br]who wandered off into the forest, 0:03:17.443,0:03:20.239 and what would happen[br]if she wandered off into the forest, 0:03:20.239,0:03:22.203 and how she would meet this horrible ogre 0:03:22.203,0:03:24.743 because she departed[br]from the ways of the society. 0:03:25.877,0:03:30.990 That's also when I met Ben Okri,[br]and the idea of the spirit child, 0:03:30.990,0:03:38.490 and the idea of using spiritualism[br]or mythical realism within storytelling. 0:03:39.238,0:03:42.771 That, for me, is also[br]a link to Afrofuturism. 0:03:45.247,0:03:48.497 But what really,[br]really inspired me about Ben Okri 0:03:48.497,0:03:54.871 was his ability to merge seamlessly[br]the idea of the spirit world and fiction, 0:03:56.292,0:03:59.831 and the idea that we live in a continent 0:03:59.831,0:04:02.482 that is so closely linked[br]to the spirit world 0:04:02.482,0:04:07.332 that we use it [br]in a very everyday sort of way. 0:04:07.332,0:04:11.261 That is true[br]when we come to witch doctors, 0:04:11.261,0:04:17.052 sangoma, or people who deal[br]with the spiritual realms. 0:04:17.732,0:04:20.472 It's also true of genies of the coast, 0:04:20.472,0:04:24.359 and I don't even know how many of you[br]have gone to Mombasa or Zanzibar, 0:04:24.359,0:04:27.579 but I know from personal experience 0:04:27.579,0:04:30.610 there was a cat that followed me[br]for five kilometers, 0:04:30.610,0:04:34.571 or every time I turned around it was there[br]and I could have sworn it was a genie. 0:04:34.571,0:04:37.137 I'm positive about it. 0:04:37.137,0:04:39.879 In fact, I have friends[br]who attest to the fact as well. 0:04:40.815,0:04:45.001 So Afrofuturism has always been[br]part of our culture, part of us. 0:04:46.256,0:04:52.104 But more interestingly, it has been part[br]of the history of West Africa. 0:04:53.043,0:04:57.229 West Africa believe --[br]especially in Mali, 0:04:57.229,0:04:59.604 there is a nation[br]of people called the Dogon-- 0:05:00.112,0:05:01.572 and the Dogon people believe 0:05:01.572,0:05:05.711 that they were told[br]about a planet called Sirius B 0:05:05.711,0:05:11.485 before it was discovered[br]by Western scientists. 0:05:12.524,0:05:15.684 They were told of this planet 0:05:15.684,0:05:20.572 by a race of amphibian-like aliens 0:05:20.734,0:05:25.438 who came in from the ocean 0:05:25.438,0:05:28.339 and told them, not only about the planet 0:05:28.339,0:05:33.844 but also about the rotation of the planet[br]and how it worked in space. 0:05:35.285,0:05:38.017 Some of the cave drawings, like these, 0:05:38.017,0:05:43.531 showed the amphibian creatures[br]at the bottom of the people, 0:05:43.531,0:05:46.932 or the people who came[br]to speak to them about this planet. 0:05:46.932,0:05:50.220 Then, later on, it was discovered. 0:05:50.220,0:05:52.570 So they had the knowledge in 1930, 0:05:52.570,0:05:56.373 but it wasn't until the 70s[br]that the actual planet was seen. 0:05:57.721,0:06:00.493 If that isn't curious science fiction, 0:06:00.493,0:06:02.579 history, I don't know what is. 0:06:04.033,0:06:07.701 But also from South Africa,[br]we have people like Credo Mutwa 0:06:07.701,0:06:13.745 who believes there is[br]a reptilian race of people 0:06:14.967,0:06:20.235 whose bloodline extends[br]into modern day royalty 0:06:20.812,0:06:23.424 and modern day business people 0:06:23.424,0:06:28.481 and is what, I guess, theorists[br]would call The Illuminati. 0:06:30.574,0:06:35.205 So we've established that fact--[br]fact or fiction-- 0:06:35.587,0:06:38.131 myths have always existed[br]very, very closely to us, 0:06:39.038,0:06:42.572 but there's been a growing need[br]for the idea of Afrofuturism, 0:06:43.388,0:06:46.376 and I'd have to ask why? 0:06:48.534,0:06:52.851 And when talking about it,[br]I talked about it to a friend of mine, 0:06:52.851,0:06:56.872 and he said, [br]"Africans are inherently futuristic, 0:06:56.872,0:07:00.252 given the sheer capriciousness[br]of our present situation." 0:07:02.872,0:07:06.188 That was my friend Michael Odhiambo[br]who reckons he's very clever. 0:07:07.158,0:07:12.457 Then there was a writer called[br]David William Cohen who says, 0:07:12.457,0:07:14.784 "The struggle of man against power 0:07:14.784,0:07:17.485 is the struggle of man[br]against forgetting." 0:07:18.422,0:07:20.152 This makes a lot of sense 0:07:20.152,0:07:24.141 because it's been suggested[br]that Afrofuturism, as a genre, is growing 0:07:24.141,0:07:28.171 because as Africans,[br]or as descendants of Africa, 0:07:28.171,0:07:33.318 we've never had a space or a voice[br]within our own history. 0:07:33.324,0:07:36.219 We've never had a chance[br]to talk about our own history; 0:07:36.219,0:07:39.048 it's always been written by other people. 0:07:39.048,0:07:43.295 Now, because we don't have[br]a link to our own history 0:07:43.295,0:07:46.292 or because we didn't have[br]a grasp on our own history, 0:07:46.292,0:07:51.605 we're using Afrofuturism[br]to stake a place in the future 0:07:51.605,0:07:54.921 so we can strongly identify[br]ourselves in the future. 0:07:56.534,0:07:58.979 Mark Dery argues[br]that the younger generation 0:07:58.979,0:08:02.037 have used technology[br]as a way to insert themselves 0:08:02.037,0:08:04.415 into both a real and imagined landscape 0:08:04.415,0:08:07.669 to physically assert[br]their presence in the present 0:08:07.669,0:08:11.787 and to make it clear they intend[br]to stake their claim in the future. 0:08:13.427,0:08:16.452 So because we can't reclaim our history, 0:08:16.452,0:08:19.769 we are now trying[br]to project our own future. 0:08:20.653,0:08:25.516 Of course, in projecting our own future,[br]we have to ask where are we doing it? 0:08:25.516,0:08:27.258 In what spaces are we doing that? 0:08:27.258,0:08:28.921 In Kenya, we're doing it in music, 0:08:30.011,0:08:33.451 and we have some [br]of my favorite musicians here as well, 0:08:34.328,0:08:39.251 but just a band have, to me,[br]demonstrated Afrofuturism 0:08:39.251,0:08:41.344 in their own music, 0:08:41.344,0:08:43.931 especially in one[br]of their latest songs Huff+Puff. 0:08:43.931,0:08:46.203 They say, "Give me five,[br]it's good to be alive. 0:08:46.203,0:08:48.104 The sky seems so far away. 0:08:48.104,0:08:50.324 Hope you know we've been[br]to the moon and back. 0:08:50.324,0:08:52.828 Be sure that nothing's[br]going to hold us back." 0:08:53.807,0:08:57.692 So we know that we are larger than life. 0:08:57.692,0:08:59.861 We know that we are larger than Earth, 0:08:59.861,0:09:02.591 we know we are larger than the cosmos, 0:09:02.591,0:09:05.566 and that is reflected[br]in our work and in our music. 0:09:06.106,0:09:08.766 Around the continent, obviously, 0:09:08.766,0:09:10.996 there's people like Nnedi Okorafor 0:09:12.468,0:09:14.370 who wrote a book called "Who Fears Death" 0:09:14.370,0:09:18.302 and this is a matte painting[br]done by Ivonne Wende, a Kenyan 0:09:18.749,0:09:20.810 about the book "Who Fears Death" 0:09:20.810,0:09:24.286 and in "Who Fears Death" what Nnedi does 0:09:24.286,0:09:30.494 is that she uses the idea[br]of manipulating technology as we know it 0:09:31.421,0:09:34.620 to understand where we are 0:09:35.126,0:09:37.997 or to be able to grasp our environment 0:09:37.997,0:09:40.408 and as Afrikans, we do that all the time. 0:09:40.408,0:09:44.371 We use technology that has been used[br]outside of our space 0:09:44.371,0:09:47.750 or that was invented[br]outside of our own spaces 0:09:47.750,0:09:49.971 and use it in our own ways. 0:09:50.402,0:09:52.776 What Nnedi Okarafor does[br]in "Who Fears Death" 0:09:52.776,0:09:57.216 is that she creates[br]these particular machines 0:09:57.216,0:09:59.820 called water catcher stations,[br]and they absorb 0:09:59.820,0:10:02.045 all the atmosphere[br]from around them 0:10:02.045,0:10:04.842 so that people can take baths,[br]can have clean drinking water, 0:10:04.842,0:10:06.446 [inaudible] and so forth. 0:10:06.668,0:10:09.048 That's the fictional side of it. 0:10:10.184,0:10:14.553 In practice, how are Kenyans[br]using Afrofuturism? 0:10:15.528,0:10:21.384 I have to say I would refer[br]to Afrigadgets, the website 0:10:21.384,0:10:27.886 that has a plethora of different people[br]doing very inventive, and for me, 0:10:27.886,0:10:32.732 very futuristic things including[br]a young 13 year old called Richard Turere 0:10:33.475,0:10:40.210 and what he did is that he created[br]a way to run a flashlight invention, 0:10:40.210,0:10:45.845 run off a car battery, to keep predators[br]away from his family's property. 0:10:47.161,0:10:52.056 That to me is a very Afrofuturist sense[br]of using technology, 0:10:52.056,0:10:57.272 but in a very rustic way,[br]in a way that makes sense to us. 0:10:59.654,0:11:04.837 In my film "Pumzi" I used[br]the idea of technology 0:11:04.837,0:11:09.388 and this is a picture[br]of what we call self-power generator 0:11:09.388,0:11:11.756 and there would be these people[br]running on treadmills 0:11:11.756,0:11:15.007 and they would generate electricity[br]in order to have power where they lived. 0:11:15.646,0:11:19.020 I thought I was being[br]creative, imaginative, 0:11:19.020,0:11:20.857 until I googled it. 0:11:20.857,0:11:22.490 (muted laughter) 0:11:22.490,0:11:23.942 And I wasn't so much. 0:11:23.942,0:11:25.846 Self power generators do exist. 0:11:25.940,0:11:29.221 They do, there are ways of using[br]kinetic energy to power stations. 0:11:29.680,0:11:31.912 It's not completely[br]in practice at the moment 0:11:31.912,0:11:36.449 but it's an idea of the ways[br]that we can use technology 0:11:36.449,0:11:39.062 in a very Afrofuturist setting 0:11:39.062,0:11:42.089 to be able to run our everyday things. 0:11:42.601,0:11:45.242 There's obviously nowhere[br]we can talk about the future 0:11:45.242,0:11:47.050 without talking about technology. 0:11:47.050,0:11:50.100 In "Pumzi", I also talk about[br]the idea of communication, 0:11:50.100,0:11:52.123 and I know from my own experience 0:11:52.123,0:11:54.839 that I would be sitting[br]across the table from a friend 0:11:54.839,0:11:56.982 and we would tweet each other. 0:11:57.946,0:12:01.406 Now we have learned to communicate[br]in 140 characters or less. 0:12:02.825,0:12:07.626 Even when I'm talking about the things[br]that are happening in my life, 0:12:07.626,0:12:12.450 I'll use hashtag, as if it were[br]part of the sentence. 0:12:15.188,0:12:19.277 In "Pumzi", what I did[br]is I created this idea, 0:12:19.277,0:12:21.074 and we'll see it in a second, 0:12:21.074,0:12:26.260 about how we use different layers[br]of technology in order to communicate 0:12:26.260,0:12:28.799 and the thought process of that 0:12:28.799,0:12:32.154 is that we're looking[br]for more efficient ways of communicating 0:12:32.154,0:12:34.853 rather than finding emotive ways[br]of communicating. 0:12:35.624,0:12:39.008 For me, what is most important[br]and what I've found from making "Pumzi" 0:12:39.008,0:12:45.355 is that the idea of Afrofuturism[br]worked the best for me 0:12:45.355,0:12:49.566 because I'm able to extrapolate[br]on ideas and thoughts 0:12:49.566,0:12:52.914 and feelings I have about[br]the way the world is running 0:12:52.914,0:12:55.909 without offending people[br]or without being too heavy handed 0:12:55.909,0:13:00.127 and for me, what "Pumzi" was[br]was a reflection of society 0:13:00.127,0:13:02.766 and it's set 35 years after the Water War 0:13:03.366,0:13:07.186 and where everybody lives inside because[br]they've been told the outside is dead, 0:13:08.696,0:13:14.035 until one character, Asher,[br]wakes up from a dream 0:13:14.035,0:13:17.680 which is not allowed, because everybody[br]is supposed to be taking dream suppresants 0:13:17.680,0:13:23.570 and she finds a seed that she then plants,[br]and it starts to grow. 0:13:24.492,0:13:26.852 But in a world where the outside is dead, 0:13:26.852,0:13:29.752 and her being the curator[br]of a virtual natural museum, 0:13:29.752,0:13:32.339 and that's the only place[br]you have access to nature, 0:13:32.818,0:13:35.959 she had to find a way outside of herself 0:13:35.959,0:13:38.522 to be able to prove that life exists. 0:13:39.227,0:13:40.938 That's "Pumzi". 0:13:40.938,0:13:44.725 But my metaphor for "Pumzi"[br]is about life and sacrifice 0:13:44.725,0:13:48.272 and the fact that we ourselves[br]have to mother Mother Nature. 0:13:48.751,0:13:53.296 We have to make sacrifices[br]in order to live in this one 0:13:53.296,0:13:58.803 and we have to know that our own behaviors[br]will affect generations to come. 0:14:00.341,0:14:05.162 As a storyteller in the tradition[br]of the [inaudible] 0:14:05.162,0:14:08.616 my job is to be a seer,[br]not just a historian 0:14:08.616,0:14:12.386 and to be able like [Mogo][br]who predicted the coming of white people 0:14:12.386,0:14:17.052 as if they were colorful butterflies[br]or the train in the sense of the way 0:14:17.052,0:14:19.910 that he saw a snake with smoke[br]coming out of its head 0:14:19.910,0:14:23.456 to be able to say,[br]there is more to life than we see 0:14:23.456,0:14:25.487 and listen to the storytellers. 0:14:25.487,0:14:28.182 They also have a voice,[br]and their voice is important. 0:14:29.575,0:14:32.112 So, I leave you with a clip from "Pumzi" 0:14:32.112,0:14:37.552 and this is just an indication[br]of the possibilities of the human mind, 0:14:37.552,0:14:40.707 the possibilities of Afrofuturism 0:14:40.707,0:14:44.606 and how Afrofuturism[br]relates to us as Africans. 0:14:44.606,0:14:47.856 (applause and cheering)