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(frenetic music)
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(applause)
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My talk,
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about Afrofuturism and the African.
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Afrofuturism is considered[br]what speculative fiction,
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myths, legends, science fiction,
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and the stories of that genre[br]are to African Americans,
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Africa, Africa of the Diaspora,[br]and black people in general.
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What (inaudible) refers it to is[br]what blackness looks like in the future,
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real or imagined.
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Now, the history of Afrofuturism[br]comes from America
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and was first coined[br]by a man called Mark Dery
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and when he started talking[br]about Afrofuturism
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he talks about the idea of literature,
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so the books[br]that Octavia Butler would write
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and things like that,
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but then it also moved[br]into a new region of music
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so we would have people[br]like Sun Ra and George Clinton
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but for me, especially Sun Ra because[br]he has a special place in my heart,
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He believed that he came[br]from the planet Saturn
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and came to earth to spread[br]the message of love and peace.
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Like in his movie, "Space is the Place"
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he introduces the idea of "alien"
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to black people in America.
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But that was very specifically[br]about African Americans
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and I wanted to find a place[br]for Afrofuturism in Africa.
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The first place that that led me[br]to is Mount Kenya, obviously,
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where the god of Mount Kenya lives[br]according to the Kikuyu tradition
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so Mwene Nyaga is seated[br]on top of this mountain
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and he introduced ourAdam and Eve,[br]Gikuyu and Mumbi,
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and from that were descendants[br]of the nine children.
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But even before the idea[br]of the myth of Gikuyu and Mumbi,
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the idea of Afrofuturism[br]or legends and myths
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and stories that were told[br]to me by my mother
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and she is a great storyteller[br]as well as a pediatrician
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so I'd have to say that her stories[br]were truly science fiction, truly.
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(laughter)
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I remember her telling me stories[br]about the way if I ate the pumpkin,
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my hair would grow.
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Or if --which is strange--[br]if I attach leeches to my nipples,
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my breasts would grow.
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And also... I did it.
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(laughter)
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And also, she would talk about the way
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that in the Kikuru tradition,[br]if you circle the Mugumo tree seven times,
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you would change sex.
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Growing up, obviously,[br]past my mother's stories,
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I began to read stories of my own[br]and they were inevitably filled
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with the ogre and the young girl[br]who wandered off into the forest
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and what would happen[br]if she wandered off into the forest
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and how she would meet this terrible ogre
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because she departed[br]from the ways of the society.
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That's also when I met Ben Okri[br]and the idea of the spirit child
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and the idea of using spiritualism[br]or mythical realism within storytelling.
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That, for me, is also[br]a link to Afrofuturism.
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But what really inspired me about Ben Okri
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was his ability to merge seamlessly[br]the idea of the spirit world and fiction.
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And the idea that we live in a continent
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that is so closely linked[br]to the spirit world
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that we use it in a very[br]everyday sort of way
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and that is true[br]when we come to witch doctors,
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sangoma, or people who deal[br]with the spiritual realms.
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It's also true of genies of the coast
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and I don't even know how many of you[br]have gone to Mombasa or Zanzibar,
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but I know from personal experience
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there was a cat that followed me[br]for five kilometers,
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or every time I turned around it was there
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and I could have sworn it was a genie.
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I'm positive about it.
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In fact, I have friends[br]who attest to the fact as well.
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So Afrofuturism has always been[br]part of our culture, part of us.
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But more interestingly, it has been part[br]of the history of West Africa.
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Now, West Africa is believed,[br]especially in money,
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there is a nation[br]of people called the Dogan
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and the Dogan people believe[br]that they were told
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about a planet called Ceres B
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before it was discovered[br]by Western scientists.
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They were told of this planet[br]by a race of amphibian-like aliens
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who came in from the ocean
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and told them, not only about a planet,
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but also about the rotation of the planet
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and how it worked in space.
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Some of the cave drawings, like these,
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showed the amphibian creatures[br]at the bottom of the people,
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or the people who came[br]to speak to them about this planet.
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Then, later on, it was discovered,[br]so they had the knowledge in 1930
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but it wasn't until the '70s[br]that the actual planet was seen.
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If that isn't curious science fiction,
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history, I don't know what is.
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But also from South Africa[br]we have people like Credo Mutwa
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who believes there is[br]a reptilian race of people
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whose bloodline extends[br]into modern day royalty
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and modern day business people
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and is what, I guess, theorists[br]would call the Illuminati.
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So we've established that fact--[br]fact or fiction.
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Myths have always existed[br]very, very closely to us,
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but there's been a growing need[br]for the idea of Afrofuturism
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and I'd have to ask why?
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And when talking about it,[br]I talked about it to a friend of mine,
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and he said, "Africans are inherently futuristic,
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given the sheer capriciousness[br]of our present situation."
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That was my friend Michael