WEBVTT

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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
what speculative fiction,

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myths, legends, science fiction,

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and the stories of that genre
are to African Americans,

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Africa, Africa of the Diaspora,
and black people in general.

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What (inaudible) refers it to is
what blackness looks like in the future,

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real or imagined.

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Now, the history of Afrofuturism
comes from America

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and was first coined
by a man called Mark Dery

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and when he started talking
about Afrofuturism

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he talks about the idea of literature,

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so the books
that Octavia Butler would write

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and things like that,

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but then it also moved
into a new region of music

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so we would have people
like Sun Ra and George Clinton

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but for me, especially Sun Ra because
he has a special place in my heart,

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He believed that he came
from the planet Saturn

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and came to earth to spread
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
about African Americans

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and I wanted to find a place
for Afrofuturism <i>in</i> Africa.

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The first place that that led me
to is Mount Kenya, obviously,

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where the god of Mount Kenya lives
according to the Kikuyu tradition

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so Mwene Nyaga is seated
on top of this mountain

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and he introduced ourAdam and Eve,
Gikuyu and Mumbi,

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and from that were descendants
of the nine children.

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But even before the idea
of the myth of Gikuyu and Mumbi,

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the idea of Afrofuturism
or legends and myths

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and stories that were told
to me by my mother

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and she is a great storyteller
as well as a pediatrician

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so I'd have to say that her stories
were truly science fiction, truly.

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(laughter)

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I remember her telling me stories
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--
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,
if you circle the Mugumo tree seven times,

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you would change sex.

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Growing up, obviously,
past my mother's stories,

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I began to read stories of my own
and they were inevitably filled

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with the ogre and the young girl
who wandered off into the forest

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and what would happen
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
from the ways of the society.

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That's also when I met Ben Okri
and the idea of the spirit child

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and the idea of using spiritualism
or mythical realism within storytelling.

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That, for me, is also
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
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
to the spirit world

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that we use it in a very
everyday sort of way

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and that is true
when we come to witch doctors,

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sangoma, or people who deal
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
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
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
who attest to the fact as well.

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So Afrofuturism has always been
part of our culture, part of us.

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But more interestingly, it has been part
of the history of West Africa.

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Now, West Africa is believed,
especially in money,

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there is a nation
of people called the Dogan

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and the Dogan people believe
that they were told

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about a planet called Ceres B

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before it was discovered
by Western scientists.

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They were told of this planet
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
at the bottom of the people,

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or the people who came
to speak to them about this planet.

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Then, later on, it was discovered,
so they had the knowledge in 1930

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but it wasn't until the '70s
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
we have people like Credo Mutwa

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who believes there is
a reptilian race of people

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whose bloodline extends
into modern day royalty

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and modern day business people

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and is what, I guess, theorists
would call the <i>Illuminati</i>.

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So we've established that fact--
fact <i>or</i> fiction.

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Myths have always existed
very, very closely to us,

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but there's been a growing need
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,
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
of our present situation."

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That was my friend Michael