0:00:00.837,0:00:05.820
♪ (frenetic music) ♪
0:00:09.424,0:00:12.931
(applause)
0:00:13.616,0:00:15.167
My talk,
0:00:16.558,0:00:19.271
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 (inaudible) 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
and when he started talking[br]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
0:01:10.863,0:01:14.691
so we would have people[br]like Sun Ra and George Clinton
0:01:14.691,0:01:18.169
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,
0:02:14.633,0:02:18.978
the idea of Afrofuturism[br]or legends and myths,
0:02:18.978,0:02:21.708
are stories that were told[br]to me by my mother
0:02:21.708,0:02:25.416
and 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.
0:02:37.462,0:02:43.605
Or if --which is strange--[br]if I attach leeches to my nipples,
0:02:43.605,0:02:44.865
my breasts would grow.
0:02:46.578,0:02:51.601
And also... I did it.
0:02:51.601,0:02:52.956
(laughter)
0:02:54.197,0:02:57.769
And also, she would talk about the way
0:02:57.769,0:03:03.302
that in the Kikuru tradition,[br]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 terrible 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 inspired me about Ben Okri
0:03:48.497,0:03:54.551
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 in a very[br]everyday sort of way
0:04:07.332,0:04:11.261
and 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,
0:04:30.610,0:04:32.251
or every time I turned around it was there
0:04:32.251,0:04:34.474
and I could have sworn it was a genie.
0:04:34.474,0:04:37.137
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
Now, West Africa it is believed,[br]especially in Mali,
0:04:57.229,0:04:59.604
there is a nation[br]of people called the Dogon
0:05:00.112,0:05:02.652
and the Dogon people believe[br]that they were told
0:05:02.652,0:05:05.711
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 a planet,
0:05:28.339,0:05:31.684
but also about the rotation of the planet
0:05:31.684,0:05:33.992
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.
0:05:46.932,0:05:52.570
Then, later on, it was discovered,[br]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, "Africans[br]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 [inaudible][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."
0:07:18.422,0:07:21.192
This makes a lot of sense[br]because it's been suggested
0:07:21.192,0:07:24.141
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.
0:07:33.714,0:07:36.219
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[br]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.
0:08:20.653,0:08:23.146
Of course, in projecting our own future,
0:08:23.146,0:08:27.078
we have to ask where are we doing it?[br]In what spaces are we doing that?
0:08:27.078,0:08:28.921
In Kenya, we're doing it in music
0:08:30.011,0:08:33.451
and we have some of my favorite[br]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,
0:08:41.344,0:08:44.561
especially in one[br]of their latest songs [inaudible].
0:08:44.561,0:08:46.203
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.
0:08:57.829,0:08:59.848
We know that we are larger than earth.
0:08:59.848,0:09:02.591
We know we are larger than the cosmos
0:09:02.591,0:09:05.006
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)