Afrofuturism in popular culture | Wanuri Kahiu | TEDxNairobi

(frenetic music)

(applause)

My talk,

about Afrofuturism and the African.

Afrofuturism is considered
what speculative fiction,

myths, legends, science fiction,

and the stories of that genre
are to African Americans,

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

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

real or imagined.

Now, the history of Afrofuturism
comes from America

and was first coined
by a man called Mark Dery

and when he started talking
about Afrofuturism

he talks about the idea of literature,

so the books
that Octavia Butler would write

and things like that,

but then it also moved
into a new region of music

so we would have people
like Sun Ra and George Clinton

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

He believed that he came
from the planet Saturn

and came to earth to spread
the message of love and peace.

Like in his movie, "Space is the Place"

he introduces the idea of "alien"

to black people in America.