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.

But that was very specifically
about African Americans

and I wanted to find a place
for Afrofuturism in Africa.

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

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

so Mwene Nyaga is seated
on top of this mountain

and he introduced ourAdam and Eve,
Gikuyu and Mumbi,

and from that were descendants
of the nine children.

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

the idea of Afrofuturism
or legends and myths

and stories that were told
to me by my mother

and she is a great storyteller
as well as a pediatrician

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

(laughter)

I remember her telling me stories
about the way if I ate the pumpkin,

my hair would grow.

Or if --which is strange--
if I attach leeches to my nipples,

my breasts would grow.

And also... I did it.

(laughter)

And also, she would talk about the way

that in the Kikuru tradition,
if you circle the Mugumo tree seven times,

you would change sex.

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

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

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

and what would happen
if she wandered off into the forest

and how she would meet this terrible ogre

because she departed
from the ways of the society.

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

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

That, for me, is also
a link to Afrofuturism.

But what really inspired me about Ben Okri

was his ability to merge seamlessly
the idea of the spirit world and fiction.

And the idea that we live in a continent

that is so closely linked
to the spirit world

that we use it in a very
everyday sort of way

and that is true
when we come to witch doctors,

sangoma, or people who deal
with the spiritual realms.

It's also true of genies of the coast

and I don't even know how many of you
have gone to Mombasa or Zanzibar,

but I know from personal experience

there was a cat that followed me
for five kilometers,

or every time I turned around it was there

and I could have sworn it was a genie.

I'm positive about it.

In fact, I have friends
who attest to the fact as well.

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

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

Now, West Africa is believed,
especially in money,

there is a nation
of people called the Dogan

and the Dogan people believe
that they were told

about a planet called Ceres B

before it was discovered
by Western scientists.

They were told of this planet
by a race of amphibian-like aliens

who came in from the ocean

and told them, not only about a planet,

but also about the rotation of the planet

and how it worked in space.

Some of the cave drawings, like these,

showed the amphibian creatures
at the bottom of the people,

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

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

but it wasn't until the '70s
that the actual planet was seen.

If that isn't curious science fiction,

history, I don't know what is.

But also from South Africa
we have people like Credo Mutwa

who believes there is
a reptilian race of people

whose bloodline extends
into modern day royalty

and modern day business people

and is what, I guess, theorists
would call the Illuminati.

So we've established that fact--
fact or fiction.

Myths have always existed
very, very closely to us,

but there's been a growing need
for the idea of Afrofuturism

and I'd have to ask why?

And when talking about it,
I talked about it to a friend of mine,

and he said, "Africans are inherently futuristic,

given the sheer capriciousness
of our present situation."

That was my friend Michael