Afrofuturism in popular culture | Wanuri Kahiu | TEDxNairobi
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0:01 - 0:03♪ (frenetic music) ♪
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0:09 - 0:11(applause)
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0:14 - 0:15My talk
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0:17 - 0:19[is] about Afrofuturism and the African.
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0:20 - 0:24Afrofuturism is considered
what speculative fiction, -
0:24 - 0:27myths, legends, science fiction,
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0:27 - 0:33and the stories of that genre
are to African Americans, -
0:33 - 0:38Africa, Africa of the Diaspora,
and black people in general. -
0:39 - 0:43What Denenge Akpem refers it to is
what blackness looks like in the future, -
0:43 - 0:45real or imagined.
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0:47 - 0:52Now, the history of Afrofuturism
comes from America -
0:52 - 0:56and was first coined
by a man called Mark Dery. -
0:56 - 0:59When he started
talking about Afrofuturism, -
0:59 - 1:02he talked about the idea of literature--
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1:02 - 1:05so the books
that Octavia Butler would write -
1:05 - 1:07and things like that--
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1:07 - 1:11but then it also moved
into a new region, of music, -
1:11 - 1:14so we would have people
like Sun Ra and George Clinton-- -
1:14 - 1:18but for me, especially Sun Ra because
he has a special place in my heart. -
1:18 - 1:23He believed that he came
from the planet Saturn -
1:23 - 1:27and came to Earth to spread
the message of love and peace. -
1:27 - 1:31Like in his movie "Space Is the Place"
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1:31 - 1:35he introduces the idea of alien
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1:35 - 1:38to black people in America.
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1:41 - 1:44But that was very specifically
about African Americans, -
1:44 - 1:48and I wanted to find a place
for Afrofuturism in Africa. -
1:49 - 1:52The first place that that led me
to is Mount Kenya, obviously, -
1:53 - 1:56where the god of Mount Kenya lives
according to the Kikuyu tradition. -
1:56 - 1:59So Mwene Nyaga is seated
on top of this mountain, -
1:59 - 2:04and he introduced our Adam and Eve,
Gikuyu and Mumbi, -
2:04 - 2:07and from that we're descendants
of the nine children. -
2:09 - 2:15But even before the idea
of the myth of Gikuyu and Mumbi, -
2:15 - 2:17the idea of Afrofuturism,
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2:17 - 2:22or legends, and myths, and stories
were told to me by my mother. -
2:22 - 2:25She is a great storyteller
as well as a pediatrician -
2:25 - 2:31so I'd have to say that her stories
were truly science fiction, truly. -
2:31 - 2:32(laughter)
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2:32 - 2:35I remember her telling me stories
about the way if I ate the pumpkin, -
2:35 - 2:37my hair would grow.
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2:37 - 2:40Or if ... --
which is strange -- -
2:41 - 2:45if I attach leeches to my nipples,
my breasts would grow. -
2:47 - 2:48And also ...
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2:51 - 2:52I did it.
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2:52 - 2:53(laughter)
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2:54 - 3:01And also she would talk about the way
that in the Kikuyu tradition, -
3:01 - 3:03if you circle the Mugumo tree seven times,
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3:03 - 3:05you would change sex.
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3:06 - 3:09Growing up, obviously,
past my mother's stories, -
3:09 - 3:13I began to read stories of my own,
and they were inevitably filled -
3:13 - 3:17with the ogre and the young girl
who wandered off into the forest, -
3:17 - 3:20and what would happen
if she wandered off into the forest, -
3:20 - 3:22and how she would meet this horrible ogre
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3:22 - 3:25because she departed
from the ways of the society. -
3:26 - 3:31That's also when I met Ben Okri,
and the idea of the spirit child, -
3:31 - 3:38and the idea of using spiritualism
or mythical realism within storytelling. -
3:39 - 3:43That, for me, is also
a link to Afrofuturism. -
3:45 - 3:48But what really,
really inspired me about Ben Okri -
3:48 - 3:55was his ability to merge seamlessly
the idea of the spirit world and fiction, -
3:56 - 4:00and the idea that we live in a continent
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4:00 - 4:02that is so closely linked
to the spirit world -
4:02 - 4:07that we use it
in a very everyday sort of way. -
4:07 - 4:11That is true
when we come to witch doctors, -
4:11 - 4:17sangoma, or people who deal
with the spiritual realms. -
4:18 - 4:20It's also true of genies of the coast,
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4:20 - 4:24and I don't even know how many of you
have gone to Mombasa or Zanzibar, -
4:24 - 4:28but I know from personal experience
-
4:28 - 4:31there was a cat that followed me
for five kilometers, -
4:31 - 4:35or every time I turned around it was there
and I could have sworn it was a genie. -
4:35 - 4:37I'm positive about it.
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4:37 - 4:40In fact, I have friends
who attest to the fact as well. -
4:41 - 4:45So Afrofuturism has always been
part of our culture, part of us. -
4:46 - 4:52But more interestingly, it has been part
of the history of West Africa. -
4:53 - 4:57West Africa believe --
especially in Mali, -
4:57 - 5:00there is a nation
of people called the Dogon-- -
5:00 - 5:02and the Dogon people believe
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5:02 - 5:06that they were told
about a planet called Sirius B -
5:06 - 5:11before it was discovered
by Western scientists. -
5:13 - 5:16They were told of this planet
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5:16 - 5:21by a race of amphibian-like aliens
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5:21 - 5:25who came in from the ocean
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5:25 - 5:28and told them, not only about the planet
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5:28 - 5:34but also about the rotation of the planet
and how it worked in space. -
5:35 - 5:38Some of the cave drawings, like these,
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5:38 - 5:44showed the amphibian creatures
at the bottom of the people, -
5:44 - 5:47or the people who came
to speak to them about this planet. -
5:47 - 5:50Then, later on, it was discovered.
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5:50 - 5:53So they had the knowledge in 1930,
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5:53 - 5:56but it wasn't until the 70s
that the actual planet was seen. -
5:58 - 6:00If that isn't curious science fiction,
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6:00 - 6:03history, I don't know what is.
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6:04 - 6:08But also from South Africa,
we have people like Credo Mutwa -
6:08 - 6:14who believes there is
a reptilian race of people -
6:15 - 6:20whose bloodline extends
into modern day royalty -
6:21 - 6:23and modern day business people
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6:23 - 6:28and is what, I guess, theorists
would call The Illuminati. -
6:31 - 6:35So we've established that fact--
fact or fiction-- -
6:36 - 6:38myths have always existed
very, very closely to us, -
6:39 - 6:43but there's been a growing need
for the idea of Afrofuturism, -
6:43 - 6:46and I'd have to ask why?
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6:49 - 6:53And when talking about it,
I talked about it to a friend of mine, -
6:53 - 6:57and he said,
"Africans are inherently futuristic, -
6:57 - 7:00given the sheer capriciousness
of our present situation." -
7:03 - 7:06That was my friend Michael Odhiambo
who reckons he's very clever. -
7:07 - 7:12Then there was a writer called
David William Cohen who says, -
7:12 - 7:15"The struggle of man against power
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7:15 - 7:17is the struggle of man
against forgetting." -
7:18 - 7:20This makes a lot of sense
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7:20 - 7:24because it's been suggested
that Afrofuturism, as a genre, is growing -
7:24 - 7:28because as Africans,
or as descendants of Africa, -
7:28 - 7:33we've never had a space or a voice
within our own history. -
7:33 - 7:36We've never had a chance
to talk about our own history; -
7:36 - 7:39it's always been written by other people.
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7:39 - 7:43Now, because we don't have
a link to our own history -
7:43 - 7:46or because we didn't have
a grasp on our own history, -
7:46 - 7:52we're using Afrofuturism
to stake a place in the future -
7:52 - 7:55so we can strongly identify
ourselves in the future. -
7:57 - 7:59Mark Dery argues
that the younger generation -
7:59 - 8:02have used technology
as a way to insert themselves -
8:02 - 8:04into both a real and imagined landscape
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8:04 - 8:08to physically assert
their presence in the present -
8:08 - 8:12and to make it clear they intend
to stake their claim in the future. -
8:13 - 8:16So because we can't reclaim our history,
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8:16 - 8:20we are now trying
to project our own future. -
8:21 - 8:26Of course, in projecting our own future,
we have to ask where are we doing it? -
8:26 - 8:27In what spaces are we doing that?
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8:27 - 8:29In Kenya, we're doing it in music,
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8:30 - 8:33and we have some
of my favorite musicians here as well, -
8:34 - 8:39but just a band have, to me,
demonstrated Afrofuturism -
8:39 - 8:41in their own music,
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8:41 - 8:44especially in one
of their latest songs Huff+Puff. -
8:44 - 8:46They say, "Give me five,
it's good to be alive. -
8:46 - 8:48The sky seems so far away.
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8:48 - 8:50Hope you know we've been
to the moon and back. -
8:50 - 8:53Be sure that nothing's
going to hold us back." -
8:54 - 8:58So we know that we are larger than life.
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8:58 - 9:00We know that we are larger than Earth,
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9:00 - 9:03we know we are larger than the cosmos,
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9:03 - 9:06and that is reflected
in our work and in our music. -
9:06 - 9:09Around the continent, obviously,
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9:09 - 9:11there's people like Nnedi Okorafor
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9:12 - 9:14who wrote a book called "Who Fears Death"
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9:14 - 9:18and this is a matte painting
done by Ivonne Wende, a Kenyan -
9:19 - 9:21about the book "Who Fears Death"
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9:21 - 9:24and in "Who Fears Death" what Nnedi does
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9:24 - 9:30is that she uses the idea
of manipulating technology as we know it -
9:31 - 9:35to understand where we are
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9:35 - 9:38or to be able to grasp our environment
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9:38 - 9:40and as Afrikans, we do that all the time.
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9:40 - 9:44We use technology that has been used
outside of our space -
9:44 - 9:48or that was invented
outside of our own spaces -
9:48 - 9:50and use it in our own ways.
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9:50 - 9:53What Nnedi Okarafor does
in "Who Fears Death" -
9:53 - 9:57is that she creates
these particular machines -
9:57 - 10:00called water catcher stations,
and they absorb -
10:00 - 10:02all the atmosphere
from around them -
10:02 - 10:05so that people can take baths,
can have clean drinking water, -
10:05 - 10:06[inaudible] and so forth.
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10:07 - 10:09That's the fictional side of it.
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10:10 - 10:15In practice, how are Kenyans
using Afrofuturism? -
10:16 - 10:21I have to say I would refer
to Afrigadgets, the website -
10:21 - 10:28that has a plethora of different people
doing very inventive, and for me, -
10:28 - 10:33very futuristic things including
a young 13 year old called Richard Turere -
10:33 - 10:40and what he did is that he created
a way to run a flashlight invention, -
10:40 - 10:46run off a car battery, to keep predators
away from his family's property. -
10:47 - 10:52That to me is a very Afrofuturist sense
of using technology, -
10:52 - 10:57but in a very rustic way,
in a way that makes sense to us. -
11:00 - 11:05In my film "Pumzi" I used
the idea of technology -
11:05 - 11:09and this is a picture
of what we call self-power generator -
11:09 - 11:12and there would be these people
running on treadmills -
11:12 - 11:15and they would generate electricity
in order to have power where they lived. -
11:16 - 11:19I thought I was being
creative, imaginative, -
11:19 - 11:21until I googled it.
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11:21 - 11:22(muted laughter)
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11:22 - 11:24And I wasn't so much.
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11:24 - 11:26Self power generators do exist.
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11:26 - 11:29They do, there are ways of using
kinetic energy to power stations. -
11:30 - 11:32It's not completely
in practice at the moment -
11:32 - 11:36but it's an idea of the ways
that we can use technology -
11:36 - 11:39in a very Afrofuturist setting
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11:39 - 11:42to be able to run our everyday things.
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11:43 - 11:45There's obviously nowhere
we can talk about the future -
11:45 - 11:47without talking about technology.
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11:47 - 11:50In "Pumzi", I also talk about
the idea of communication, -
11:50 - 11:52and I know from my own experience
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11:52 - 11:55that I would be sitting
across the table from a friend -
11:55 - 11:57and we would tweet each other.
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11:58 - 12:01Now we have learned to communicate
in 140 characters or less. -
12:03 - 12:08Even when I'm talking about the things
that are happening in my life, -
12:08 - 12:12I'll use hashtag, as if it were
part of the sentence. -
12:15 - 12:19In "Pumzi", what I did
is I created this idea, -
12:19 - 12:21and we'll see it in a second,
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12:21 - 12:26about how we use different layers
of technology in order to communicate -
12:26 - 12:29and the thought process of that
-
12:29 - 12:32is that we're looking
for more efficient ways of communicating -
12:32 - 12:35rather than finding emotive ways
of communicating. -
12:36 - 12:39For me, what is most important
and what I've found from making "Pumzi" -
12:39 - 12:45is that the idea of Afrofuturism
worked the best for me -
12:45 - 12:50because I'm able to extrapolate
on ideas and thoughts -
12:50 - 12:53and feelings I have about
the way the world is running -
12:53 - 12:56without offending people
or without being too heavy handed -
12:56 - 13:00and for me, what "Pumzi" was
was a reflection of society -
13:00 - 13:03and it's set 35 years after the Water War
-
13:03 - 13:07and where everybody lives inside because
they've been told the outside is dead, -
13:09 - 13:14until one character, Asher,
wakes up from a dream -
13:14 - 13:18which is not allowed, because everybody
is supposed to be taking dream suppresants -
13:18 - 13:24and she finds a seed that she then plants,
and it starts to grow. -
13:24 - 13:27But in a world where the outside is dead,
-
13:27 - 13:30and her being the curator
of a virtual natural museum, -
13:30 - 13:32and that's the only place
you have access to nature, -
13:33 - 13:36she had to find a way outside of herself
-
13:36 - 13:39to be able to prove that life exists.
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13:39 - 13:41That's "Pumzi".
-
13:41 - 13:45But my metaphor for "Pumzi"
is about life and sacrifice -
13:45 - 13:48and the fact that we ourselves
have to mother Mother Nature. -
13:49 - 13:53We have to make sacrifices
in order to live in this one -
13:53 - 13:59and we have to know that our own behaviors
will affect generations to come. -
14:00 - 14:05As a storyteller in the tradition
of the [inaudible] -
14:05 - 14:09my job is to be a seer,
not just a historian -
14:09 - 14:12and to be able like [Mogo]
who predicted the coming of white people -
14:12 - 14:17as if they were colorful butterflies
or the train in the sense of the way -
14:17 - 14:20that he saw a snake with smoke
coming out of its head -
14:20 - 14:23to be able to say,
there is more to life than we see -
14:23 - 14:25and listen to the storytellers.
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14:25 - 14:28They also have a voice,
and their voice is important. -
14:30 - 14:32So, I leave you with a clip from "Pumzi"
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14:32 - 14:38and this is just an indication
of the possibilities of the human mind, -
14:38 - 14:41the possibilities of Afrofuturism
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14:41 - 14:45and how Afrofuturism
relates to us as Africans. -
14:45 - 14:48(applause and cheering)
- Title:
- Afrofuturism in popular culture | Wanuri Kahiu | TEDxNairobi
- Description:
-
In 2008, Wanuri completed her first feature film From A Whisper based on the real life events surrounding the August 7, twin bombings of US Embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam in 1998. The film won 5 awards at the Africa Movie Academy Awards including Best Director and Best Picture. In 2009 she wrote and directed a short Science Fiction Film Pumzi that won Best Short at Cannes Independent Film Festival, May 2010 and took Silver at Carthage Film Festival Tunisia, October 2010. Wanuri is now adapting two books into feature length narrative films.
In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDxTalks
- Duration:
- 15:12
Denise RQ edited English subtitles for Afrofuturism in popular culture | Wanuri Kahiu | TEDxNairobi | ||
Denise RQ edited English subtitles for Afrofuturism in popular culture | Wanuri Kahiu | TEDxNairobi | ||
Denise RQ approved English subtitles for Afrofuturism in popular culture | Wanuri Kahiu | TEDxNairobi | ||
Denise RQ edited English subtitles for Afrofuturism in popular culture | Wanuri Kahiu | TEDxNairobi | ||
Denise RQ edited English subtitles for Afrofuturism in popular culture | Wanuri Kahiu | TEDxNairobi | ||
Denise RQ edited English subtitles for Afrofuturism in popular culture | Wanuri Kahiu | TEDxNairobi | ||
Denise RQ edited English subtitles for Afrofuturism in popular culture | Wanuri Kahiu | TEDxNairobi | ||
Denise RQ edited English subtitles for Afrofuturism in popular culture | Wanuri Kahiu | TEDxNairobi |