Brittle Paper, a literary magazine dedicated to African literature, recently produced a new anthology of Africanfuturism, edited by Nigerian writer and editor Wole Talabi. The best part? It’s free to download!
The anthology, Africanfuturism: An Anthology, is part of Brittle Paper‘s 10th anniversary celebration, and gets its name from the subgenre coined by author Nnedi Okorafor. Africanfuturism, Okorafor wrote, is distinct from Afrofuturism in that it’s science fiction defined from a non-US centric world view: “difference is that Africanfuturism is specifically and more directly rooted in African culture, history, mythology and point-of-view as it then branches into the Black Diaspora, and it does not privilege or center the West.”
In his introduction, Talabi writes that despite being a science fiction fan, he’s rarely seen Africa or Africans represented in those futures, and that Afrofuturism doesn’t quite cover what he wanted to see. He says that Africanfuturism is “now an anchor point, a clearer signpost for about what many African authors are trying to do when they write certain kinds of science fiction – not just from Africa, or set in Africa, but about Africa.”
Accordingly, the anthology contains eight original stories from T.L. Huchu, Okorafor (in addition to a reprint of her essay about the term she created), Dilman Dila, Mazi Nwonwu, Tlotlo Tsamaase, Derek Lubangakene, Rafeeat Aliyu, and Mame Bougouma Diene.
The entire anthology is free to download in PDF form from Brittle Paper’s website.
