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ALT 39
Speculative & Science Fiction
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Edited by:
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With contributions by:
Language:
English
Published/Copyright:
2021
About this book
Explores the ways in which African writers have approached speculative fiction through in-depth articles on the use of language, terminology and the genealogy of the works.
Over the past two decades, there has been a resurgence in the writing of African and African diaspora speculative and science fiction writing. Recent discussions around the "rise of science-fiction and fantasy" in Africa have led to a push-back, in which writers and scholars have suggested that science fiction and fantasy is not a new phenomenon in African literature, but that the deep past of the African world and its complex and mysterious foundations still register in burgeoning modern literary productions. Such influences can be seen in early twentieth-century writers such as D.O. Fagunwa's classic novel (1938) Ogboji Ode ninu Igbo Irunmale (The Forest of a Thousand Daemons: A Hunter's Saga), the mythopoeia of Elechi Amadi's The Concubine (1966) as well as the dystopian writing of Buchi Emecheta in The Rape of Shavi (1983). This volume shows this long tradition of speculative literature in examining African classics such as Kojo Laing's Woman of the Aeroplanes (1988) and the oeuvre of Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o. The volume also critically examines modern African texts from writers including Nnedi Okorafor, Namwali Serpell and Masande Ntshanga, as well as critically looking at the terms 'Afrofuturism' and 'Africanfuturism' vis-à-vis their particular cultural aesthetics and suitability in describing tradition rooted African speculative arts.
This volume also includes a Literary Supplement.
Guest Editors: LOUISA UCHUM EGBUNIKE (Associate Professor in African and Caribbean Literature, Durham University) and CHIMALUM NWANKWO (Writer-in-Residence, Department of English and Literary Studies, Veritas University, Abuja, Nigeria).
Series Editor: Ernest N. Emenyonu (Professor of Africana Studies at the University of Michigan-Flint)
Reviews Editor: Obi Nwakanma (Fellow, Department of English University of Central Florida).
Over the past two decades, there has been a resurgence in the writing of African and African diaspora speculative and science fiction writing. Recent discussions around the "rise of science-fiction and fantasy" in Africa have led to a push-back, in which writers and scholars have suggested that science fiction and fantasy is not a new phenomenon in African literature, but that the deep past of the African world and its complex and mysterious foundations still register in burgeoning modern literary productions. Such influences can be seen in early twentieth-century writers such as D.O. Fagunwa's classic novel (1938) Ogboji Ode ninu Igbo Irunmale (The Forest of a Thousand Daemons: A Hunter's Saga), the mythopoeia of Elechi Amadi's The Concubine (1966) as well as the dystopian writing of Buchi Emecheta in The Rape of Shavi (1983). This volume shows this long tradition of speculative literature in examining African classics such as Kojo Laing's Woman of the Aeroplanes (1988) and the oeuvre of Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o. The volume also critically examines modern African texts from writers including Nnedi Okorafor, Namwali Serpell and Masande Ntshanga, as well as critically looking at the terms 'Afrofuturism' and 'Africanfuturism' vis-à-vis their particular cultural aesthetics and suitability in describing tradition rooted African speculative arts.
This volume also includes a Literary Supplement.
Guest Editors: LOUISA UCHUM EGBUNIKE (Associate Professor in African and Caribbean Literature, Durham University) and CHIMALUM NWANKWO (Writer-in-Residence, Department of English and Literary Studies, Veritas University, Abuja, Nigeria).
Series Editor: Ernest N. Emenyonu (Professor of Africana Studies at the University of Michigan-Flint)
Reviews Editor: Obi Nwakanma (Fellow, Department of English University of Central Florida).
Author / Editor information
Contributor: Ernest N Emenyonu
ERNEST N. EMENYONU is Professor Emeritus of Africana Studies at the University of Michigan-Flint, USA. He is Series Editor of African Literature Today. His publications include A Companion to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (2017), Emerging Perspectives on Nawal El Saadawi (2010), and the children's book Uzoechi: A Story of African Childhood (2012).
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Contributor: Louisa Uchum Egbunike
LOUISA UCHUM EGBUNIKE is Associate Professor in African and Caribbean Literature, Durham University). She has been guest lecturer to institutions including Wellesley College, The University of the West Indies and The University of Bremen. She has published in journals including African Literature Today and Matatu and has chapters published in edited books including A Companion to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
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Contributor: Chimalum Nwankwo
CHIMALUM NWANKWO is Writer-in-Residence, Department of English and Literary Studies, Veritas University, Abuja, Nigeria. He has previously taught at the Universities of Nigeria, East Carolina-Greenville, North Carolina A & T State University-Greensboro, where he was Professor of English and World Literatures and Former Chair of the Department of English, Nigeria Turkish Nile University in Abuja. He was Guest Editor of ALT 30 Reflections & Retrospectives. His other critical studies include Of the Deepest Shadows and The Prisons of Fire (2010) and Toward the kingdom of Woman and Man: The Works of Ngugi wa Thiongo (1992). He is also an acclaimed poet, who has published five volumes of poetry, including The Womb in the Heart and Other Poems and Lovesong for Julian Assange & Poems from Love Mountain.
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Contributor: Louisa Uchum Egbunike
LOUISA UCHUM EGBUNIKE is Associate Professor in African and Caribbean Literature, Durham University). She has been guest lecturer to institutions including Wellesley College, The University of the West Indies and The University of Bremen. She has published in journals including African Literature Today and Matatu and has chapters published in edited books including A Companion to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
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Contributor: Chimalum Nwankwo
CHIMALUM NWANKWO is Writer-in-Residence, Department of English and Literary Studies, Veritas University, Abuja, Nigeria. He has previously taught at the Universities of Nigeria, East Carolina-Greenville, North Carolina A & T State University-Greensboro, where he was Professor of English and World Literatures and Former Chair of the Department of English, Nigeria Turkish Nile University in Abuja. He was Guest Editor of ALT 30 Reflections & Retrospectives. His other critical studies include Of the Deepest Shadows and The Prisons of Fire (2010) and Toward the kingdom of Woman and Man: The Works of Ngugi wa Thiongo (1992). He is also an acclaimed poet, who has published five volumes of poetry, including The Womb in the Heart and Other Poems and Lovesong for Julian Assange & Poems from Love Mountain.
Reviews
This constructive volume 39 of African Literature Today arrives with absorbing focus on the inherently speculative nature of African writing. The articles, interviews, literary supplements comprising short fiction, poetry and reviews will enchant lovers of black speculative fiction. [...] This is truly a worthwhile read.
Topics
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Frontmatter
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Contents
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Notes on Contributors
xi -
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INTRODUCTION
1 -
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‘Being very human in one of the most inhuman cities in the world’
14 -
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Southern Africannearfutures
31 -
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Woman of the Aeroplanes & the Prediction of the Future
43 -
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Re-membering the Past
57 -
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African Counter-utopias
71 -
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Shifting the Frame
83 -
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Contemporary Ugandan Speculative Fiction
95 -
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Moving the Centre
111 - Featured Article
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Reimagining Transracial Intimacy: The Cartography of Decolonial Love in Leila Aboulela’s ‘Something Old, Something New’ & Tomi Adeaga’s ‘Marriage and Other Impediments’
125 - Interviews
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With Chigozie Obioma
139 -
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Translating Magic Realism in Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o’s The Perfect Nine
150 -
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The Steady Rise of African Speculative Fiction
156 - Literary Supplement
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‘Poison for the Dogs’ (Short Story)
161 -
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Wherever Something Stands Something Else Must Stand Beside It
173 -
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The Song-Warrior
183 -
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Six Poems
192 -
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Three Poems
199 -
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‘African Children’ (Poem)
202 -
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‘Nun’s Twilight Call’ (Poem)
204 -
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‘To Mokwugo Okoye – A Forsaken Freedom Fighter’ (Poem)
206 - Tributes
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Remembering Eldred Durosimi Jones (6 January 1925–21 March 2020): Farewell, Othello’s Countryman
209 -
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Professor Eldred Durosimi Jones
214 -
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Chukwuemeka Ike
223 - Reviews
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Sakui Malakpa, Black Professor, White University
237 -
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Daria Tunca (ed.), Conversations with Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
243 -
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Ernest Emenyonu, The Literary History of the Igbo Novel: African Literature in African Languages
248 -
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Jack Mapanje, Greetings from Grandpa
251 -
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Ada Uzoamaka Azodo and Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo (eds), Resident Alien and Other Stories: An Anthology of Immigrant Voices from Africa and the African Diaspora
254
Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
April 3, 2024
eBook ISBN:
9781800102897
Original publisher:
James Currey
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook ISBN:
9781800102897
Keywords for this book
African writers; speculative fiction; science fiction; African literature; Afrofuturism; Africanfuturism; language; terminology; genealogy; African classics; dystopian writing; tradition; cultural aesthetics
Audience(s) for this book
For an expert adult audience, including professional development and academic research
