When is Wakanda: Afrofuturism and Dark Speculative Futurity

We see the need to deepen, as Kodwo Eshun has phrased it in his article Further Considerations on Afrofuturism (2003), our Afrofutures “tool kit developed for and by Afrodiasporic intellectuals” with the imperative “to code, adopt, adapt, translate, misread, rework, and revise” visions of the black imagination and aspiration alongside a critical appraisal of the utopic, technologically sophisticated city state and space of Wakanda, the mythical black nation untouched by colonization in the film The Black Panther. As a historic, record setting film in terms of its cast and record breaking box office revenues, the Black Panther film simultaneously embodies and problematizes the Black Diasporic and Pan African imagination. At the same time, the Black Panther unfurls the curtain of Afrofuturism steeped in a stunning panoramic vision of African traditions combined with magic, technology, vibranium, fashion and fashionable wearables, multidimensional Feminist black women with careers, love interests and ambition, sensitive and vulnerable leaders, complex villains and flawed allies.In this anthology, we aspire to expand and engage beyond the Black Atlantic to include the Black Pacific. This special issue encourages scholars to engage with Afrofuturism 2.0 perspectives, futures studies, Asian futurity, pan-African dialogue (Scholars such as R.K. Edozie, Ali Mazrui and Kwame Nkrumah) and the Black pacific context (with scholars such as R. Shilliam, E. Taketani, and B.V. Mullen). Scholars such as Kodwo Eshun, Alondra Nelson, Julius Gatune, Ziaudden Sardar, Sohail Inayatullah, Jose Ramos, Jim Dator and others have challenged us to consider futures research outside of a Eurocentric perspective and inspire us to fashion new tools for Afrofutures speculative thought and applied research outside of a Eurocentric perspective and inspire us to fashion new tools for Afrofutures speculative thought and applied research. As a start, Afrofutures research begins with discovering weak signals of emerging future scenarios that Dr. Brooks has called Afrofuturetypes, that act as a basis for critiquing images of the future circulating as science fiction capital in popular culture by hacking and reimagining them with alternative agents and agency with black and other oppressed groups in mind. Black spirituals, rap and other black musical performances have envisioned the past, present and future to transform usually ghettoized dystopic spaces into domains of survival, redemption and openings for imagined futures. Afrofuturetypes help guide us in signaling and emphasizing black futures in process and on the horizon in the near to long-term futures.This anthology Exploring the Dark Matter(S) of A Quest for Radical Queer Inclusion Beyond Capitalismby Amber JohnsonRedefining the An Afrofuturist Analysis of Wakanda and Speculative Fictionby Ricardo GuthrieAfroAsian Autoethnographies of Black Panther in Koreaby Hannah R. Stohry and Johnnie JacksonThe Erasure of Virtual An Ideation About Authentic Black Hairstyles in Speculative Digital Environmentsby Jennifer WilliamsBlack Cinematic Masterpiece or CIA Recruitment Video?by Douglas TaylorEssays Engaging the Black Afrofuturism as a Design Lens for Inclusive Technological Innovationby Woodrow W. Winchester, IIIThe Black Posthuman A Secularized Technorganicby Philip ButlerBlack Jeopardy Hella Loves Celebrating and Reframing Frequencies and Voices from the Black Fantastic Cultural Imaginationby Craig Derksen, Lonny Brooks and Kalemba KizitoAfrofutures of Deviance and DiY in Black Fantastic Performanceby Tobias c. van Veen