Thuyết vị lai châu phi và câu chuyện về black panther 2018

3 ABSTRACT This paper is a humanities-oriented research that investigates the development of a cultural aesthetic named Afrofuturism and examines the blockbuster superhero movie Black Pa

ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI

TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ KHOA NGÔN NGỮ VÀ VĂN HOÁ CÁC NƯỚC NÓI TIẾNG ANH

KHOÁ LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP

THUYẾT VỊ LAI CHÂU PHI VÀ CÂU CHUYỆN VỀ BLACK PANTHER (2018)

Ha Noi, 2019

In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my paper deposited in the library should be accessible for the purpose of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the librarian for the care, loan or reproduction of the paper

Date

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Firstly, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to my supervisor Dr Đặng Ngọc Sinh for the continuous support of my research, for his patience, motivation, and immense knowledge His guidance helped me in all the time of research and writing of this thesis I could not have imagined having a better supervisor and mentor for my study

Besides my supervisor, my sincere thanks also goes to Dr Phung Ha Thanh for her consideration and support for the conduct of not only my thesis but also the other friends‘ undertaking their bachelors‘ thesis of the Countries Studies Division Without her precious comment and guidance, it would not be possible to conduct this research

I would like to thank all of my 15E2 friends not only for their insightful comments and encouragement, but also for the hard question which incented me to widen my research from various perspectives Thank you for the stimulating yet frustrating discussions, for the sleepless nights we panicing together before deadlines, and for all the fun we have had in the last four years

Last but not the least, I would like to thank my family: my parents and my brother for supporting me spiritually throughout writing this thesis and my life in general

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ABSTRACT

This paper is a humanities-oriented research that investigates the development

of a cultural aesthetic named Afrofuturism and examines the blockbuster superhero

movie Black Panther as an artistic form that contributes to the development and

widespread of the phenomenon In the first part, this paper offers informative knowledge about the history of Afrofuturism, presenting how the shape of the phenomenon changed over time thanks to the active movements of Afrofuturists This

is achieved by analyzing the characteristics of the ideology in different points throughout history, from the middle of the 20th century to the arrival of the Black Panther, and identifying the related relating representative contributors In the latter part, the case – Black Panther – is evaluated by comparing and contrasting its features

with that of Afrofuturism during the same period The results of this study are that

Black Panther features all characteristics of Afrofuturism of the period the movie was

born Besides, the film also adds one component of the cultural aspect of the phenomenon that has not been observed in any prior works of the 21st century – the Xhosa African language as a national and dominant language Finally, there are some suggestions regarding the possible future research approaches of the same topic – Afrofuturism and Black Panther

Key terms: Afrofuturism; Afrofuturist; Afrofuturism 2.0; Pan-Africanism; Feminism;

Black Panther

TABLE OF CONTENT

Introduction 5

Futurism 7

Throughout the history of Afrofuturism 9

The case – Black Panther 23

Appendix The five dimensions of Afrofuturism 2.0 46

References 48

was declared with the premiere of D.W Griffith‘s The Birth of a Nation (Diawara,

1993) In his work, Griffith constructed a stereotypical image of the black by restricting them within a certain social class (the criminal for example) and spaces (the kitchens), while promoting the superior image of the white being in the center After the movie, the boundary between the two races in the industry seemed to be extended with the making of numerous characters with the similar portrayal and, eventually, with the ban of ―Blacks participating in bourgeois humanism Hollywood screens‖ However, the rise of independent cinema in the latter half of the century had opened

up the opportunities for the changes in the filmmakers Numerous independent movies made the effort of inspecting the black communities regarding their lives, their culture, and so on This period was the dawn of Afrofuturism as the media started to hypothesize a future without color, in which humankind is regarded as one race (Bould, 2007) Even though the official definition and explanation for the term were coined in 1994 by Mark Dery, its origin chased back a few decades Following this trend, Black Panther, the first superhero of African descent in American comics, was created by Marvel Comics in 1966 Many aspects of the African community were integrated into the comic, along with the characters‘ possession of advanced technology, all of which could be categorized as the representation of the phenomenon Afrofuturism (Canavan, 2013) However, only until the premiere of the motion picture version in early this year did ‗Black Panther‘ and its representation of black culture receive such public concentration Besides the news regarding the movies‘ worldwide cinematic achievements and population, we could observe the obsession of movie goers and fans with the black‘s social practices such as numerous online cosplays of

their traditional clothes or the Wakanda greetings As a result, the newspapers actively published articles examining the African cultures of the movie However, culture is only one component of the ideology of Afrofuturism – the phenomenon that has been proved the existence in the comic version Subsequently, concerning the fact that there

is a lack of research articles centering on the representation of Afrofuturism in the movie, this research attempts to prove that there exists such an ideology employed in the movie and to investigate its practice in the masterpiece

Although the phenomenon has been mentioned a lot in the world‘s largest newspapers such as The NY Times or The Independent after the worldwide success of the movie, these newspapers‘ investigation in the practice of the phenomenon in the movie only stops at stating that there exists such feature There is a lack of thorough inspection with justifiable examples and reasoning that proves the existence of a link between Afrofuturism and the movie For instance, in the article ‗The Afrofuturistic

Designs of Black Panther‘ (2018), only some African authentic designs of the main

characters, such as the Black Panther suit or the queen‘s crown, are given detailed attentions while the others are neglected Due to this lack of some pieces, the whole puzzle of how African traditional culture is presented through the movie is uncompleted Moreover, these newspapers tend to exploit the movie, along with its ancestor – the comic, as an example influenced by the phenomenon to introduce their discussion about the term and its historical development rather than examining how the movie is considered a representative of the trend Concerning the research field,

although Afrofuturistic features of Black Panther have been explored by some

researchers, only the comic version has been inspected One example is Nama‘s article

(2009) which examines how black superheroes, taking Black Panther as a subject to

investigate, function as Afrofuturistic metaphors However, transforming an year-old comic series into an over-two-hour-long motion picture, it is indisputable that certain adaptation has been made As a result, even though both of the artistic forms feature this ideology, Afrofuturism may be presented differently in the two types, thereby needing an independent research article that centers on the large-screen version only If conducted, this research is the first one that delves into the

over-50-establishment of Afrofuturism in a superhero movie - Black Panther Conducting this

With the publication of the Manifesto of Futurism (Manifesto del Futurismo), written by

the Italian poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, in February 1909, Futurism was first introduced to the public In his proclamation, Marinetti formulated an artistic philosophy called Futurism that emphasized the exclusion of the past alongside with

an advocating of a future with modernization and revitalization

"We want no part of it, the past We the young and strong Futurists!"

(Marinetti, 1909)

The Manifesto published in the French paper Le Figaro, February 1909 1

It was clear that the manifesto was written with a view to liberating Italy from the burden from its past traditions and glorifying modernity Soon afterward, Italian began to witness its revolutionary cultural transformation as a group of radical Italian

artists, who called themselves by the name The Futurists, unified with the aim to

employ modern means of communication to spread the idea Strengthening their focus

on creating a unique and dynamic vision of the future, the Futurists desired to abandon traditional artistic notions and praise the take-over of the machine age In their

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Picture source: Google

illustration of the so-call ―the future‖, depictions of urban landscapes like industrial cities as well as new technologies such as trains, cars, and airplanes were embedded

In order to express their idea of speed and motion, a number of peculiar techniques, including blurring, repetition, and the use of lines of force were developed Such incorporation became a representative feature of Futurist images

Afterward, the Futurists, through creating and publishing numerous different manifestos, attempted to deliver their aesthetic and social ideals However, the underlying principles for all of those works are taken from Marinetti‘s general Manifesto, which generalized the spirit of Futurism: praising the takeover of the technology and machine era, as well as demoting traditional arts The period when the group had the most influence on the public was between 1909 and 1914, before it was disbanded by Marinetti after World War 1st Later on, he recruited new artists to form another group known as the second generation of Futurism Though flourishing in Milan, the movement soon moved to Naples and Turin before it was eventually brought abroad by Marinetti Although most thriving in Italy, Futurist ideas were utilized by artists in Britain, the US and Japan and Futurist works were displayed all over Europe

Some famous artworks that overview the core ideology of the movement 2

The City Rises (1910)

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Picture source: Google

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futures they endorse, thereby condemning the disempowered to live in the past" (Latham, 2017); the latter, Afrofuturism, experienced its dawn in the North American Black Arts movement of the 1950s and 1970s among various figures, modern jazz musicians, R&B and pioneering hip hop performers that were black-race descendants

Throughout the history of Afrofuturism

Long before there appeared someone to coin an official name and give a definition to the phenomenon in the 1990s, Afrofuturism is believed to be the underlying inspiration of artworks that came around more than a quarter of a century ago To chase back to the exact first artwork that features Afrofuturism is frankly impossible as the authors, of the era in which the term had not been defined yet, might not have had the idea of such phenomenon in mind when their works were being created However, the period that witnessed the rise in both popularity and quantity of black-centered masterpieces is, without a doubt, the middle of the 20th century

1 The 1950s – Sun Ra and the dawn of Afrofuturism

After the end of the 2nd world war, the striking development of science and technology, ranging from the atom bomb to the automatic coffee machine, promised Americans a brand-new future that would be significantly different Science fiction genre, as a consequence, gradually became a popular approach to make sense of and get the public to be familiarized with such transformation Though during the postwar period, the Afrofuturist community had never made any formal contact with the science fiction one, their practices of storytelling became the center of a popular art form of the time: jazz music (Yaszek, 2005)

The first approach, in an afrofuturistic sense, was made by a legendary jazz musician and poet - Sun Ra in this period How Sun Ra is considered of the earliest pioneer to propagate Afrofuturism is attributable to his lifetime artistic masterpieces (Stone, 2014) Sun Ra‘s, born in 1914, birth name was Herman Poole Blount which he insisted that it was only his ‗slave name‘ In the late 1940s and early 1950s, after declaring himself to be an outsider from Saturn, the name Herman Blount was

officially abandoned and Sun Ra (known as God of the Sun in Egyptian language) was

born Throughout his career, Sun Ra repeatedly retold his strange origin and experience, though with slight differences between the versions, in the sincerest ways:

“My whole body changed into something else I went up… I

landed on a planet that I identified as Saturn… they teleported

me and I was down on [a] stage with them They wanted to talk

with me… They told me to stop [attending college] because

there was going to be great trouble in schools… the world was

going into complete chaos… I would speak [through music],

and the world would listen That‟s what they told me.”

Whether literal or metaphorical, Sun Ra viewed himself as an alien, shouldering the responsibility for a rescue mission, who came to earth to use music to evacuate his fellow blacks to a new planet, for a new beginning ―Whether he was a UFO abductee, a visitor from Saturn or an angel is irrelevant, he was on this message for the rest of his life‖ (Perreault, 2014) Surviving the hardships of proving himself and his music, Sun Ra‘s music was first known to the wide public in 1956 when the

first line-up of The Arkestra (Sun Ra‘s musical band of more than a hundred

musicians) was gathered and their first album was released Sun Ra delivered his perspectives of Afrofuturism through performing blackness music that stills exerts

certain impacts nowadays The performers of The Arkestra wore futuristic costumes

inspired by both ancient Egyptian and the space age With the infusion of harmonies and rhythms to traditional swing, Sun Ra‘s jazz is brought out of the city, heading towards the outer space Through both the appearance and the music, Africa‘s glorious history and the myth that the pyramids were successfully constructed with the help of ancient alien astronauts were depicted Through the delivery of such perception, a connection between historical events and a future of advanced technology and anti-racism was formed Through such invention of space music, Sun Ra conveys his ambition of constructing a more promising ‗new home‘ for the black Jonah Weiner puts it like this: "Perceptible in this ripple of the Afronaut impulse is the yearning for and fantastical reclamation of an ennobling African history: A trip to space doubles as

a return to roots." (Weiner, as cited in Lamb, 2010)

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In his book, A Pure Solar World: Sun Ra and the Birth of Afrofuturism, Paul

Youngquist provides a much closer and inspirational look into this underrated legend artist, as a poet rather than a musician Much as Sun Ra claimed his written work to be

of the same mission as his songs,

“My music is words, and my words are music.” 3

Sun Ra‘s poetry had never received the treatment equal to the seriousness with which he wrote it Throughout his life-long career, Sun Ra displayed almost no development as a poet as most of his works in this field released unnoticed However, the more we look into his poets, the more afrofuturistic they turned out to be Investigating one of his earliest works, written in the 1950s, we can identify an intimate connection to the underlying ideology of his jazz The poem begins typically enough, though,

"Twas at Babylon they say

Ah, dread and drastic day,"

escalated to a mission statement that would inform his ambition

“This is not to say There'll never be a better day Watch what you write, watch what you say!" 4

Youngquist demonstrates the connection between Sun Ra‘s works and the cultural and political situations of his time, post World War II In such time and such nation where the technological shifts and advancements drove the Americans into a brand-new future, the future of space obsession and racial confusion (Yaszek, 2006), Sun Ra‘s ambition did not stop at the alternation in separated areas, but rather the transformation of the whole American society (2014) Afterward, black popular music gradually became used to such appearance of afrofuturistic storytelling with the debuts of funk musicians in the next decades like George Clinton in the 1970s or rap artists such as Public Enemy in the 1980s (Yaszek, 2006)

Even before Neil Armstrong set the world record to be the first man to walk on the moon in July 1969, an African-American writer and musician named Sun Ra had borne the thought of moving to another planet, though only through science fiction fantasies, to seek the freedom denying him and the black people on Earth Afrofuturism was first originated with a view to proposing an escape for the black to a dreamland, considering their poor and slavery life on Earth

2 The 1960s – the rise of Afrofuturistic written masterpieces and the origin of the first Marvel’s black superhero

During this period, there rose the first black Afrofuturist novelist, Samuel R Delany He was the first to create a whole universe with black science-fiction concept,

starting with The Jewels of Aptor or City of a Thousand Suns Afrofuturism, in this

era, was no longer an individual mission as Sun Ra viewed himself of being accountable for Delany‘s works, besides visioning a completely new future for the black, encouraged and inspired them to freely envisage their own future of no less promising technological advancement and social development, in comparison to that invented decades ago by their white peers

Another transformation of Afrofuturism in this era was related to its public recognition as the phenomenon, not being restricted to only private shareholders like writers or comic publishers, spread its influence to even national programs In the

1968 television program Star Trek, for the first time in history, a black woman was taken to space It was the character Lieutenant Uhura, played by Nichelle Nichols Later on, thanks to such inspirational appearance of the two ideology of Afrofuturism and Feminism on a national scale, the first black human being, Mae Jemison, finally set foot in space

This decade also witnessed the emerging in popularity of comics and also the dawn of the case in this study, Black Panther Stan Lee (1922-2018), the creator of numerous famous superheroes such as the Avengers or Fantastic Four, together with Jack Kirby, invented the first Marvel black superhero – Black Panther – 1961 However, the character first appeared only in a spin-off of Fantastic Four comic series with a mysterious background that, hence, did not reveal much of the underlying afrofuturistic ideology of the character Afterward, the launch of X-Men in 1963, still

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by this duo, marked the first milestone in the history of comics as its widespread popularity offered the comic a more stable position and vivid vision of this form of entertainment in the market

3 The 1970s and 1980s – The unstoppable spreading movement of the cultural aesthetic Afrofuturism

In the following two decades, Afrofuturism‘s reputation rose sharply with the

premiere of the movie Space is the place by Sun Ra His idea of a new home for the

black, eventually, was transformed from his words to real images – the big screen In the movie, while traveling through space in a ship whose propulsion was nothing but music, Sun Ra discovers a planet he believes could be a new home for the black Sun

Ra depicted that there was a world of difference between his planet and the Earth as there would be no sign of war, anger or frustration

“We set up a colony of black people here See what they can do on

a planet all their own without any white people there.” 5

Returning to Earth in 1972 to finish his mission, Sun Ra has an unavoidable fight with ―the overseer‖, a super-villain who pimps out the black race Foreseeing the inevitable destruction of Earth, Sun Ra proposes an ―alter-destiny‖ to those who believe and are willing to join him Unfortunately, his program has always been spied

on by the FBI and NASE, who afterward take numerous actions to stop him and force him to return to space What can be inferred from the ending of the movie was that though Sun Ra managed to convey his desire of freedom for the black, he, to a certain extent, acknowledged the chance for success was beyond the bounds of possibility as there still exists numerous obstacles along the way After the successful launch of the movie Star Wars in 1984, the appearance of the black in outer space became more and more commonplace, thereby marking the shift from dreams to the belief that the-future-we, the black, are capable of making such scientific and technological breakthrough and advancement

Considering other Afrofuturism contributors, it would be a mistake not to

mention Octavia Butler and her novel Kindred, published in 1979 Butler added new

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Sun Ra‘s line in the movie Space is the place

features to the former Afrofuturism as she exploited the genre of science fiction to retell the history of slavery and colonization of the black; hence connecting the past and the present through Dana‘s trip back in time to learn more about her past Butler gave the reader an insight into life on a plantation and the culture which developed among slaves during this period Thanks to her successfully use the genre of science fiction to create a link between the past and the present, readers are engaged in the discussion of how elements of the slavery have come to influence our present, and will shape our future (Kohlhof, 2018) It was believed that the past, present, and future were all connected and the latter would be influenced by actions of the prior By that means, Afrofuturism‘s presentation was more than just a vision of the future, it was the matter of the past also Another contribution to this aesthetic movement was credited

to the 1987‘s Dawn, part of the Lillith‟s Brood series It told a story about a black

woman who works with aliens to bring back the human race after a devastating war Both artists, through their works, promoted the connection between two cultural movements, Afrofuturism and Feminism, and encouraged the creativity without racial and class boundaries, claiming that each and every individual is, and deserves the right

to be, free and mighty in their creative process

4 The 1990s – the birth of an official name

The last decade of the twentieth century marked the milestone of Afrofuturism‘s history as this cultural aesthetic, though presented in numerous prior artworks, was eventually given an official name with a thorough definition Mark

Dery‘s, an American author, lecturer, and cultural critic, anthology Flame Wars (1993) featured an essay named Black to the future in which the term Afrofuturism was first

presented to the public This paper was about his interviews with three American thinkers – science fiction writer Samuel R Delany, writer and musician Greg Tate, and cultural critic Tricia Rose - about different critical dimensions of

African-Afrofuturism in an attempt to define the aesthetic At the beginning of the essay, Dery

defined Afrofuturism as ―Speculative fiction that treats African-American themes and addresses African-American concerns in the context of 20th-century technoculture - and, more generally, African-American signification that appropriates images of technology and a prophetically enhanced future‖ Dery‘s depiction of Afrofuturism

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laid out an antinomy: Can a community with rubbed out past and subsequently consumed energies, all due to the consequences of colonization, still imagine possible future? Nevertheless, the future here should not have anything in common with that unreal estate of the future already crafted by the technocrats, futurologists, streamliners, and set designers from the white community for years

“If there is an Afrofuturism, it must be sought in unlikely places,

constellated from far-flungs points.”

(Dery, 1993)

As we can interpret from Dery‘s words, what distinguishes Afrofuturism from other standard science fiction is its integration of ancient African traditions and black identity On the coining of the term, Dery referred to Afrofuturism as a board aesthetic ideology that, through various artistic forms, associates elements of science fiction, history, fantasies and, of course, Afrocentrism Within each artistic work inspired by the phenomenon, there should always be a connection between the historical African past with an imagined black diasporic future Dery fastened the focus of Afrofuturism

to the past and concerns of the African diaspora rather than the whole community of

the black Flame Wars kick-started the academic interest in Afrofuturism, making it a

key theoretical concept driving the established studies of black techno-culture

Concerning the critics towards Dery‘s definition, Alondra Nelson, a social scientist, praised on such invention as it assigned the proper name to something that has always known about black culture and practiced in black diasporic art for years, yet failed to be defined ―It gives us a tradition and a legacy, where all the pieces sort

of fit together.‖ (Nelson, n.d.) In September of 1999, Nelson organized an Afrofuturism forum at NYU, which dedicated conversation to the ―future of black production In 2000, Alondra Nelson and artist Paul D Miller launched

Afrofuturism.net which were dedicated to science fictions and discussed how the genre

addresses a ―past of abduction, displacement, and alien-nation‖ and inspires ―technical and creative innovations‖

―There is no singular art form to express Afrofuturism as the aesthetic is as varied and fluid as the cultural identities it explores‖ (Freeman, 2015) By the end of

the twentieth century, it comprises an array of media forms, including, but not limited

to, textual, visual, and aural arts Despite the variety in expression form, the core component of Afrofuturism remained: (1) the examination of the history and traditions; (2) the exploit of technological development; (3) the visualization of possible futures Even within the imagined future world with exceptional technological advancement, their most ancient culture aesthetics are presented in the most unique and honorable ways To be considered afrofuturistic, the feature of a black character is insufficient Afrofuturism concerns the vivid demonstration and preservation of black culture and the desired significances of the black diaspora community in the future world Afrofuturistic works were recommended to merge the past and future elements to deliver messages regarding the sociopolitical and cultural concerns of the black diasporic people

5 The 21 st century Afrofuturism

After Dery‘s definition, numerous 21st-century critics also attempted to offer their suggestions for the analysis of the term Alondra Nelson (2002) intended to boarden the definition for Afrofuturism as ―African American voices with other stories to tell about culture; technology and things to come‖ Yaszek (2005) defined Afrofuturism as an aesthetic movement which establishes the experience of the African Diaspora in an unfamiliar way – through artistic works with fantastic technology-related tropes Kodwo Eshun (2007) stated that ―Afrofuturism may be characterized as a program recovering the histories of counter-futures created in a century hostile to Afrodiasporic projection and as a space within which the critical work of manufacturing tools of intervention within the current political dispensation may be undertaken‖ On the other hand, Elie (2014), in order to emphasize the afrofuturists‘ attempts to narrow the gap of revolution between the black and the white, proposed a framework for afrofuturism-inspired works in comparison with the current ―white supremacy system‖

In the first decade of the 21st century, a new generation of recording artists has embraced Afrofuturism into their music and fashion With the rise in population of urban contemporary music at the beginning of the century, Janelle Monáe took the leading role with the effort to bring Afrofuturism to the forefront of this artistic form

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Her momentous songs include the R&B-genre music videos Prime Time (2013) and Many Moons (2008), which uses the world of cyborgs and fashion to demonstrates

slavery and freedom Furthermore, she is known for promoting a transformation to

Afrofuturism - Neo-Afrofuturism by using her alter ego, Cindi Mayweather, who

provokes a rebellion against the Great Divide in order to liberate citizens who have been suffering their dictatorship (Calvert, 2010) In fact, this role rather mirrors earlier Afrofuturistic figure Sun Ra, who imagined his own extraterrestrial being undertaking the rescue mission to free the African-Americans from the oppression on Earth Another hotly-debated issue of the century, the queer love, was also brought into her

music In Dirty Computer, queer love is seen to battle against a government that seeks

to erase memories Specific memories, tied to every moment, is accompanied by images of a future reminiscent of both past and present The images of the past are put into existence within the same timeline of the present images Through this time layering technique, we are reminded rather than the conversation through time, it is the continuation from past till present (Monday, 2018) What Monáe has tried to convey through her music was a reminder that our document of ―the ways we intimately and publicly exist‖ in present time also contributes to the construction of our future, not just our collective memory Through this imagination, our vision of what's to come sharpens and adapts (Monday, 2018) Accordingly, the importance of

―the present‖ was towards our imagined future was emphasized in Monáe‘s proposal

promote the idea of Afrofuturism and Feminism, it has also projected the sexually discriminative stereotypes towards black female artists in the music industry

In the 2010s, Afrofuturism has spread its influences to museum exhibitions as there are many launched to showcase art with Afrofuturist themes The Studio Museum in Harlem held an exhibition, which lasted for nearly four months (from November 14, 2013 to March 9, 2014), displaying Afrofuturistic aesthetics Another

notable exhibition was The Shadows Took Shape, which through over sixty pieces of art, presented the information about African-Aemerican identity together with technology, time, and space As a part of the MOMA's PS1 festival in 2014, King Britt curated Moondance: A Night in the Afro Future, a celebration of Afrofuturism within

contemporary culture There were three main parts, namely lectures, dances and live musics, each of which accentuated how the current popular culture is indebted to the ideas of a black destiny

6 Afrofuturism 2.0 – a new perspective of how the phenomenon should be comprehended

2014 marked a milestone for the development of the phenomenon as Anderson and Jones published their book, proposing a new and advanced version of the original definition Criticizing that the ‗old‘ Afrofuturism‘s concern was 20th

-century culture, thereby needing an adaptation to fit in with the development of the twenty-first century

techno-“Afrofuturism has emerged as a term of convenience to describe

analysis, criticism and cultural production that addresses the

intersections between race and technology.” 6

In Afrofuturism 2.0: The Rise of Astroblackness, previous 20th century notion of Afrofuturism was expanded and boardened The authors suggested that the concerns

of Afrofuturism in the previous century had been outdated, thereby needing switching

to the 21st-century concepts of religion, architecture, communications, visual art, philosophy, ect Moreover, the book also attempted to demonstrate the transformation

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Anderson and Jones, 2014 in Afrofuturism 2.0: The Rise of Astroblackness

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from Afrodiasporic idea to the growing Pan African Creative Phenomenon, also known as Pan-Africanism

Pan-Africanism, coming around in the first decades of the 20th

century, is a worldwide movement that affirms the fate intertwining of all indigenous and diasporic ethnic groups of sub-Saharan African descent At its core, Pan-Africanism emphasizes the idea that ―Sub-

Saharan African people, both on the continent and in the diaspora; share not merely a common history, but a common destiny"(Makalani, 2011)

The concerns of Afrofuturism 2.0 has no longer been restricted to the concerns of the Afrodiasporic community Instead, it is the concerns of the African community as a whole Basing on the belief that economic, social, and political progress are all attributable to the unity, the Pan-Africanism practitioners assigned themselves the mission of encouraging and strengthening solidarity between all indigenous and diasporic ethnic groups of sub-Saharan African descent Upon writing the book, the authors also aimed to establish the applicability of this ―new‖ Afrofuturism to the Africana Studies field as well as expand this phenomenon to include Astro-Blackness

Astro-Blackness is an Afrofuturistic concept in which a

person's black state of consciousness, released from the confining and crippling slave or colonial mentality, becomes aware of the multitude and varied possibilities and probabilities within the universe (Rollins, 2015) More precisely, Astro-Blackness represents the emergence of a black identity framework within emerging global technocultural assemblages, migration, human reproduction, algorithms, digital networks, software platforms, bio-technical augmentation and are constitutive of racialized identities that are increasingly materialized vis-à-vis contemporary technological advances or ―technogenesis, the idea that humans and technics have co-evolved together" (Hayles, 2012)

Through the introduction of the term Astro-Blackness, the authors suggested an alteration from ―the modern era or nation-state bound notion of blackness transitioning through a digitized era‖ to the ―post-digital perspectives as a global response‖ to the

21st-century challenges facing the black community

Prior to delivering their adaptations for how Afrofuturism should be defined, the authors expressed their criticism towards some pre-existed ideas of cultural critics The most representative example was Tegan Bristow‘s assertion that ―Afrofuturism has nothing to do with Africa, and everything to do with cyber-culture in the West" Baring on the widespread of Pan-Africanism, they considered the statement misplaced since

1) Africa and its diaspora are connected via cyber-culture and have exchanged ideas, art, polities and more recently remittances since the nineteenth century 2) The African diaspora has been institutionally designated the Sixth zone of the African Union and similar to early developments of Pan Africanism starting in the African Afrofuturism is now a Pan African project

3) His concern may reflect more of a Post-Cald War/ Post-Apartheid existential crisis of some White South Africans and some of their former "clients" living in the midst Of a predominantly Black African society than the "Africanity" of an emerging global Afrofuturism

From such assessment, the authors suggested a shift in the direction of Afrofuturism movement, declaring that contemporary 21st-century Afrofuturism, or Afrofuturism 2.0, was moving to more applied theoretical critical, and transdisciplinary approach regarding the future of African peoples as a whole rather than the African diasporic community only Based on the original definition, the new version of Afrofuturism thrived in the fields of metaphysics, speculative philosophy, religion, visual studies, performance, art, and philosophy of science or technology, all of which were described

as "2.0" Accordingly, in order to differentiate between the new and the original version, the term Afrofuturism 2.0 was coined

Primarily, Afrofuturism of the 20th century involved techno-culture, the digital divide, technology, music and literature in the West Meanwhile, Afrofuturism 2.0 is

10 the speculative sphere8

They characterized the Contemporary Afrofuturism by five dimensions,

namely metaphysics; aesthetics; theoretical and applied science; social sciences; and programmatic spaces.9

Upon reviewing Anderson and Jone‘s masterpiece, Thomas (2016) praised their work for two elements: (a) the historical and contemporary artists featured are already afrofuturist time travelers and (b) the language that frames the examination of their work is straightforward Author Tobias c van Veen mentioned in the fourth

chapter of this book, entitled The Armageddon Effect

“[for Africans as abducted aliens] there is no „normal‟ to return to.”

Consider that the impact of slavery and colonialism on people of color continues to have a global impact, as an educational resource on the subject of mapping the

imaginary black future, Afrofuturism 2.0 represented a considerable literary

9

Refer to Appendix 1 for further details of the dimensions

accomplishment On the journey seeking freedom for people of color in the future, the book may prove to be one such vessel – an exceedingly durable literary conveyance

After his presentation of how Afrofuturism of the 21st century should be perceived, Reynaldo Anderson founded BSAM L.L.C.10 to convey his ideas with a view to answering the question ―What is the responsibility of the Black artists in the 21st century?‖ The Black Speculative Art11

Movement (BSAM) emerged in the

introduction of the Unveiling Visions: Alchemy of The Black Imagination exhibition by

John Jennings and Reynaldo Anderson at the Schomburg library in New York, 2015 Propelled by new thoughts and creative energy, members of BSAM have been in creative dialogue with the boundary of space-time Instead of regarding BSAM as a unified school of thought, its founders would rather consider it a community of intellectuals and artists that centered on different examinations: Afrofuturism, Astro Blackness, Afro-Surrealism, Ethno Gothic, Black Digital Humanities, Black (Afro-future female or Afrocentrism) Science Fiction, The Black Fantastic, Magical Realism, and The Esoteric (Anderson, 2018) Even though some of them might sound, to a certain extent, incompatible, they crossed at the point of theoretical and design, and connected when it comes to technology and ethics

Throughout the first decades of the 21st century, despite some differences in the critics‘ perspectives of this phenomenon, compared to Dery‘s notion, the core components of the term are retained All aforementioned theoretical definitions center

on three aspects, namely the African identity (their cultural values, their experiences, and so on), the portray of advanced technologies and the desired future position of Africa, all of which are displayed through the fantastic lens of the science-fiction genre

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The case – Black Panther

1 How Black Panther brings Afrofuturism into the mainstream

The compelling reason for the chosen of Black Panther, rather than any other

artistic works coming around during the same era, to be the representative contributor

of the 21st century Afrofuturism is how the movie holds importance to the spreading

of Afrofuturism into the mainstream

How a typical action movie theming on superheroes managed to draw the public‘s curiosity and interest towards a cultural phenomenon previously known only

by the African-American society is attributable to its worldwide box-office success and movie-award achievements On February 16th of 2018, the highly expected Marvel

film Black Panther premiered in theatres across the globe and, within only four days, earned $427 million worldwide During its theatrical run, Black Panther proved its

worldwide attraction by breaking numerous box office records namely

1 the 9th-highest-grossing film of all time (earning over $1.35 billion worldwide)

2 the 3rd-highest-grossing film in North America (earning over $700 million)

3 the highest-grossing film by a black director

4 the highest-grossing film of 2018 in the U.S and Canada

5 the 2nd-highest-grossing film of 2018 worldwide

Besides, at the 91st Academy Awards, the film also brought home numerous awards (Best Costume Design, Best Original Score, and Best Production Design) and

nominations (seven nominations including the most desired one – Best Picture) Black Panther was the first superhero film ever to receive a Best Picture nomination, as well

as the first film in the MCU to win an Academy Award Among other valued awards,

Black Panther also received three nominations at the 76th Golden Globe Awards, two wins at the 25th Screen Actors Guild Awards, and twelve nominations at the 24thCritics‘ Choice Awards In the critics‘ review field, it was widely regarded as one of

Marvel Comics Universe (MCU) best picture by numerous critics and organizations including the National Board of Review and American Film Institute It goes without

saying that with such monumental achievement, from both the public and the critics,

the film received throughout its launching period, it became the prosperous source for investigations Hinging on the fact that moviegoers might felt overwhelmed and captivated by the portrait of a mighty African community, hence becoming extremely curious about everything presented about that community, top newspapers released uncountable articles analyzing the movie in different aspects, most of which were closely tied to its cultural features Afrofuturism has, since then, been an indispensable

name mentioned in almost every article investigating the cultural elements of Black Panther

In conclusion, public awareness of the phenomenon has risen sharply as a result

of the growing popularity of Black Panther

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Picture source: Google