"Cyberpunk literature toyed with this - but, I feel, never very successfully. It's like in Gibson's work. In some sort of grand theoretical sense the protagonists were "from the street", but their interaction with the system was essential one of equals. That is, I believe, an attitude that is quite natural for white men to take - that the system, even if stupid and corrupt, nevertheless recognizes them as human and acknowledges their ability to challenge or destroy that system. It is my experience, so far, that in afro-futurist works that assumption is not there. The system often does not recognize the legitimacy of the humanity of the protagonists. I feel that even in science fiction where humans are regarded as backwards, and I am reminded of David Brin's Uplift novels, the author tries very hard to assure the readers of the inherent specialness of humans (generally, we are either stronger of will or more adaptable than the aliens - it's pretty predictable), and afro-futurism doesn't seem to deal much with aliens, but the evils that people do to each other. There is no confidence that the specialness of the protagonists will win out (and, indeed, in several of the stories that is not the case)." [Christopher Bradley]

Considering the concept of Afro Futurism and the way in which cultural history propels a pride and belief in a better tomorrow, Brothers writes,

Slavery stripped blacks of almost every possible form of identity. National, familial, religious, and tribal identity were completely wiped due to the slave trade. At that point, what history do you have left? Not much of one, right? What do you do when you don’t have a past?

You embrace the future.

I can’t speak to the specifics of Afro Futurism, but it’s a common trait amongst a lot of black thought. Boiled down, it’s all about being more than what you are, because what you aren’t isn’t that much at all. We aren’t slaves– we’re kings and queens. We came here on slave ships, but we’re gonna leave on space ships.

The essay draws links between Morrison's Seven Soldiers: Mister Miracle series, the music of Sun-Ra, the alternate personas of the Wu-Tang Clan and even references Kanye West to draw up a parallel history of science fiction that may not necessarily identify as such, but is ultimately as inventive and forward-thinking (if not moreso) than something like Meet Dave. It's well worth reading.

I Call My Brother Son 'Cause He Shine Like One [4thLetter]

io9 reader Garrison Dean was there, and here's how he summarizes Kanye's science fiction epic:

Basically his set of the night, by far the biggest part, was the story of him in his spaceship, crashlanding on a strange planet and trying to get off and get home. His only companion was his ship's onboard female computer Jayne, which sounded delightfully like the voice in Portal. She comforts him, tells him it will be ok and at one point offers her "services" to him during "Gold Digger" [becoming] two sexy golden painted ladies on his view screen. The set was nothing more than him on a minimal landscape with a moving video platform. Behind him was a massive screen that showed theme-centric videos of space, alien landscapes and fancy jeffries tube type thingies, and a smaller screen that had a computer interface that looked very much like the old Tron game cabinet (awesome). He never broke the central concept of the show, there were never any guests, he never showed clips from his videos (to my dismay, I was hoping he would show the Murakami Good Morning video) it was just him and his stage. The only mistep of the night seemed to be an naked anime female robot that flew down from the ceiling. It looked way cool yet hung there lifeless, it wasn't until later that I realized it was probably supposed to move when she talked as I had remembered that Henson Studios had built something for the show. Oh well, first night jitters I guess.

All in all, a very cool show and don't worry Kanye makes it back to earth after he is reminded by Jayne that he can guide his self through the darkness because he is the brightest star in the universe and he Glows in The Dark.

Obama's rhetoric calls to mind the tradition of Afrofuturism, in which writers, artists, and creators mingle traditional African culture with futuristic imagery and ideas. We've written about Afrofuturism at io9 before, in our interview with Junie from P-Funk. And Octavia Butler, whose book Kindred we recommended as one of twenty that could change your life, has written a series of books that deal with Afrofuturist themes (Wild Seed, Mind of My Mind, and Patternmaster).

io9 reader Dolly Hayde recently wrote in to ask us whether we could bring up the topic of Afro-Futurism on the blog. She's taking a class at the University of Arkansas on folk and pop music, and writes:

My project centers around African-American musicians who claim space traveler and/or extraterrestrial personas. This work has been primarily informed by music biographies, a whole lot of bizarre rap and jazz tracks, and anthropological texts on science fiction and racial identity. I'm also currently reading Kodwo Eshun's More Brilliant than the Sun: Adventures in Sonic Fiction and researching Afrofuturism online wherever I can find it . . . I'm curious as to what [io9] commenters have to say about this specific phenomenon within the greater context of science fiction and pop culture in general.

Image via Time.