What would the world look like if European colonialism, Western Enlightenment rational ideas, a Western universalism that is not inclusive of that which is not Western – if all of this were not the dominant culture? What would an Afrocentric view of humanity and of Africa and the people of the African diaspora look like, rather than a view from the Eurocentric gaze?
Afrofuturism can be seen as a reaction to the dominance of white, European expression, and a reaction to the use of science and technology to justify racism and white or Western dominance and normativity.
Art is used to imagine counter-futures free of Western, European dominance, but also as a tool to implicitly critique the status quo.
Amiri Baraka, May 1970 | Eddie Hausner/The New York Times
Dark Matter is an anthology series of science fiction, fantasy, and horror stories and essays produced by people of African descent. The editor of the series is Sheree Thomas. The first book in the series, Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora (2000), won the 2001 World Fantasy Award for Best Anthology. The second book in the Dark Matter series, Dark Matter: Reading the Bones (2004), won the World Fantasy Award for Best Anthology in 2005. A forthcoming third book in the series is tentatively named Dark Matter: Africa Rising. (Wikipedia).
