Afrofuturism has become one of the most powerful words in culture, in music, film, fashion and comic books. But there is another word, African futurism, and the difference matters. Here is what both mean, where they come from, and how a Congolese comic book universe imagines the future from Kinshasa.
What is Afrofuturism?
The word Afrofuturism was coined by the writer Mark Dery in 1993, in an essay called Black to the Future. It describes art that imagines Black futures through science fiction, technology and myth. Its roots are older: the jazz musician Sun Ra, who said he came from Saturn, the novels of Octavia Butler, the funk spaceships of Parliament. Afrofuturism was born largely in the African diaspora, especially in America.
What is African futurism?
In 2019, the Nigerian American writer Nnedi Okorafor proposed the word Africanfuturism. She described a science fiction rooted first in African culture, history and points of view, centered on Africa itself rather than on the diaspora or the West. Not a rejection of Afrofuturism, but another center of gravity.
Why the difference matters
Afrofuturism often asks: what would the future look like for people whose past was stolen? African futurism asks: what does the future look like from Lagos, Nairobi or Kinshasa, in African languages, with African gods and African cities? Both questions are powerful, and both are needed.
Katiomics: a Congolese future
The ISOLELE Universe sits where the two meet. It is made in Kinshasa and Bukavu by Congolese artists, rooted in Kongo, Luba and Kush history: African futurism. And it speaks to the whole diaspora, from Harlem to Brazil to Paris: Afrofuturism. ISOLELE calls its genre Katiomics.
Its heroes show it. Mwindo Lumumba, the African Panther, carries the memory of Patrice Lumumba into the future. Ganga Zumba returns from 17th-century Brazil as Negus Captain Afrika, his skin of living Ethercobalt. Elikya, the Lost Boy of Sudan, is a cyborg rebuilt by Makanda scientists. And Makanda City, the hidden capital, joins flying ships to the memory of ancient Kongo.
The future remembers
Every work of Afrofuturism and African futurism shares one belief: the future is not something that happens to Africa. It is something Africa builds. In the ISOLELE Universe, the greatest technology of the Makanda was never a weapon. It was memory itself.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who created the word Afrofuturism?
The writer Mark Dery, in his 1993 essay Black to the Future.
What is the difference between Afrofuturism and African futurism?
Afrofuturism grew largely in the African diaspora. African futurism, a term proposed by Nnedi Okorafor in 2019, centers science fiction on Africa itself, its cultures and its point of view.
Are there Afrofuturist comic books from Africa?
Yes. The ISOLELE Universe, made in Kinshasa, creates Congolese comic books that blend African history, folklore and the future in the Katiomics genre.
Explore the ISOLELE books
