It is often pointed out that the Africanity in Afrofuturism takes no account of the invention or the production of African futures – Afrofuturisms, formulated during the 1990s, are elaborated as Afrodiasporic projects by practitioners in the UK, US and the Caribbean. The constraints of Afrofuturism, then and now, therefore oblige continental practitioners to either adapt the term to take account of the specificity of African futures or to invent a new concept capable of grasping the range of contemporary practices across the continent that seek to invent the future.

About Kodwo Eshun

Kodwo Eshun was born in London where he lives and works. He studied English Literature at University College, Oxford University. His published work includes critical analysis, catalogue essays and magazine articles. His art projects include film and video compositions that coalesce around the notions of the audiovisual archive and archaeologies of futurity. He regularly presents papers at international conferences and symposia and has chaired discussions, moderated dialogues and debates. Eshun is author of the acclaimed More Brilliant than the Sun: Adventures in Sonic Fiction (1998) and is co-founder of the artists’ collective Otolith Group, who curated the first Retrospective on the Black Audio Film Collective in 2007. Eshun is a regular contributor to Frieze Magazine, The Wire, Sight and Sound and Groove. Eshun is Course Leader of the MA in Aural and Visual Cultures at Goldsmiths College, University of London.