Utopias, Possible Worlds, Imaginary Histories
(De)colonizing Africa in Speculative Fiction
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.12797/RM.02.2025.18.02Keywords:
speculative fiction, decolonial ecology, migration, transformation, AfrofuturismAbstract
This article explores the concept of “imaginary history” within speculative fiction narratives, particularly those addressing migration, colonization, and decolonization. These narratives are not merely artistic projections, but function as metaphors for contemporary real-world processes. Drawing on Malcolm Ferdinand’s Decolonial Ecology, the study uses the philosophical perspectives of Martin Heidegger and Hannah Arendt to frame these fictional histories, offering reinterpretation from an African cultural standpoint. The paper delves into the themes of “dwelling”, “terrestrial nature”, and “colonial inhabitation” to examine the speculative portrayal of potential futures where human and post-human life embarks on cosmic migrations, transforms extraterrestrial environments, and constructs artificial habitats. The paper critically assesses the sustainability of human and non-human life in shifting environments, both natural and artificial, offering a speculative framework for understanding these narratives. It analyzes Cristina de Middel’s photobook The Afronauts, which envisions an African space program from the 1960s; the exhibition O Futuro na Lista de Espera, which showcases both dystopian and hopeful visions of the future; Anthony Joseph’s African Origins of UFOs; and the works of Polish speculative fiction writer Jacek Dukaj. Through these lenses, the article investigates how migration, survival, and environmental transformation intersect in speculative fiction, proposing a critical perspective on the survival of life in continually evolving landscapes.
References
Arendt, H. (1998). The Human Condition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Binczycka-Gacek, E. (2021). Latające Statki i Podwodne Plemiona – Afrofuturystyczne Konteksty Mitu Flying Africans (Spaceships and Underwater Tribes – Afrofuturistic Contexts of the Flying Africans Myth). Przegląd Kulturoznawczy – Cultural Studies Review, 3(49), 511–524. https://doi.org/10.4467/20843860PK.21.035.14355
Binczycka-Gacek, E. (2023). The Myth of the White Man: Deconstructing Colonial Narratives of Power. Transformacje – Transformations, 4(119), 121–134. Retrieved from http://e-transformations.com/jeden_artykul_en.php?post-slug=archiwum_transformacje/2023/12/20231229132438925.pdf
Brzostek, D. (2021). Constructing African Future: Africa and African People in Polish Science Fiction of the Socialist Era. Arts & Cultural Studies Review, 3(49), 479–495. https://doi.org/10.4467/20843860PK.21.033.14353
Buck-Morss, S. (2009). Hegel, Haiti, and Universal History. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press.
De Cesari, Ch., Wayne, M., & Pagliuca Pelacani, M. (2025). Decolonizing the Museum. Art, Activism, and the Question of Race in Curation. London: Routledge.
Conrad, J. (2008). Heart of Darkness. Aukckland, New Zealand: The Floating Press.
Dixon, C. A. (2012). Decolonising the museum: Cité Nationale de l’Histoire de l’Immigration. Race & Class, 53(4), 78–86. https://doi.org/10.1177/0306396811433115
Dukaj, J. (2010). Serce Mroku [Heart of Darkness]. In Król Bólu [King of Pain] (pp. 506–544). Kraków: Wydawnictwo Literackie.
Dukaj, J. (2013). Inne pieśni [Other Songs]. Kraków: Wydawnictwo Literackie.
Dukaj, J. (2021). Perfekcyjna niedoskonałość [Perfect Imperfection]. Kraków: Wydawnictwo Literackie.
Elia, A. (2017). Formal Experimentation and Time Travel as a Reconceptualization Strategy in Anthony Joseph’s The African Origins of UFOs. Iperstoria - Testi Letterature Linguaggi, 10, 139–145. https://doi.org/10.13136/2281-4582/2017.i10.521
Eyssette, J. (2021). The Renovation of Paradoxes: Decolonising the Africa Museum without Restituting DR Congo’s Cultural Heritage. Journal of Contemporary African Studies, 40(2), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/02589001.2021.1947476
Ferdinand, M. (2022). Decolonial Ecology: Thinking from the Caribbean World (Trans. A. P. Smith). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Heidegger, M. (1993). Building Dwelling Thinking. In D. F. Krell (Ed.), Basic Writings from “Being and Time” (1927) to “The Task of Thinking” (1964) (Trans. A. Hofstadter, revised and expanded edition, pp. 343–356). San Francisco: Harper San Francisco.
Heidegger, M. (2010). Country Path Conversations (Trans. B. W. Davis). Indiana: Indiana University Press.
Jules-Rosette, B. & Osborn, J. R. (2020). African Art Reframed. Reflections and Dialogues on Museum Culture. Illinois: University of Illinois Press.
Kurland, A. (2017, November 16). Cristina de Middel. The Afronauts / Muchismo. Huck, Retrieved from https://www.huckmag.com/article/cristina-de-middel-photographer-post-truth-era
Nzombo, M., & Grotz, M. (2023). O Futuro na Lista de Espera [The Future on the Waiting List]. Internacional de Exposições do Museu Nacional de História Natural, no SIEXPO. Retrieved from https://forbesafricalusofona.com/colectivo-weitinglist-expoe-o-futuro-na-lista-de-espera-no-siexpo/
Ostrowski, W. (1960). Imaginary History. Issues of Literary Genres, 3(2), 27–38. Retrieved from https://dspace.uni.lodz.pl/bitstream/handle/11089/41606/ZRL_5_Witold%20Ostrowski%2028-43_compressed.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
Ramey, L. (2009). Anthony Joseph. In Dictionary of Literary Biography: Twenty-First Century “Black” British Writers (Ed. R. V. Arana, vol. 347, pp. 152–160). Michigan: Gale Cengage.
Ramey, L. (2016). From Eire to Iërè: Mythology and Science Fiction Metaphors in W.B. Yeats and Anthony Joseph. The Yeats Journal of Korea, 50, 157–174. http://dx.doi.org/10.14354/yjk.2016.50.157
Sun Ra. (2005). The Immeasurable Equation: The Collected Poetry and Prose (Eds J. L. Wolf, & H. Geerken). Wartaweil: Waitawhile.
Szwed, J. F. (1998). Space Is the Place: The Lives and Times of Sun Ra. Boston: Da Capo Press.
Temple, Ch. N. (2010). The Emergence of Sankofa Practice in the United States: A Modern History. Journal of Black Studies, 41(1), 127–150. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25704098
Tolia-Kelly, D. P., & Raymond, R. (2019). Decolonising Museum Cultures: An Artist and a Geographer in Collaboration. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 45(1), p. 2–17. https://doi.org/10.1111/tran.12339
de Witte, M., & Meyer, B. (2012). African Heritage Design. Civilisations, 61(1), 43–64. https://doi.org/10.4000/civilisations.3132
Womack, Y. L. (2013). Afrofuturism: The World of Black Sci-Fi and Fantasy Culture. Chicago: Lawrence Hill Books.
Youngquist, P. (2016). A Pure Solar World: Sun Ra and the Birth of Afrofuturism. Texas: University of Texas Press.
Zambia: Tomorrow the Moon. (1964, October 30). Time. Retrieved from https://time.com/archive/6814036/zambia-tomorrow-the-moon/
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
