Afrofuturism and World Order

<div>In <i>Afrofuturism and World Order</i> Reynaldo Anderson delves into the evolution of Black speculative thought and Afrofuturism from the early twentieth century to the present day. By locating Afrofuturism within an African geography of reason he situates the past present and future of people of African descent at the intersection of speculative philosophy science fiction futurology artificial intelligence climate change and geopolitics. Historically Afrofuturism theorized futures for Black Americans through merging their lived experiences with science fiction technology music and art. Drawing from adaptations in Black culture and speculative thought during the Cold War Anderson addresses the shifting focus of the genre from American to transnational as well as the implications of modern existential threats such as the COVID-19 pandemic. By tracing the Black speculative tradition from its overlaps with Africana esotericism and certain African diaspora regions to its intersections with astroculture and modernism to the works of Malcolm X Amiri Baraka W. E. B. Du Bois and Octavia Butler to the aesthetic politics of the Black Speculative Arts movement and beyond Anderson illuminates how Afrofuturism participates in an increasingly multipolar world.</div>