Reading Death of the Author by Nigeria’s Nnedi Okorafor

Next, Monday June 16, 5:00 pm  

Africanfuturism is concerned with visions of the future, is interested in technology, leaves the earth, skews optimistic, is centered on and predominantly written by people of African descent (black people) and it is rooted first and foremost in Africa. It’s less concerned with “what could have been” and more concerned with “what is and can/will be”. It acknowledges, grapples with and carries “what has been.”   —NNedi Okorafor 

Dip into the growing realm of Africanfuturism reading NNedi Okorafor’s most recent novel, Death of the Author.  Her science fiction successful and highly popular today, Okorafor here provides both an introduction to Nigerian science fiction for those that need it and a reflection on its cultural meaning for those who have read Binti, others from Okorfor, or other Nigerian- or African-inspired visionary and speculative fiction today.

Death of the Author centers on a Nigerian woman setting out to write science fiction, perhaps like Okorafor herself years and many novels back. The novel explores Zelu’s dilemmas and doubts, her relationship with family and community, the world of publishing  in ways that may reflect Okorfor’s past. It also features a story within the story about intelligent robots in a futuristic African context.  The two stories blend together in unusual and unexpected ways, and fit well with concerns of politically conscious readers of fiction and science fiction today.

For more than three years, the MEP Science and Visionary Fiction reading group has explored topics of oppression and resistance, history and science, capitalist and post-capitalist future, human and nonhuman intelligence. We read with an overall commitment, To build a better future, we have to envision it first (adapted from Walidah Imarisha). Reading science, speculative and visionary fiction, discussing it together, and reading it politically, offers one tool for envisioning a future worth building.

All are welcome. Participants drop in, stay for a while or longer, and contribute to lively, present day-centered discussions. Everyone has something to contribute. Whether you read from this realm regularly or have hardly ever given it a second thought, consider spending some summer reading time with us now.

Convened by Steve Backman