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The Mundane Afrofuturist Manifesto •
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http://martinesyms.com/the-mundane-afrofuturist-manifesto/ •
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Martine Syms •
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2013 •
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The undersigned, being alternately pissed off and bored, need a means of speculation and
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asserting a different set of values with which to re-imagine the future. In looking for a new
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framework for black diasporic artistic production, we are temporarily united in the following
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actions.
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The Mundane Afrofuturists recognize that:
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We did not originate in the cosmos.
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The connection between Middle Passage and space travel is tenuous at best.
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Out of five hundred thirty-four space travelers, fourteen have been black. An all-black crew
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is unlikely.
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Magic interstellar travel and/or the wondrous communication grid can lead to an illusion of
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outer space and cyberspace as egalitarian.
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This dream of utopia can encourage us to forget that outer space will not save us from
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injustice and that cyberspace was prefigured upon a “master/slave” relationship.
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While we are often Othered, we are not aliens.
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Though our ancestors were mutilated, we are not mutants.
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Post-black is a misnomer.
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Post-colonialism is too.
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The most likely future is one in which we only have ourselves and this planet.
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The Mundane Afrofuturists rejoice in:
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Piling up unexamined and hackneyed tropes, and setting them alight.
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Gazing upon their bonfire of the Stupidities, which includes, but is not exclusively limited to:
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Jive-talking aliens;
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Jive-talking mutants;
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Magical negroes;
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Enormous self-control in light of great suffering;
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Great suffering as our natural state of existence;
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Inexplicable skill in the martial arts;
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Reference to Wu Tang; •
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Reference to Sun Ra; •
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Reference to Parliament Funkadelic and/or George Clinton; •
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Reference to Janelle Monáe; •
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Obvious, heavy-handed allusions to double-consciousness; •
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Desexualized protagonists; •
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White slavery; •
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Egyptian mythology and iconography; •
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The inner city; •
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Metallic colors; •
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Sassiness; •
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Platform shoes; •
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Continue at will… •
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We also recognize:
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The harmless fun that these and all the other Stupidities have brought to millions of people.
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The harmless fun that burning the Stupidities will bring to millions of people.
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The imaginative challenge that awaits any Mundane Afrofuturist author who accepts that
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this is it: Earth is all we have. What will we do with it?
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The chastening but hopefully enlivening effect of imagining a world without fantasy boltholes: no portals to the Egyptian kingdoms, no deep dives to Drexciya, no flying Africans to
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whisk us off to the Promised Land.
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The possibilities of a new focus on black humanity: our science, technology, culture,
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politics, religions, individuality, needs, dreams, hopes, and failings.
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The surge of bedazzlement and wonder that awaits us as we contemplate our own
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cosmology of blackness and our possible futures.
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The relief of recognizing our authority. We will root our narratives in a critique of normative,
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white validation. Since “fact” and “science” have been used throughout history to serve
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white supremacy, we will focus on an emotionally true, vernacular reality.
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The understanding that our “twoness” is inherently contemporary, even futuristic. DuBois
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asks how it feels to be a problem. Ol’ Dirty Bastard says “If I got a problem, a problem’s got
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a problem ’til it’s gone.” •
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An awakening sense of the awesome power of the black imagination: to protect, to create,
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to destroy, to propel ourselves towards what poet Elizabeth Alexander describes as “a
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metaphysical space beyond the black public everyday toward power and wild imagination.” •
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The opportunity to make sense of the nonsense that regularly—and sometimes violently—
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accents black life.
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The electric feeling that Mundane Afrofuturism is the ultimate laboratory for worldbuilding
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outside of imperialist, capitalist, white patriarchy.
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The sense that the rituals and inconsistencies of daily life are compelling, dynamic, and
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utterly strange.
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Mundane Afrofuturism opens a number of themes and flavors to intertextuality, double
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entendre, politics, incongruity, polyphony, and collective first-person—techniques that we
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have used for years to make meaning.
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The Mundane Afrofuturists promise:
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To produce a collection of Mundane Afrofuturist literature that follows these rules:
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No interstellar travel—travel is limited to within the solar system and is difficult, time
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consuming, and expensive.
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No inexplicable end to racism—dismantling white supremacy would be complex, violent,
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and have global impact.
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No aliens unless the connection is distant, difficult, tenuous, and expensive—and they have
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no interstellar travel either.
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No internment camps for blacks, aliens, or black aliens.
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No Martians, Venusians, etc.
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No forgetting about political, racial, social, economic, and geographic struggles.
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No alternative universes.
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No revisionist history.
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No magic or supernatural elements.
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No Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, or Bucks.
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No time travel or teleportation.
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No Mammies, Jezebels, or Sapphires.
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Not to let Mundane Afrofuturism cramp their style, as if it could.
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To burn this manifesto as soon as it gets boring.
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— Martine Syms & whomever will join me in the future of black imagination.
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