Paper Example on Afrofuturism

Introduction

Afrofuturism can be termed as an artistic, appreciative, theory of history and science that looks into the development of the technological African/African culture. Afrofuturism combines the various compositions of archaeology and classical fiction, alongside illusion and magical reality with the intent of critiquing the dilemmas of the present black race and interrogating historical events. Its simplified definition can be said to be a reimagining of a tomorrow loaded with creativity, science, and technology as perceived by a black lens. Multiple themes and concerns of the African diaspora are commonly addressed in Afrofuturism through aspects such as techno-culture and science fiction while including the various spectrum of tools with a common concern in seeing the black tomorrows that hail from the adventures of the black race in the diaspora. In its history, certain advantages are associated, such as offering a source of black movements, explaining colonialism, motivating design decision making, explaining the black race, understanding history, and underlying phenomenon, and understanding music in their genres.

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Afrofuturism was first known to the people in 1993, and then extended its lines in the 1950s, making it well-known to the people in regards to music, art, and text. The main aim of creating the term Afrofuturism was to defend the fact regarding speculative fiction, which addresses African-American concerns in the recent techno-culture (Dery 180). In the speculative theory, certain concerns should be addressed that regard futurism. European futurism was known to consider both strong opinions and viewpoints of the Avant-Garde. However, futurism in the context of Italian and Russian accents considers the reconstruction of the future of the past. In this futurism, there is another round of history where one might look behind to see what tomorrows exist. However, many tend to find themselves liable of building the linearity of antiquity, and suggesting that it is evident to travel back in time at present.

Afrofuturism does offer a source of black movements while considering the cultural, political, and social factors at the present. Afrofuturism is different from standard science fiction in that it focuses majorly on ancient African traditions and the identity of the black race. In that case, a story that only features a black character cannot fully define Afrofuturism unless it is fully rooted in the uniqueness and innovation of the culture of the black race. One of the films that define Afrofuturism is the 'black panther.' This film fully covers the definition of Afrofuturism. In the film, Princess Shuri, who is a tech genius is not the only smart character fictionally but is tasked with the responsibilities of creating and maintaining sophisticated gadgets for he brother, the black panther. In Afrofuturism, many scholars have shown the dynamics of technology and race, which is encompassed in a lot of complex processes, that the black culture and identity are continually interpreted, even though the realignment technology of social controls.

Afrofuturism also tends to explain colonialism. The other alternative for afro future is that of the fictional East African home of Wakanda, which is a small nation, the size of New Jersey, which has never received colonialism. The home of Wakanda boasts of its rich and unique resource, the Vibranium. Ancient African traditions prevail the Wakanda since there has never been any intrusion related to the Wakanda culture and its people. Africans and African-Americans are perceived as autonomous Afrofuturists. The community of Afrofuturists can claim pieces of arts or notes from a song. There is also some concept of the intersection of science fiction and the African pride in Afrofuturism. For most of the people in the blind community, there is a taste for the film because of its love for science, technology, music, and visual art. Afrofuturism is now embraced by both Africans and those at the diaspora because of its artistic repurpose as grounded on the post-colonial African story through the integration of certain elements of a history, present culture, and the future aspirations of people of color, through a narrative, fantasy, and fiction to showcase the identity of Africa. Afrofuturism has various advantages due to its perception as being a language of rebellion.

More recently, Afrofuturism has been transformative in that it has motivated design decision making for a better inclusive and impactful design each time. This is important especially in the engagement of wearable technologies by the black African American women, who exhibit health disparities. A recent study by Profis noted that there is anecdotal evidence that suggests the skin pigmentation of participants that mainly affects the accuracy of wrist-based devices that use technological systems for heart-rate (34). The inaccuracy in the system leads to higher error rates, especially when extrapolating for expenditures concerning energy. Participants with darker skin are noted to have the largest errors in the measurement and this becomes a challenge especially now that there is a potential for wearable technology for the increase in physical activity level (Shcherbina et al). This hence mitigates health disparities experienced by the black women. These technologies, however, categorically lack physiology for the black body. Even though there should be similar energy requirements for individuals with similar body weight, there is sucking evidence that black African-American women do have lower energy requirements as compared to their white and Caucasian counterparts. Therefore, this results yields that the black race ought to burn more calories to achieve a weight loss that is close to that of their counterparts. Therefore, the implementation of wearable technologies is just as important for leading to behaviors that counter to the objectives. Therefore, the use of technology does not work especially for the black race. Further, the insights offered by the technologies to motivate physical activity for the people differ in great levels.

Another fact regarding Afrofuturism can be noted in Greg Tate's eulogy for Michael Jackson where he states that he has always yearned to believe that the artist has always believed that he has been an angry black race man on the planet (Tate 14). In that case, the wish could be paradoxical even in contrast to the music, which can be seen as political from the soul songs to hip-hop songs and the cultural reception of Michael Jackson. Marlo David also argues that Afrofuturism leaves a mainstream of black music lagging (696). On that note, the Afrofuturism code of techno and hip-hop is majorly male-composed or even heterosexual. Afrofuturism selects music that does not have a lot of vocals and ignores most of the artists (Zuberi 290). Expanding the exposure of the Afrofuturism through the extension of mainstream tune can improve it even though it is implicit in the initial disclosure. According to Devery, there is a perplexing light in the fact that there are many African Americans who are kids of those who have been abducted, in a manner that they inhabit a sci-fi fantasy where the dark but not impassionable energy fields of racism discourage many changes and it is then when technology is brought to bear on the black race (180). Therefore, this definition can be refined to a dangerous fantasy that sees African American issues and addresses the challenges raised by them in the techno-culture of the 20th century, especially the signification that there are images of technology and where the future is enhanced by the same culture.

The history of Afrofuturism is at stake since many scholars tend to inquire whether a community whose past has been made extinct can lead to an imagination of the possible futures without considering the fact that the destiny is just held by various technocrats, streamliners, set artists and futurologists who engineer the present fantasies. An employment state of the past, therefore, determines the counter-history of the future. In sonic fiction, there is some concept of science fiction where through technology, various elements are put to stake. The sonic fiction of records tends to show up the set of items which later come into effect as soon as one has melody without words. Music without words again tends to leave out crucial stuff, including the label, the cover, the cover image, that at the back, or even the headings. However, a certain dimension exists for science fiction in everyday life such that one can see that there is no materialization of the imagining futures. The knowledge of techno-culture as it relates to the race of the people also subverts previous understandings of technology and the roles that they play in history. The concept of Afrofuturism cannot be considered as a neutral one, but that which is ambivalent, at least relative to age and antiquity. It is for this purpose that there are highlights of the science fiction form, where there are certain variants of history that tend to co-subsist. Therefore, it cannot just be noted that there are one past, a present, and a future. However, history can be seen as a constant retrieval of the happenings of the past and tomorrows as observed from an expansive today, hence the impossibility of grasping the present. History, therefore, is meant for the connection of many facts. However, the challenge with this is the way that the facts speak. These facts tend to be neutral as compared to those created by Afrofuturism. However, they do not make up a history. The facts are framed in the manner of historicizing since they are constructed into other stuff, where they can be created into a film and follow the various patterns embraced by various history. In Afrofuturism, there are cultural logics that make some futures real whereas others obsolete. This can be perceived in different logical dimensions. In regards to music, some music may develop into different forms regardless of genres or musical dimensions in certain historical communities.

Afrofuturism is also significant in that it can be understood in an emergent phenomenon. The canon structure of Afrofuturism is majorly a reported history of musical extensions where one would suggest that after is not just a right term since numerous of the acts start writing. Within the contexts of reggae, funk, jazz, and other musical dimensions, people can construct systems of their personal futuristic localities that tend to show the isolation of the black race.

Afrofuturism is advantageous also in a way that it leads to a discussion of music in a number of genres. In its broader contextualization, Afrofuturism focuses on how the discursive area for genres keeps on expanding. Even though interpreted in multiple ways, there is a transcontinental extent that many scholars have laid their emphasis on. Even further, afro-diaspora texts can be interpreted and differentiated from histography. This difference can be seen through the emergence of a techno-specific realignment of the globe, which has reshaped the lives of the minorities. However, this discussion can be perceived as a challenge to the establishment of a canon since there is no practical criterion or the manner in which various music compositions are compared and agreed upon. As soon as canon formation includes music lines from a given directory of the most significant or useful works, then there should be measures to compare the needed. However, the Afrofuturist canon has already been established as associated with disclosure on experiments in music. In this, historical developments are pushed forward to establish new music. Even though there is less dimension that exists where there are later impacts of vocal acts that form prehistory of the present, musicians tend to look back i...