Reimagining the African way of life
AFROFUTURISM is a phenomenon taking the world by storm. It is a movement in literature, music and art that features futuristic or science fiction themes, which incorporate elements of black history and culture.
Viwe Mfaku, a South African commercial and graphic design artist with over ten years of experience, has crafted and refined a truly unique aesthetic – a re-imagining of Africanism with a kind of cyber punk infusion.
He is doing AfroSciFi, which falls into the AfroFuturism genre, and his exhibition this weekend will showcase Afro Sci-fi as a vehicle to counter this corrupted interpretation of what it means to be Black in the 21st century.
His exhibition – AfroFuturism: Isintu Sci-Fi: Changing Western Ideologies through Art – challenges how Western ideals have influenced African traditions and opens a new dialogue of Africa in the digital future.
“The AfroFuturism movement started in America years ago with projects like Black Panther and the likes. What I’m working on is AfroSciFi which is the same genre but different because it’s from Africa outwards versus the latter. Africans telling the African science fiction story is very important because we know what symbolism to dial up and which to leave alone and respect,” Mfaku says.
Mfaku says AfroSciFi [in the context of Isintu] is an alternate reality where we re-imagine how we would have progressed without the disruption of colonisation. It stands for the potential to produce quality innovation without losing those vernacular principles in the way we think and live as Africans. AfroSciFi is an expansion of the African way of life to the rest of the world and universe.
Mfaku’s aim is to move away from the idea that the African form is only an incubator of labour, focusing instead on Afro futurism as a means of re-framing African identity.
The exhibition will show South Africans their diversity and ability to think not only horizontally, but vertically too, and that we are able to move anywhere around the world without losing “our flavour”.