History Main / Afrofuturism

** Firstly, when Wakanda debuted, its status as the most advanced African nation on Marvel's Earth was due to a combination of being spared the worst ravages of "the race for Africa" via sheer luck, and a generations-old systemic program of sending Wakandas to the more technologically advanced nations of the world to study science, medicine and other related fields before returning home and applying what they had learned for the betterment of their nation. Whilst still Earth's only known deposit of [[UnObtainium Vibranium]], it was more a trump card for Wakanda than anything, because it was only recently that their base technology had advanced to the point where it was possible to even begin manipulating a NighInvulnerable metal. It wasn't until later that Wakanda was retconned as having been generations ahead of the rest of humanity, technologically speaking, for centuries.

* ''Film/BlackPanther2018'' leans heavily into this trope, with the central conflict centered on how involved the technologically advanced African nation of Wakanda should become in the affairs of the world, more specifically the affairs of the Black Diaspora. The sequel ''Film/BlackPantherWakandaForever'' further builds on this by introducing another civilization (this time leaning to ModernMayincatecEmpire) with similar {{Unobtanium}} resources--posing questions regarding how postcolonial cultures can and should deal with the resource extraction of the Global North.

* Creator/ECComics ran a story called ''ComicBook/{{Judgment Day|ECComics}}'' in its ''Strange Fantasy'' comic in 1953, and later reprinted it in ''Incredible Science Fiction'' in '56, that could be seen as an early instance of this subgenre, despite being penned by a white writer, one Al Feldstein. In the story, a human representative from [[TheFederation The Galactic Republic]], named Tarlton, is assessing [[RobotRepublic a planet inhabited entirely by robots]] for possible Republic membership. He finds that the robots are [[ColorCodedCastes divided into blue and orange races]], with the blues [[FantasticRacism treated as second-class citizens]] and [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything required to use different battery-recharging stations]] despite being structurally identical. He concludes that the planet's civilization is not yet worthy of joining the Republic as long as their bigotry persists. Only in the final panel does the human character remove his space helmet, revealing that he is a black man. A bit lame and predictable today, perhaps, but in the mid '50s this was controversial stuff, and the use of a black protagonist caused serious trouble with UsefulNotes/TheComicsCode.

* Music/{{Clipping}}'s ConceptAlbum ''Splendor and Misery'', about a lone black slave that is the SoleSurvivor a rebellion in a slave (space) ship. The album was nominated UsefulNotes/HugoAward in 2017.

* ''Literature/ChildrenOfBloodAndBone'' takes place in a future/alternate universe (it's not specified which) Nigeria in which there is a BanOnMagic, and much of those who practice magic (or maji) were murdered a decade before the book begins. The maji who were not killed are viewed as second class citizens and oppresed by the government. Much of the book parallels modern-day racism, with maji looking different to non-maji (being darker skinned with MysticalWhiteHair). The author, Tomi Adeyemi, states that she was explicitly inspired by modern instances of PoliceBrutality and institutionalized racism.

* ''WesternAnimation/Iwaju'' is about a young Nigerian girl in a future version of Laos with {{Flying Car}}s and robots, but still with a sharp rich/poor divide.

* ''WesternAnimation/Iwaju'' is about a young Nigerian girl in a future version of Laos with FlyingCars and robots, but still with a sharp rich/poor divide.

* The ''TabletopGame/{{Trinity}}'' roleplaying game subverts this; Africa is a leading force in 22nd century Earth, though not without its problems. It helps that Africa managed to avoid the worst damage of the Aberrant War, and the more modern Europe and North America got hit hard.
* ''TabletopGame/TranshumanSpace'' has a lot of preppy PostCyberpunk, but one of the biggest themes is that the degree of penetration is horribly uneven and the full benefits of the Fifth Wave of technological advancement are only available to the richest parts of the world. Africa is (mostly) not one of the richest parts of the world, and it's straight {{cyberpunk}} if you're ''lucky''.
* While ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}'' is primarily focused on North America (especially Seattle), Africa receives no small amount of attention, with both the setting's worst WretchedHive and its most advanced space port (and SpaceElevator) being situated on the continent, along with several other places of note.

* TabletopGame/WagaduChronicles is a third party TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons setting based on ancient Africa, the creators wanted to intentionally subvert the MedievalEuropeanFantasy trope and raise awareness of African culture.

* TabletopGame/WagaduChronicles is a third party TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons setting based on ancient Africa, the creators wanted to intentionally subvert the MedievalEuropeanFantasy trope.

* Music/JanelleMonae uses futuristic and android imagery to discuss contemporary issues faced by the African-American community. [[Music/MetropolisTheChaseSuite Check]] [[Music/TheArchAndroid out]] [[Music/TheEletricLady her]] [[Music/DirtyComputer albums]].

* Music/JanelleMonae uses futuristic and android imagery to discuss contemporary issues faced by the African-American community.

[[caption-width-right:350:Those [[AppliedPhlebotinum vibranium]] blades look simple, but they can cut through tank armour. Not pictured: The remote-operated aircraft, modular smartphones and [[WeWillHavePerfectHealthInTheFuture universal healthcare]].]]

* Creator/JohnSayles' ''Film/TheBrotherFromAnotherPlanet'', about a mute black-passing [[HumanAliens Human Alien]] named [[Creator/JoeMorton "the Brother"]] wandering the black communities of New York City in TheEighties and running from [[TheMenInBlack the (white) Men in Black]].

* ''Literature/MumboJumbo'': AlternateHistory novel (with elements of UrbanFantasy) set in TheRoaringTwenties about a millennia-old AncientConspiracy devoted to suppressing black history and culture.

** ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'', "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS06E13FarBeyondTheStars Far Beyond The Stars]]": Sisko experiences a series of visions of himself as Benny Russell, a black sci-fi writer in TheFifties. Russell ends up inspired by Sisko's memories to write a short story called "Deep Space Nine" only to have it rejected by his publisher for featuring a black captain of a space ship. The editor finally agrees to print the story, only for the publisher to pulp that entire magazine issue because of Russell's story, and Russell is ultimately fired. As he experiences an epic breakdown Russell delivers the following speech:

* Africa is a resource-rich continent - the second largest continent after Asia in terms of population, a treasure trove of natural resources, and ''very'' long crop growing seasons on most of the continent - and a great many international observers feel that as Africa increasingly outgrows its post-colonial strife and resolves its issues of poverty and disease. Africa is probably the "Next Big Thing" in the global economy by the middle decades of the 21st Century. China's ever-increasing investments there[[note]] Admittedly done to increase Chinese political influence on the continent as for economic purposes; China is a vastly preferred investment source by Africans because A: It doesn't have the racist and imperialist legacy of the West in Africa, and B: It's rich.[[/note]] may either accelerate or hinder this process, only time will tell.

[[folder: Western Animation]]

[[folder: Real Life]]

* Creator/ECComics ran a story called "[[https://asylums.insanejournal.com/scans_daily/54803.html Judgment Day]]" in its ''Strange Fantasy'' comic in 1953, and later reprinted it in ''Incredible Science Fiction'' in '56, that could be seen as an early instance of this subgenre, despite being penned by a white writer, one Al Feldstein. In the story, a human representative from [[TheFederation The Galactic Republic]], named Tarlton, is assessing [[RobotRepublic a planet inhabited entirely by robots]] for possible Republic membership. He finds that the robots are [[ColorCodedCastes divided into blue and orange races]], with the blues [[FantasticRacism treated as second-class citizens]] and [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything required to use different battery-recharging stations]] despite being structurally identical. He concludes that the planet's civilization is not yet worthy of joining the Republic as long as their bigotry persists. Only in the final panel does the human character remove his space helmet, revealing that he is a black man. A bit lame and predictable today, perhaps, but in the mid '50s this was controversial stuff, and the use of a black protagonist caused serious trouble with UsefulNotes/TheComicsCode.

* Creator/ECComics ran a story called "[[https://asylums.insanejournal.com/scans_daily/54803.html Judgment Day]]" in its ''Strange Fantasy'' comic in 1953, and later reprinted it in ''Incredible Science Fiction'' in '56, that could be seen as an early instance of this subgenre, despite being penned by a white writer, one Al Feldstein. In the story, a human representative from [[TheFederation The Galactic Republic]], named Tarlton, is assessing a planet inhabited entirely by robots for possible Republic membership. He finds that the robots are [[ColorCodedCastes divided into blue and orange races]], with the blues [[FantasticRacism treated as second-class citizens]] and [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything required to use different battery-recharging stations]] despite being structurally identical. He concludes that the planet's civilization is not yet worthy of joining the Republic as long as their bigotry persists. Only in the final panel does the human character remove his space helmet, revealing that he is a black man. A bit lame and predictable today, perhaps, but in the mid '50s this was controversial stuff, and the use of a black protagonist caused serious trouble with UsefulNotes/TheComicsCode.

* ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'': New Mombasa, Kenya, is a high-tech city and spaceport. At least when ''VideoGame/{{Halo 2}}'' begins, before there's lots of StuffBlowingUp. The horrible nature of the place is brought up in audio logs found in ''VideoGame/Halo3ODST'', where we learn about a young girl trying to save her scientist father during the attack, dealing with panicking looters, people generally JustForFun/DyingLikeAnimals, and the chief of police being a DirtyCop and molester trying to make the worst of the situation.

* ''Literature/AlienInASmallTown.'' Set in the 24th century, only a brief section near the end of the book is set in UsefulNotes/{{Zimbabwe}}, but we learn that Earth's capital city is located there, and it seems to be a generally good place to live. Tendai grew up here, and he shows his wife Indira the country's [[AncientAfrica ancient stone cities,]] wildlife preserves, etc. Notably, there is a monument to all who died in the AIDS plague of our own time, and to those who died under "the vile 21st century tyrant Mugabe."

* The ''Pan-African Judges'' comics set in the ''ComicBook/JudgeDredd'' universe.

* ''Film/{{District 9}}'': A science fiction film set in South Africa that uses an alien species known as Prawns to explore themes of xenophobia, discrimination, and social segregation (such as apartheid and killings of albino Africans).
* ''Film/{{Blade}}'': A science-fiction-fantasy superhero movie based on the Marvel Comics character starring an African-American hero with some high tech weaponry, it also references Afro-American syncretic religions such as Santeria.

* Creator/ECComics ran a story called "[[https://asylums.insanejournal.com/scans_daily/54803.html Judgment Day]]" in its ''Strange Fantasy'' comic in 1953, and later reprinted it in ''Incredible Science Fiction'' in '56, that could be seen as an early instance of this subgenre, despite being penned by a white writer, one Al Feldstein. In the story, a human representative from [[TheFederation The Galactic Republic]], named Tarlton, is assessing a planet inhabited entirely by robots for possible Republic membership. He finds that the robots are divided into blue and orange races, with the blues [[FantasticRacism treated as second-class citizens]] and [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything required to use different battery-recharging stations]] despite being structurally identical. He concludes that the planet's civilization is not yet worthy of joining the Republic as long as their bigotry persists. Only in the final panel does the human character remove his space helmet, revealing that he is a black man. A bit lame and predictable today, perhaps, but in the mid '50s this was controversial stuff, and the use of a black protagonist caused serious trouble with UsefulNotes/TheComicsCode.

* In Jax's ending in ''VideoGame/MortalKombat11'', he uses Kronika's hourglass to reshape history into one where African people was never enslaved, which results in a GoodFuture with heavy African influences.]

* Your Mileage May Vary on the current plausibility of this trope... keyword "current". Africa is a resource-rich continent - the second largest continent after Asia in terms of population, a treasure trove of natural resources, and ''very'' long crop growing seasons on most of the continent - and a great many international observers feel that as Africa increasingly outgrows its post-colonial strife and resolves its issues of poverty and disease. Africa is probably the "Next Big Thing" in the global economy by the middle decades of the 21st Century. China's ever-increasing investments there[[note]] Admittedly done to increase Chinese political influence on the continent as for economic purposes; China is a vastly preferred investment source by Africans because A: It doesn't have the racist and imperialist legacy of the West in Africa, and B: It's rich.[[/note]] may either accelerate or hinder this process, only time will tell.
** Ironically, Africa's relative lack of development might [[CursedWithAwesome potentially be an advantage]]. Since in certain countries many infrastructure and technology taken for granted in developed countries is absent or lacking, they might eventually be built to modern standards if/when the economy picks up or foreigners invest in a certain country, whereas in more developed countries this infrastructure can be decades or even centuries old and upgraded in a patchwork nature.

'''Orange Robot:''' Good-bye, Tarlton.[[note]]Tarlton gave these parting words to the orange robot who guided him throughout the world of machines as he boarded his rocket to depart for home, but he could just as easily have said them directly to the reader.[[/note]]

* Creator/ECComics ran a story called "[[https://asylums.insanejournal.com/scans_daily/54803.html Judgement Day]]" in its ''Strange Fantasy'' comic in 1953, and later reprinted it in ''Incredible Science Fiction'' in '56, that could be seen as an early instance of this subgenre, despite being penned by a white writer, one Al Feldstein. In the story, a human representative from [[TheFederation The Galactic Republic]], named Tarlton, is assessing a planet inhabited entirely by robots for possible Republic membership. He finds that the robots are divided into blue and orange races, with the blues [[FantasticRacism treated as second-class citizens]] and [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything required to use different battery-recharging stations]] despite being structurally identical. He concludes that the planet's civilization is not yet worthy of joining the Republic as long as their bigotry persists. Only in the final panel does the human character remove his space helmet, revealing that he is a black man. A bit lame and predictable today, perhaps, but in the mid '50s this was controversial stuff, and the use of a black protagonist caused serious trouble with UsefulNotes/TheComicsCode.