Faculty Scholars in Residence Talk: Samuel Kolawole, Assistant Professor of English (Creative Writing) and Africana Studies

What does it mean to imagine Africa as a futuristic, technologically superior, and self-sufficient continent? Because of the cultural phenomenon that was Black Panther, together with the growing influence of Afrofuturist literature, there has been a growing tendency to imagine the continent through the lens of Wakanda, a powerful utopia untouched by colonial and imperial domination as a model for imagining African futures. What might this vision obscure? Can an imagined Africa escape the imperial logic if its prosperity depends on the forms of technological, military, and territorial power that resemble those of the empire it seeks to transcend?

In this lecture, Kolawole will draw a connection between the Wakandization of Africa and the political and intellectual tradition that took shape in the early twentieth century, imagining Africa as a unified single nation. Kolawole will explore how a continent comprising 54 countries with a population of 1:4 billion people, thousands of ethnic groups, and a landmass of 30 million square kilometers can function as a single nation. This conversation will take place within the framework of his new novel in progress, Blackland, set in a future where climate and technological collapse leave Africa as a refuge until two Caucasian refugees arrive on a fortified island and unleash a crisis that threatens the continent.