Escurecendo o futuro: interseccionalidade e afrofuturismo em Quem teme a morte, de Nnedi Okorafor

Abstract

In the afrofuturist movement, a recurring perspective is the recovery of the past while building the future. Since Europe’s colonial process over Africa contributed greatly to the erasure of what African peoples had built, projecting futures should also consider the recovery of the past. In the construction of these futures, in turn, it must be considered that the subjectivities of black, African, and Afro-diasporic people are composed of a series of identity categories that intersect. Therefore, the logic of intersectionality, which addresses precisely this, must be considered. This research, therefore, seeks to analyze the novel Who Fears Death, by Nnedi Okorafor, from the perspectives of Afrofuturism and intersectionality. In the narrative, racism and gender violence are relevant issues, so we seek to understand how the protagonist of the novel seeks to change her reality for the benefit of people like her, taking into account both the intersections of a complex intersectional identity, which sometimes makes her a victim of multiple forms of violence, and the perspective that the future can be shaped to the detriment of combating these forms of violence. We use as a theoretical basis Cheikh Anta Diop (1985), Elisa Larkin Nascimento (2008), José Rivair Macedo (2015), Oyèrónkẹ Oyěwùmí (2021) and John Henrik Clarke (2021), especially with regard to Africa, its history and cultural aspects, Kimberlé Crenshaw (2002), Angela Davis (2016), Carla Akotirene (2018), Patrícia Hill Colins and Sirma Bilge (2020), Lélia Gonzalez (2020), on the theory of intersectionality, Mark Dery (1994), Lu Ain-Zaila (2019), Waldson Gomes de Souza (2019), Fábio Kabral (2020) and Ytasha L. Womack (2024), on Afrofuturism, among other authors. It is clear that in the novel the fight against systems of oppression occurs together with the idea of projecting the future, so that the recognition and appreciation of intersectional aspects of identity are essential for this.