Afrofantasy and the Need for Black Escapism
Afrofantasy authors are offering Black people the chance to rest and recover from racial trauma.
Afrofantasy describes a sub-genre of speculative fiction in which the myth, lore, and magic that make up the world are based on, or inspired by, African cultures and the Black experience.
To be Black at this particular point in American history is to be equal parts exhausted, enraged, and afraid. The heightened degree of emotional labor it takes to interact with the world can easily overwhelm. As someone who reviews books by Black authors almost exclusively, the prevalence of Afrofantasy novels crossing my desk these days has been a welcome relief from the regular onslaught of dystopian news. It is among my greatest acts of self-care to relax with a good book for a few hours and immerse myself in a world entirely devoid of white people and Western colonialism.
In the process, I’ve realized how much of my previous thoughts about fantasy were tied to the Eurocentric cultural staples that comprise most of the genre. Mainstream conceptions of fantasy are almost exclusively the products of Eurocentrism, from the settings to the magic systems to the fantasy “races” that often rely on the same repetitive tropes that even non-readers can recognize. I used to think I…
