As the dawn of 2013 marks the beginning of another revolution of our planet around the sun, let us draw our attention beyond the sphere of everyday life – beyond individual concerns, national issues, and even global concerns – towards the cosmic scale of affairs. Take this moment to consider the place of humanity in [ Read More ]
The BBC World Service recently aired a short radio documentary titled ‘Is Science Fiction Coming to Africa?’ It was produced by Deborah Basckin for the Your World program, and was presented by South Africa’s Lauren Beukes, the 2011 Arthur C. Clarke award winner. In the program, Lauren interviews District 9 director Neill Blomkamp (South Africa), [ Read More ]
Read the full 3bute… I recently discovered this new 3bute adapted from a blog post by Chris Kirkley (on Sahel Sounds), in which he recounts a visit to an MP3 market on the streets of Nouakchott, Mauritania. Kirkley’s brief but vivid account perfectly illustrates the radical digitization of the urban African landscape over the past [ Read More ]
On Saturday 5th May, five authors from five continents will be reading science fiction stories on the Secondlife Virtual Reality platform, inside Kafe Kruemelkram in the Ataria region. I’m very excited to represent the African continent in this historic undertaking, which I hope will become a trend in the future. The Science Fiction Literature Mega [ Read More ]
Below is an adaptation of my short story ‘Virus,’ created by Bunmi Oloruntoba of 3bute.com, ‘a mashable anthology of African modernity.’ The result is an impressive piece of hyperfiction; a three-page comic strip layered with several links to relevant multimedia from around the web: You can view the full 3bute here… While you’re up there, [ Read More ]
Last year introduced me to great personal tragedy when my father passed away in March. Since then, I’ve had a lot of time to reflect on the surreal nature of his departure, and to deal with the mundane process of readjusting to life without him. In that time I’ve come to accept the fact that [ Read More ]
Welcome to Africa… In the year 2057, neuroscience has reverse-engineered the human brain to uncover the inner workings of the mind, and two-thirds of the world’s population are implanted with biocores; organic microcomputers that interface billions of people to the world-wide electronic Grid. On the 3rd of March, a retired police officer is called back [ Read More ]
Hello cyberpunks and -punkettes, here’s a new article of mine that’s just been published by cyberculture legend R. U. Sirius on his latest webzine; Acceler8or. This one is entitled ‘Developing Worlds: Beyond the Frontiers of Science Fiction‘, and here’s the opening paragraph: Imagine a young African boy staring wide-eyed at the grainy images of an [ Read More ]
That badass piece of artwork you are looking at is the cover for the first issue of Jungle Jim, a bi-monthly African pulp fiction magazine. They officially launched at The Book Lounge in Cape Town on Wednesday, 31st May. My short story ‘Virus’ will appear in Issue #4, which is due on July 15. Check [ Read More ]
Writing a novel is like watching a tree grow in real-time. It can be a genuinely wholesome and fulfilling experience, but it’s mostly a slow and agonizingly painful process, especially after you’ve come to love the little world you’ve created and can’t wait to share it with the big one. This month marks exactly two [ Read More ]
What does it really mean to say that we live in a fast-changing world? The meaning of this well-worn phrase seems to have narrowed greatly over time to focus mainly on economic development while glossing over the many social implications of technological progress. The world has only just begun to grasp the importance of this [ Read More ]
Greetings Fellow Sojourners, This is your elusive Captain speaking. Despite my notable absence from the helm of this spaceship, I’d like to assure you all that we are still directly on course for the boundaries of the contemporary imagination which have yet to be breached. At least, those of you following my Twitter account (@afrocyberpunk) [ Read More ]
A new year has arrived, and the world is on the brink of utter chaos. Heralded by bomb blasts in Nigeria, this new year sees the Ivory Coast caught in the grips of a post-election crisis with no end in sight, and a new nation due to born from the troubled womb of Sudan. The [ Read More ]
Hi all, I’ve been underground for some time thanks to inhumane levels of schoolwork, but I’m back to keep this blog grinding through Christmas. At the moment, I’m pleased to announce that I’ve been featured in the December edition of DUST, a free magazine based in Accra. An acronym for Discover Urban Style and Trend, [ Read More ]
In a freak streak of luck dating back to my radio appearance in September, I received an invitation from African Writing Magazine to submit an article as a guest blogger on their website. The article I wrote was originally titled ‘On the Future of African Science Fiction,’ but due to its similarity with the title [ Read More ]
The Ugly: Modern Day Slavery Nigeria’s National Agency for the Prohibition of Traffic in Persons (Naptip) said officials visited Mali this month to follow up “horrendous reports” from victims, aid workers and clergy in Mali. They said there were hundreds of brothels, each housing up to 200 girls, run by Nigerian “madams” who force them [ Read More ]
The radio show last night was brilliant. I read out my debut short story entitled ‘Virus!’ which is a heavily abridged version of the first chapter in my upcoming cyberpunk novel. The reading was broken up into three parts, but the host did a great job of bridging the parts with very incisive questions that [ Read More ]
I have quite unexpectedly been granted the privilege to appear as a guest on the Writers Project radio show, which airs this Sunday evening on Citi 97.3 FM, Ghana. The Writers Project of Ghana is an organization that promotes writing through workshops, public readings, and their radio show on Citi FM. I didn’t have any [ Read More ]
It all began in August 2009 with District 9, the acclaimed blockbuster by South African director Neill Blomkamp about an alien refugee camp. This was followed closely by Pumzi, a short film by Kenyan director Wanuri Kahiu about a post-apocalyptic East Africa. Now the largest movie industry in Africa has joined in on the action [ Read More ]
This will serve as the new home base for the AfroCyberPunk movement. We’re currently re-grouping at the moment, so please subscribe to our RSS feed and wait for next briefing to be dispatched.
Hello readers, I know I promised to have another article soon but I don’t and you can be sure that I hate myself for it. On the upside, I recently had an interesting interview with blogger and social connector Johnny Laird, who asked me questions about my upcoming novel and plans for the future. Here [ Read More ]
First of all, let me apologize for taking even longer than usual to update the blog. I’ve been consumed with the not inconsiderable task of writing a novel and haven’t had enough time to find inspiration for a new article. Not to worry, I’ll be getting on that as soon as this current wave of [ Read More ]
On Friday, 4th June, Dagbladet, Norway’s 3rd largest newspaper (according to Wikipedia) published an interview with me on my thoughts about Africa’s future for its bi-weekly technology column. The interview was conducted by Martin Bergesen and originally appeared in Norwegian. Below is a translated version of that article. *** Is Africa about to develop into the [ Read More ]
The most valuable natural resource to a society’s development is its ore of ideas. Much more than a brand of esoteric entertainment, science fiction has long been a source of prophetic knowledge that has influenced the destiny of humankind. From ‘1984’ (Orwell, 1949) to ‘Neuromancer’ (Gibson, 1984), the course of history has continually been altered [ Read More ]
For a while, it seemed that cyberpunk was dead. The Internet counterculture of the West went mainstream faster than anyone could have predicted and the grim forecast of the cyberpunk movement became a self-defeating prophecy. Many dark realities were prevented from coming to be. Far from the sinister age of corporate dominance many envisioned, the [ Read More ]
Welcome to Africa. You are not where you think you are. You are not on a safari, or an expedition, or a mission. Your footprint is not the first here, nor will it be the last. Africa is a tour with no guide and no schedule, a ride with no stops, no brakes, and no [ Read More ]
