Cultural Specificity in Africanfuturism: Resisting Generalization in Tomi Adeyemi’s Children of Blood and Bone

• In Event: Futures Real and Imagined

Description for Program

In this article, I argue that Adeyemi resists the undifferentiated representation of Africa, such as that found in Black Panther (2018), by grounding Children of Blood and Bone (2018) in Nigerian—specifically Yoruba—culture. Adeyemi’s work challenges the notion of Africa as a monolithic entity, instead emphasizing the need for cultural specificity when engaging with African contexts in speculative fiction. By rooting her narrative in Nigerian folklore, geography, food, and language, Adeyemi’s Children of Blood and Bone offers a powerful example of Africanfuturism, which contrasts with Coogler’s Afrofuturist vision of a pan-African Wakanda in Black Panther.
Adeyemi’s work is a vital contribution to the conversation on how Black American writers engage with African cultures. Adeyemi’s careful attention to Yoruba traditions, geography, and language offers a framework for engaging with Africa that honors its complexity and diversity, much like rivers that sustain and challenge life along their banks. Her work invites Black writers to resist generalization and instead delve deeply into the unique ecologies and lived realities of African cultures. By doing so, Adeyemi shows how cultural specificity not only enriches speculative fiction but also respects the legacies of African peoples, avoiding appropriation and the flattening of diverse African cultures into a single narrative.

Author

• Rebecca Amonor, Washington University in St. Louis