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23 works

Afrofuturism

Kusadikika
1951
Shaaban Robert

A satirical utopian fable set in the imaginary kingdom of Kusadikika, where a council debates whether to allow citizens to study abroad, a prescient allegory about colonialism, education, and African self-determination.

East AfricaFiction
Sundiata: An Epic of Old Mali
1960
D.T. Niane (compiler/translator)

The epic of Sundiata Keita, founder of the Mali Empire, as told by the griot Djeli Mamoudou Kouyaté to D.T. Niane in the 1950s. Sundiata overcomes physical disability, exile, and enemies to unite the Mandinka people.

West AfricaFolklore
Babel-17
1966
Samuel R. Delany

Novel about poet who must decode alien language that may be weapon, exploring how language shapes thought.

DiasporaScience Fiction
Nova
1968
Samuel R. Delany

Space opera about quest for rare element in dying star, exploring mythology and economics.

DiasporaScience Fiction
Season of Anomy
1973
Wole Soyinka

A dark allegorical novel set against the backdrop of the Nigerian Civil War, following Ofeyi's attempt to protect a utopian farming commune from violent forces. Soyinka's most politically explicit novel.

West AfricaFiction
Dhalgren
1975
Samuel R. Delany

Massive experimental novel set in mysterious American city cut off from world.

DiasporaScience Fiction
Kindred
1979
Octavia Butler

Modern Black woman is transported to antebellum Maryland, confronting slavery firsthand.

DiasporaScience Fiction
Dawn
1987
Octavia Butler

First of Xenogenesis trilogy; Lilith awakens on alien ship after nuclear war to breed human-alien hybrids.

DiasporaScience Fiction
Parable of the Sower
1993
Octavia Butler

In 2020s dystopian California, Lauren Olamina develops new religion Earthseed amid societal collapse.

DiasporaScience Fiction
The Memory Police
1994
Yoko Ogawa

Included as a comparison text — on an island, objects disappear and the memory of them fades. A profound meditation on forgetting, colonization, and cultural erasure relevant to African memory studies.

DiasporaScience Fiction
Bloodchild and Other Stories
1995
Octavia Butler

Short story collection including Hugo and Nebula-winning title story about humans in alien symbiosis.

DiasporaScience Fiction
Parable of the Talents
1998
Octavia Butler

Lauren Olamina continues building Earthseed as a theocratic American government called 'Christian America' rises to power under a president who promises to 'Make America Great Again.' A deeply disturbing sequel.

DiasporaScience Fiction
Hopkinson's Midnight Robber
2000
Nalo Hopkinson

Tan-Tan escapes her abusive father to a parallel world, where she becomes the mythic outlaw figure the Midnight Robber, drawn from Caribbean Carnival tradition. Written in Afro-Caribbean creole.

CaribbeanScience Fiction
Who Fears Death
2010
Nnedi Okorafor

Post-apocalyptic fantasy set in future Sudan where Onyesonwu, a child of rape, must use her magical powers to end genocide and rewrite her world's Great Book.

West AfricaScience Fiction/Fantasy
Akata Witch
2011
Nnedi Okorafor

Sunny, an albino Nigerian-American girl living in Nigeria, discovers she is a 'free agent' with magical abilities — and must join a secret group of Leopard People to fight a serial killer.

West AfricaScience Fiction
Lagoon
2014
Nnedi Okorafor

Aliens make first contact not in Washington D.C. but in Lagos. A marine biologist, a soldier, and a hip-hop star are the first to encounter them. Lagos — its chaos, its life force — is the real protagonist.

West AfricaScience Fiction
Binti
2015
Nnedi Okorafor

A young Himba woman leaves Earth to attend an intergalactic university, becoming key to ending an ancient war between humans and the jellyfish-like Meduse.

West AfricaScience Fiction
The Fifth Season
2015
N.K. Jemisin

First book of Broken Earth trilogy set on supercontinent plagued by catastrophic seismic events.

DiasporaScience Fiction
The Obelisk Gate
2016
N.K. Jemisin

Second book of Broken Earth trilogy continuing Essun's search for daughter amid apocalypse.

DiasporaScience Fiction
Rosewater
2016
Tade Thompson

In 2066, a Nigerian town has grown up around a mysterious alien biodome. Kaaro, who has psychic abilities from the alien incursion, works for a secret government agency. Part biopunk, part spy thriller, entirely Nigerian.

West AfricaScience Fiction
The Stone Sky
2017
N.K. Jemisin

Conclusion of Broken Earth trilogy as Essun must choose between saving or destroying the world.

DiasporaScience Fiction
An Unkindness of Ghosts
2017
Rivers Solomon

Generation ship novel where Black passengers live in lower decks under plantation-like conditions.

DiasporaScience Fiction
The Rosewater Insurrection
2019
Tade Thompson

Second in the Wormwood Trilogy, expanding the alien biodome world as Rosewater declares independence from Nigeria. An increasingly complex examination of consciousness, identity, and alien intervention.

West AfricaScience Fiction