Living the Alien: Afrofuturism

In much the same way, people can use these narratives to understand themselves, particularly in opposition to a dominant culture in which they are not openly acknowledged. An example of this is the cultural movement of afrofuturism, exisiting primarily at the website afrofuturism.net and its corresponding Yahoo listserv, established by Alondra Nelson in 1998 (Nelson, 2002: 9). Although the community is relatively young, it points to a long list of predecessors, including many novels, films and music albums which somehow relates to black Afro-American experience expressed in terms of “sci-fi imagery, futurist themes, and technological innovation” (Nelson, 2002: 9), including older material by Ralph Ellison and Ishmael Reed among others.

As can be imagined, afrofuturism is an attempt to articulate a certain blackness within a space - fantastic literature - which has long been seen as colonized exclusively by white people. As Paul Miller (aka DJ Spooky that Subliminal Kid) sees it, afrofuturism is a way of “living through the past as a kind of reflection site for future permutations in african identity–in the present” (Miller, “living through the past…”). In other words, past, present and future are understood as ways of understanding each other and the point for the afrofuturists is that black have been excluded from discussions of the future, developing technology and what Anna Everett refers to as the digital public sphere (Everett, 2002). Finding a cultural space which is oriented toward the future is thus the primary motivation for afrofuturism, and one good example of this is Sun Ra’s film Space is the Place (1974).

When released on DVD in 2003, the tagline describes it as “the 1974 science fiction blaxploitation free jazz epic”. Clearly, we are in hybrid country again, this time blending across media between film and music. Similar to Ziggy Stardust, the character of Sun Ra is obviously a construct but a construct which unlike Bowie’s does not change. Sun Ra has always been Sun Ra as an artist and is not adopting a particular identity for the film. Rather, Sun Ra has been the pseudonym of Herman Poole Blount (Szwed, 1997: 4) since 1961 when he relocated to New York (Szwed, 1997: 183), but even prior to that he had begun using Sonny Blount as a stagename (25), clearly unhappy with his given name and the identity which followed.

The image of Sun Ra, first used only on stage but later as part of his persona, was one that invoked ancient Egypt, just as his name Ra is the name of the Egyptian sun god, so his name is actually Sun Sun. He and his musicians wore costumes on stage, all inspired by Egyptian mythology and this mythology is also heavily present in the film. Briefly, the film’s plot is straightforward even if much of it seems at first incoherent. Sun Ra has found a planet suitable for the black race, travelling in his spaceship fuelled by music. Returning to Earth, he once more battles his old nemesis the Overseer for the fate Earth and the black people. Their battle is represented by Ra and the Overseer drawing Tarot-like cards each of which represents a challenge which Ra must overcome; these challenges are always in the form of whether or not he can persuade the black community to believe in the possibility of altering their destiny. At times he succeeds, and at other times the Overseer foils him. In the end, Ra is persuaded that Earth is doomed and decides to leave with the blacks that believe in him, including a number of people where he only brings their “black parts”, leaving the rest/white parts behind. Having left Earth it explodes, presumably because of Sun Ra.

That the film is fuelled by a racial discourse is obvious, what is more interesting is to examine how this discourse works. It is the status of the black people and the black community which is my primary interest here, as it is clearly also Ra’s. His view of blacks and their place in society is made quite clear when he first arrives back at Earth and meets a group of young blacks. Appearing out of nowhere, Ra explains his presence and answers the question whether he is for real or not in this way:

I’m not real, I’m just like you. You don’t exist in this society. If you did you your people wouldn’t be seeking equal rights. You’re not real, if you were you’d have some status among the nations of the world. So we are both myths. I do not come to you as a reality, I come to you as the myth because that is what black people are: myths. I came from a dream that the black man dreamed long ago. I’m actually a presence sent to you by your ancestors. I’m going to be here until I pick out some of you to take back with me.

Back means going back to the other planet Ra has found, where the black people can live free and be real. While not every black person is going to be chosen, those that are do not have much choice of whether they want to come or not. As Ra puts it, if they refuse “then I’m going to have to do you like they did you in Africa, chain you up and take you with me”. Obviously there is an element of force here, but it is also clear that Ra feels that he is doing the best he can for the black people; he is their saviour and this exodus must happen.

A similar spirituality is found throughout the film in the way blacks are portrayed, particularly in connection with music. Ra tells us that music is all part of another tomorrow, another language and that it holds a certain kind of naturalness as well as a certain kind of blackness. Myth, nature, blackness and music are seen to be extensions of each other and were once connected, but has been lost presumably due to white society.

Sun Ra has created a complete mythology as a form of opposition to what he perceives to be white man’s oppressive society which excludes blacks, thus making them unreal. Part of this mythology is to create a sense of past for black people and to provide a sense of direction for the future. I see it as no coincide that Egyptian mythology is part of Sun Ra, as it was one of the first civilizations, it was black and African it and was destroyed/absorbed by the Roman Empire which was obviously white, and so gives historical connotations of ancient greatness destroyed by whites.

However, Ra’s private mythology extends far beyond simple appropriation of Egyptian mythology; it is a complex network of jazz music, Egyptian mythology, B-movie science fiction, blaxploitation movies, and peculiar views of the nature and origins of music. Quite unique, we can see how this bricolage style is a mix of black influences as well as white, particularly those that are disdained by the dominant culture, providing a rather elaborate strategy for resistance. His mythology presents a way for the black community to understand themselves both as original beings who were the first to inhabit Earth, while at the same time being alien to this place, not being real or part of society. As I see it, this view is quite parallel - and most likely influenced - to the concept of double-consciousness as developed by W.E.B. Du Bois in his essay “The Strivings of Black People” (1897).

Rather than being a discussion of the troubles of the black people, Ra attempts in the film to provide a narrative account of how this paradox - native and alien at the same time - can be reconciled or at least understood. Ra’s mythology becomes a narrative meant to provide a specific and liberating subject position for the black community; a way for them to understand their place in society. Thus, it must necessarily be a resistant narrative, but it draws on several well-known narratives already embedded in society. Examples of this are the two characters Jimmy Fey and the Overseer.

The Overseer is a strange character whom we never learn much about, he was the reason Sun Ra left Earth in 1943 when he still called himself Sonny Ray, and he is Ra’s opponent in the strange game of the black people’s fate. Represented less flattering, the Overseer is always seen in a white suit with sunglasses, hat and a silver-topped cane, thus drawing on the stereotype of the black pimp, a rather negative one for black people. In combination with his name, it becomes quite clear that he is an agent of the white people. Not only does he attempt to hide his blackness by his all-white outfit (even shoes and socks), but his name invokes the time of slavery when overseers were those who punished black slaves and helped the plantation owners.

In a more figurative sense, that is precisely what the Overseer does now, helping agents of white society keeping black people oppressed. The game he sets up with Ra is just an extension of this, and this is further showcased by his helper Jimmy Fey who works as in the music industry and helps the Overseer against Ra. Although we learn little of Fey, he often acts as a go-between for the Overseer but is always subordinate and is often put down.

What is most interesting about Fey is that in the end, when Ra is leaving Earth bringing only some with him, Fey asks to come with Ra and Ra accepts but will only bring Fey’s “black parts” leaving the rest of Fey behind, acting as a white. As Ra leaves, the Overseer has not only lost the game but also his function as overseer. The now-white Fey (although still black by colour) treats the Overseer as if he is black and thus below his dignity. This reversal shows how the Overseer was always just a servant of white, dominant society and did not really hold any authority.

The few whites that are in the film are negatively portrayed; we see two agents following the Overseer to a brothel to have fun with some girls. They are first humiliated, having slurred one of the black girls at the brothel, but then proceed to beat the girls to punish them for the humiliation. Although they are first said to be working for NASA, they later try to stop Ra giving the impression that they are police officers or agents of some sort. It is unclear exactly what they are, but there is a degree of paranoia and suspicion towards all whites throughout the film.

White society is thus portrayed as inherently oppressive to black people, and the only way to leave white society behind, if black people are to be free. A poster of Malcom X in a scene where black kids are discussing Sun Ra and whether or not to join him seems to indicate a similar perspective of X’s radical views, except that Ra wishes to lead the black people to a better place. In the end, those he brings seem to be those who have the right spirit, even Fey’s black parts, so that being black is a matter of spirituality. Again we are close to the spirituality of Du Bois’ who also spoke of the “souls of black people”, but Ra’s mythology is different and it is constructed differently.

It is first of all far more abstract and based on a peculiar bricolage style which combines, as we have seen, many separate elements to create something unique. It is unclear exactly what black spirituality is to Ra and it does not seem to be of that much interest to Ra, he brings those who are deemed worthy, but the interesting thing is the way that he uses history as a repertoire to draw on by inserting the Egyptian style into his imagery and uses the concept to rationalize why blacks have been treated poorly on Earth. Even when Ra attempts to solve the racial problems, the white race destroys it, leaving Ra no other option but to leave Earth and destroy it.

The concert Ra puts on in the film is cast as what should bring some form of revelation about for the black community, to make them understand that they need to leave Earth, but even here the whites are vicious and racist. They kill a black kid who saves Ra from being shot, which is the final straw and what makes Ra leave. Again we see how a Christ imagery is inserted into the image of the saviour, as Ra resurrects the kid before transferring him to his spaceship. The whites have shown themselves to be unredeemable and so Ra can leave and kill them in good conscience.

The narrative imagery of the alien is what fuels the film and it is also an attempt to resolve the problem that Du Bois pointed to of the strange doubleness of Afro-American life

this sense of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others, of measuring one’s soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity. One ever feels his two-ness, — an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder. (Du Bois, XX)

The story of the black people thus becomes the story of aliens on a wrong planet, moving to another planet is not just an inversion of the alien invasion story but also becomes an way of narrating how immense the differences between white and black people are in 20th century USA. It is interesting to note that Du Bois in fact himself also wrote a speculative piece of fiction which partakes in the same question of race. His piece, titled “The Comet” (1920), is about a disaster when a comet almost hits New York and destroys most of it. The protagonist Jim Davis saves a white woman, Julia, from the wreckage, but the way they talk and think about each other is quite telling:

They stared a moment in silence. She had not noticed before that he was a Negro. He had not thought of her as white. She was a woman of perhaps twenty-five - rarely beautiful and richly gowned, with darkly-golden hair, and jewels. Yesterday, he thought with bitterness, she would scarcely have looked at him twice. He would have been dirt beneath her silken feet. She stared at him. Of all the sorts of men she had pictured as coming to her rescue she had not dreamed of one like him. Not that he was not human, but he dwelt in a world so far from hers, so infinitely far, that he seldom even entered her thought. (Du Bois, 2000: 9)

Julia’s assertion that he certainly is human seems hollow when we later hear this conversation:

“Yes,” she said slowly, “and how foolish our human distinctions seem - now,” looking down to the great dead city stretched below, swimming in unlightened shadows.
“Yes - I was not - human, yesterday,” he said.
She looked at him. “And your people were not my people,” she said; “but today -“(Du Bois, 2000: 14-15)

Clearly some of the same strategy is used here, by casting black Jim Davis as non-human for whites, but Du Bois speculative thrust is used differently. In his story, Julia is reunited with her beloved Fred who immediately suspects the worst of Jim, but Julia assures him that Jim is a good and proper man. This does not appease the white crowd, however, who is about to lynch him as Julia and Fred leave, but Du Bois’s story ends with hope and the erasure of racial boundaries as Julia runs back to Jim and throws herself into his arms.

Ra’s narrative is different, it is separatist and while he and Du Bois share the image of black as alien and non-human, Ra does not share Du Bois’ optimism. His narrative creates a black community which is spiritual, musical and original within their own myth, but they cannot stay on Earth, which has deserved to be destroyed. Space is the Place thus refuses to accept that any kind of resistant narrative may forge a space for the black community within white society and instead, space, the black and endless void as Ra calls it, is the only place this community can properly exist. This exodus is not cast negatively, however, but rather seen as a transition to a far better place on the unnamed planet, with its lush forests, reminiscent of African rainforests. Leaving Earth behind is not just necessary but a positive thing, a liberating move. As in the case of Ziggy Stardust, we see how the sf narrative becomes a way to express the difference the subjects feel.