The work of these three writers demonstrates that the themes and characteristics of Afrofuturism go back to the late 19th century. These works are haunting not just for their stories and themes but for how relevant they remain today.
The Comet: This post-apocalyptic short story by W.E.B. Du Bois features a landscape ravaged by a pandemic that leaves the survivors grappling with the legacies of racism. It's pandemic literature written in the wake of the 1918 influenza pandemic, and has been an influence on writers like Octavia Butler and N.K. Jemisin.
Conjure Woman: Charles Chesnutt's collection of magical stories from the south is evokes comparisons to Nnedi Okorafor and Ben Okri. It's especially valuable as a collection of African American fables and folklore that not only is free of the "white gaze," but turns it back on itself in revealing and refreshing ways. When so many tales from African American traditions come through the filter of white scholars and writers, Charles Chesnutt's collection is uniquely valuable.
Of One Blood: Or, The Hidden Self: Pauline Hopkin's masterful novel Of One Blood: a tale of intrigue, romance, mysticism, and science that wrestles with the complexities of intersectionality, class, and social divisions. It is set against a backdrop of an epic journey to an advanced yet ancient African civilization that, by no exaggeration, is the predecessor to the Kingdom of Wakanda—this a full one hundred years before Black Panther would explode into the popular imagination.
