In the Path of the Black Panther: Science, Technology, and Speculative Fiction in African Studies

Abstract

Drawing on Marvel’s Black Panther and the work of the authors Nnedi Okorafor, Tade Thompson, and Deji Olukotun, this article argues that African-oriented speculative fiction resonates with major narratives in the social study of science and technology in Africa. They depict the erasure of African expertise by hegemonic understandings of science and technology, illustrate historically specific meanings of the cultural categories of science and technology, and challenge conventional approaches to the distinction between magic and technology and the politics of temporality. Although always partial and situated, speculative fiction offers incisive analyses of science and technology in Africa.