The black Mediterranean reimagined: Counterfactual world-building in francophone speculative fiction

Abstract

This article analyses francophone speculative literature and cinema and the way it mobilizes counterfactuals to challenge historical teleologies and spatial orders by exploring possible worlds and contingencies. The analysis will focus on four works of fiction from the francophone African diaspora including Bertene Juminer’s La revanche de Bozambo (2000), Boubacar Boris Diop’s Le temps de Tamango (1981), Abdourahman A. Waberi’s Aux Etats-Unis d’Afrique (2006) and Sylvestre Amoussou’s film Africa Paradis (2007). The four narratives erode conventional geographies and migration patterns through a counterfactual lens, depicting African countries either as imperial powers that have conquered European territories or as revolutionary forces that put an end to European interference. They thus create alternative versions of what Alessandra di Maio calls the black Mediterranean, an intercontinental space constituted by, and constitutive of, the cultures and histories of the African diaspora. Going beyond a purely aesthetic effect, these authors imagine a change of paradigm and intentionally cultivate an atmosphere of alienation for their readership. However, despite their disruptive potential, the speculative narratives remain limited in their world-building efforts because the African futures that they project remind readers more of what is than of what could be.