Wakanda Phambili!

Abstract

This chapter develops and articulates an African futurist approach to framing and meeting the challenges of social-ecological futures. It advocates a broader conception of futures as lived practice embedded within specific places (e.g. Africa) and their histories, and explores how such practice can form an alternative model to current (Western) climate and environmental scenarios. It proposes that narratives from non-Western cultures offer more nuanced and diverse approaches to decision-making under conditions of uncertainty than the archetypical scenarios depicted in current models. This chapter uses science fiction from sub-Saharan Africa as a source for more experiential decision-making that emphasizes a decolonial agenda, which could shape and change the way we use quantitative modelling to consider future trajectories for the planet in the age of the Anthropocene.