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Afrofuturism (George Clinton/Sun Ra/Afrika Bambaataa etc...)
Hello, don't pop up round here much any more, but thought this was as good a place as any to share that I've put together an Afrofuturism weekend at the BFI.
Have done a playlist which I'd happily add to if anyone has any good suggestions in this thread? http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/news-bfi/features/inside-afrofuturism-sonic-companion
Brit Hip Hop outfit Strange U are up to their necks in the stuff mentioned in the OP. Awesome band.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FDRSTEHNrmo
I'd not heard of them, but thanks for the tip!
This looks really great
Wish I was in London - I'd definitely be there
GOOD LUCK
Cheers!
n/p
btw
I found no mention of it on your page but are you aware of the Cosmogony and judgement day predictions of the Nation of Islam (mainly pre-1985 when they reverted to more orthodox muslim belief systems) ? I think they have a huge bearing on Afrofuturism & black sci-fi - they may even be the source - or at least the continuation of an oral history
and this Nation of Islam cosmogony is absolutely where the whole 'mothership connection' comes from
you'd have to do some research but from memory (mainly from reading this; http://www.amazon.com/Countdown-Armageddon-Louis-Farrakhan-Nation/dp/1850652899 ) the story is that there is a 'sacred wheel' also called 'the mothership' which has been circling the earth for at least 2000 years waiting to free the chosen (44,000 ?) at the end time. It will appear from behind a burning mountain and carry the chosen across the galaxies to their ancestral home (or new home in their ancestral galaxy - I forget which)
Also, there are the secret blueprints of another spaceship and advanced weapon - some kind of volcano generating bomb - buried in a cave in Japan and guarded by gnostics until such time as The Nation rises up against 'the oppressor' calling on the Black Gods in all the inner cities (each city has a God who communicates with the Wheel/Mothership) to join and defeat the oppressor on earth with these weapons (apparently handed down from Space to Nubian gnostics in Pre-Egyptian times to help organise the rescue of The Nation after the great flood)
Like I say, that's just from memory and may be slightly inaccurate and certainly there is much more (The black space-settlers included an evil scientist called Dr.Jakob who was banished to Crete where he created the white man in a series of genetic experiments 6000 years ago for example) but it clearly had an influence on black urban music re: futurism & sci-fi
just an exploration of the cosmogony of the NOI would make a great PhD but investigating the rise of the NOI in black America, the parallel rise of Afrofuturism and the shaping of the psyche & identity of Black America during the almost exclusively white space race of the 60s & 70s & into the Space shuttle era of the 80s would make a FASCINATING PhD
just some thoughts
well
perhaps it's only fascinating to me then
I can't find that article
about the relationship with Scientology and NOI and how NOI members were put on fasttrack auditing and started bringing scientology ideas back into the nation.
The original Moorish Science Temple influenced a lot of the NOI's cosmology. They are pretty interesting in that their influenced so many subcultures from 60s counterculture Sun Ra and Crips
Sorry, feel bad I never responded
Very interesting stuff indeed.
There's a great chapter in the book 'Everything But The Burden', edited by Greg Tate, about the links between gang (or 'thug') culture and mysticism/cosmology. It's PDF-ed here: http://beauty.gmu.edu/hiphop/thuggods.pdf