Afrofuturism: gods and plasma weapons (nd-aktuell.de)

Science fiction is mostly a very white genre in which people of color traditionally only rarely play a role. This applies above all to the film sector, even if, for example, not only white actors can be seen in the most recent “Star Wars” episodes. And with Marvel’s successful »Black Panther« film adaptation from 2018, which will be continued at the end of this year, Afrofuturism has even found its way into Hollywood in blockbuster format, although the action flick, which is in love with trick technology and fetishistic with weapons, unfortunately has little emancipatory potential.

In the literature, on the other hand, there is a rich tradition of important black progressive SF authors, mainly from the USA, such as Octavia Butler, but also younger ones like Nnedi Okorafor. With Tade Thompson, who grew up in Nigeria and now lives in southern England, the books of a younger non-American representative of Afrofuturism are now being published in German translation. With the second part of his award-winning »Rosewater« trilogy, subtitled »The Uprising«, Thompson, whose thriller »Wild Card« was also published by Suhrkamp in 2021, once again proves his ability to create fantastic stories in one incredible speed as an ingenious literary genre crossover.

»Rosewater: The Uprising« is an Afrofuturistic novel set in high-tech Nigeria in the mid-21st century. A suspenseful crime thriller, an action-packed spy thriller and a science fiction story about contact between earthlings and aliens and the threat of colonization of the planet. But there are also fantasy elements, with mythological figures like a griffin, African Yoruba deities and hordes of zombies rampaging through the eponymous fictional eight-million metropolis of Rosewater while war is waged with plasma weapons. At the same time, it is also about colonial history, an independence movement, the Biafra War and the transfer of high technology and its monopolization.

In the first part of his trilogy (published in German under the title »Rosewater« in early 2020), Thompson mainly told the prehistory of the giant alien Wormwood, who landed in London in the middle of the 21st century, was chased away by the British military and made his way underground to Nigeria digs where the authorities leave him alone. An entire modern city is being built around the shapeless alien, which will eventually be several square kilometers wide and 70 meters high, which is not only fed by the inexhaustible energy of Wormwood’s ganglia. The alien regularly releases spores that have healing powers: a parallel-worldly xenosphere is created on Earth, into which some people can immerse themselves.

While the misanthropic agent Karoo was at the center of the story in the first part, in »The Uprising« it is his wife Aminat who gets caught up in the conflict over Rosewater’s independence, which ultimately also involved a military effort. Thompson turns the escalation screw in the fast-paced, 400-plus pages of this novel, in which, in addition to a careerist mayor and his android assistant, numerous Mafiosi, giant worms that dig through the sand and women fighting sexism play a role.

Thompson’s novel reads much like a wacky comic, in which big images are designed. Rosewater sinks into war, eventually even being bombed, while Wormwood slowly seems to be dying. But it suddenly becomes clear that behind the alien, who is actually sleeping so peacefully, there is a whole strategy for conquering the earth. In contrast to the first part, colonialism plays a very central role in »The Uprising«. The Biafra War (1967-1970), in which part of Nigeria tried to become independent under the influence of former colonial powers but failed, becomes a traumatic reference point in Nigerian history. The high-tech location of Rosewater is trying to become independent from the central government. The aliens, on the other hand, want to take over the whole planet. The female heroine Aminat stands between these irreconcilable and in every respect threatening fronts, but she finally finds a way out, so that there is almost something like a happy ending at the end. In the third part »Rosewater – Redemption« it will be shown whether the earth will be conquered after all, whether Rosewater can be independent and whether Aminat will really fly to the Nigerian space station »Nautilus«.

Tade Thompson: Rosewater – The Insurrection. a.d. English v. Jakob Schmidt, Golkonda-Verlag, 400 p., br., 22 €.