Afrofuturism: George Clinton, Sun Ra & Lee Scratch Perry

The term “Afrofuturism”, coined as recently as 1993, is a literary and cultural aesthetic that explores and addresses themes of the African (American) diaspora by including or combining elements of science-fiction, alternate history, fantasy as well as magic realism. It is the idea of reimaging the future from a distinctly African perspective revaluating the past and challenging futuristic concepts which are predominantly conceived from a white perspective. Although Afrofuturism is mostly considered to be a literary genre, there are musical realisations too. 

One of the most prominent musical interpreters of Afrofuturism who can be considered a pioneer of afrofuturistic themes in music is Herman Poole Blount or better known as Sun Ra. The Alabama-native jazz composer captures the ideas of Afrofuturism quite like no one else. During his pioneering years, space was one of the most salient topics. The 1950s and 60s were important years for the science fiction genre as events like the first satellite in space, the first, human in space, and the first person on the moon shaped visions of the future and mankind’s idea of space forever. Amidst all those events, Sun Ra combined contemporary jazz music with ideas of otherworldliness consistently claiming to be an alien from Saturn. He and his band even performed in dresses resembling costumes from science fiction movies. At the time such concepts of African Americans as aliens or even astronauts in the future must have been rather unusual. In “Astro Black” he creates a combination of jazz elements with sounds that seem to come straight from a spaceship starting its engines ready to take off after retracting its loading platform. “Calling Planet Earth’s” entrancing chants, rhythmic trombones, and glaring synthesizers evoke the marching song played by an extraterrestrial band leading its followers towards planet earth answering to calls from Earth whether there is anyone or anything out there. One of Sun Ra’s quotes from 1970 probably grasps the idea of afrofuturistic music and my feelings and thoughts while listening to his productions fully: “At one time I felt that white people were to blame for everything, but then I found out that they were just puppets and pawns of some greater force, which has been using them... Some force is having a good time [manipulating black and white people] and looking, enjoying itself up in a reserved seat, wondering, "I wonder when they're going to wake up." The part that resonated the most with me in this quote must be “some force”. As meaningful as life and humanity and as poignant and grave humanity’s struggles might be, we must never forget that the universe is more vast than anyone could ever comprehend and that every struggle and every accomplishment will sooner or later be forgotten for eternity. I felt like I could hear some of that in his music combined with some solace to the emptiness and vastness of the universe.