Afrofuturist Worlds: The Diseased Colonial Imagination and Christian Hope

Abstract

This article argues that the cultural tradition of Afrofuturism offers one potential solution to the diseased Christian colonial imagination diagnosed in the work of Willie James Jennings. This diseased imagination buttresses structures of domination after colonization and creates the self-sufficient white man as an anthropological norm. Afrofuturism names an emerging cultural tradition across different media that explores potential futures in response to Black suffering. As a conversation partner for this tradition, the theology of Edward Schillebeeckx critically engages the eschatological images of the New Testament to depict Christian discipleship as practical world building. This praxis dismantles violence threatening the humanum, the new humanity announced by Jesus of Nazareth. As an example of the potential resources offered by Afrofuturism, Janelle Monáe’s multi-media Dirty Computer project evinces a practical hope reimagining social life and humanity beyond the world built by colonization, thus inspiring a decolonial Christian praxis based on eschatological hope.