{"id":8034,"date":"2017-07-21T10:08:40","date_gmt":"2017-07-21T09:08:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=8034"},"modified":"2017-07-21T10:25:31","modified_gmt":"2017-07-21T09:25:31","slug":"part-one-lift-off","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=8034","title":{"rendered":"Part One: Lift Off"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2022 A woman who is a walking advertisement
\n\u2022 A flying car from the future
\n\u2022 Fire comes to Uganda<\/p>\n

‘Branded’<\/a> (2003) by Lauren Beukes (South Africa)
\n‘Warp’<\/a> (2004) by Ayodele Arigbabu (Nigeria)
\n‘Eden\u2019s Burning’<\/a> (2008) by Doreen Baingana (Uganda)
\n‘Doppelg\u00e4nger’<\/a> (2008) by Peter Kalu (Nigeria\/UK)<\/p>\n

\u2018Branded\u2019 is the only story in this collection that is available online elsewhere. It is simply too important historically to be left out. Africans had written plenty of traditional belief speculation; there had been stories of alien intrusions or visions of Africa\u2019s future before. \u2018Branded\u2019 was different because the generic content came out of direct experience of the commercial impact of new technology, new technology that was already being used in early 2000s in a distinctively African way. \u2018Branded\u2019 become a chapter in Lauren Beukes\u2019s first novel Moxyland<\/em> (2010). And is taken here as the starting point for the current cultural explosion.<\/p>\n

\u2018Warp\u2019 is another early story in the rise of African science fiction. It\u2019s not a vision of an African future, but of a then-contemporary Lagos confronted by an intrusion from the future. Ayodele Arigbabu was then as now a tireless futurist in comics, theatre, and professional architecture. He became a publisher of his own and other people\u2019s writing. This story went on to form part of the first African, single-author, mostly speculative fiction anthology A Fistful of Tales<\/em> (2009). Read the interview<\/a> with Ayodele in 100 Africans.<\/p>\n

The two next stories come from the South African literary periodical Chimurenga<\/em>, a double issue on black technology from 2008. It\u2019s not a collection of science fiction per se. If anything it reveals an enormous desire for an African SFF to exist. \u2018Eden Burning\u2019 by Doreen Baingana is a model piece of traditional belief speculation, digging deep in a past to work with and re-imagine myth. \u2018Doppelganger\u2019 examines a single, simple human consequence of technological change. Read an interview<\/a> with the editor of Chimurenga, Ntone Edjabe.<\/p>\n

A year later 2009, Pumzi<\/em> a short but full-on science fiction film from Kenya was released. Beautifully produced SFF with a strong story and great visuals, it showed that Africans did write SF. You can view the trailer<\/a> or listen to an interview<\/a> with Writer\/Director Wanuri Kahuri. There was something distinctively East African in its artistic polish. Later in Part Six, we publish part of the script for one of these East African movies, Dilman Dila\u2019s Her Broken Shadow<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2022 A woman who is a walking advertisement \u2022 A flying car from the future \u2022 Fire comes to Uganda ‘Branded’ (2003) by Lauren Beukes (South Africa) ‘Warp’ (2004) by Ayodele Arigbabu (Nigeria) ‘Eden\u2019s Burning’ (2008) by Doreen Baingana (Uganda) ‘Doppelg\u00e4nger’ (2008) by Peter Kalu (Nigeria\/UK) \u2018Branded\u2019 is the only story in this collection that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":214,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[343],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\nPart One: Lift Off - The Manchester Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=8034\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Part One: Lift Off - The Manchester Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u2022 A woman who is a walking advertisement \u2022 A flying car from the future \u2022 Fire comes to Uganda ‘Branded’ (2003) by Lauren Beukes (South Africa) ‘Warp’ (2004) by Ayodele Arigbabu (Nigeria) ‘Eden\u2019s Burning’ (2008) by Doreen Baingana (Uganda) ‘Doppelg\u00e4nger’ (2008) by Peter Kalu (Nigeria\/UK) \u2018Branded\u2019 is the only story in this collection that […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=8034\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Manchester Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-07-21T09:08:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-07-21T09:25:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Geoff Ryman\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Geoff Ryman\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=8034\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=8034\",\"name\":\"Part One: Lift Off - The Manchester Review\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2017-07-21T09:08:40+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-07-21T09:25:31+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/6e25572fd14823160af8fe1f3cc50bd2\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=8034#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=8034\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=8034#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Part One: Lift Off\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/#website\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/\",\"name\":\"The Manchester Review\",\"description\":\"The Manchester Review\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/6e25572fd14823160af8fe1f3cc50bd2\",\"name\":\"Geoff Ryman\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/wp-includes\/images\/blank.gif\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/wp-includes\/images\/blank.gif\",\"caption\":\"Geoff Ryman\"},\"description\":\"Geoff Ryman is a Canadian living in the UK. 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