The importance of surrounding communities in identity formation within afrofuturistic context

Afrofuturism is one of the less known areas of study in terms of African American literature. Even though the term was coined by Mark Dery at the beginning of the twenty-first century, the examples of the movement can be seen much earlier. Its direct colonial roots and political aspects differentiate Afrofuturism from science fiction and fantasy. Octavia Butler’s Kindred (1979) is accepted as one of the key texts of early Afrofuturism. The novel demonstrates the ways Butler creates alternative areas especially for African American women and highlights the importance of the protagonist’s survival depending on the survival of her respective community. Instead of idealizing the slave community, Butler describes a realistic slave community that is rich in diversity. In the forced situations, Dana discovers the need of her community in the essence for surviving in the past and reaching to a realization about herself. This article analyzes how—with the help of the surrounding communities of antebellum slave community—the main character develops an autonomous identity that helps her to accept her fragmented self to decolonize her mind as well as to have wider understanding of her African American roots. The analysis benefits from Frantz Fanon’s thoughts on colonialism and emphasis on the double-voicedness of African Americans to create a discussion on the effects of surrounding communities on African American characters’ decolonization process.