Constructions of Home in the Unhomely

Home-making in Nnedi Okorafor’s Africanfuturist Narratives

Bibliographic Data

ID21242432
AuthorsJoseph Kwanya (0000-0001-5571-6709, Rhodes University, corresponding author)
Year2025
Volume11
Issue4
Pages262-278
Publication date2025-10-02
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueEastern African Literary and Cultural Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2327-7408 • E-ISSN: 2327-7416
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/23277408.2025.2491272
OpenAlexW4410523776
LanguageEN
References cited11

In this essay, I examine the representation of home in African speculative fiction, focusing on three works by Nnedi Okorafor: Who Fears Death (Citation2010), The Book of Phoenix (Citation2015), and the short story “Mother of Invention” (Citation2018). I argue that Okorafor’s Africanfuturism challenges conventional notions of home by merging African realities with a futuristic outlook. Drawing on Freud’s concept of the uncanny and Augé’s idea of non-places, I explore the tension between familiar and unfamiliar elements in these settings. Okorafor’s futuristic landscapes — post-apocalyptic Sudan in Who Fears Death, a technologically advanced but oppressive research facility in The Book of Phoenix, and a smart house in a near-future Nigeria in the “Mother of Invention” — reflect both the potential and the precarity of home. While acknowledging non-places as functional and culturally shallow, Okorafor also contests the depiction of Africa as a ‘non-place’ plagued by famine, war, and disease. Though recognizing these harsh realities, she suggests that the futuristic African settings in the three texts retain a sense of homeliness, fostering meaningful interactions. I argue that Okorafor also warns of the potential cost: technological advancements may transform these settings into non-places of exclusion and individualism

Aesthetics · Art · Literature · Narrative · Sociology · Digital Games and Media · History · Postcolonial and Cultural Literary Studies · Utopian, Dystopian, and Speculative Fiction

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