ADIFF ’23: The Africologist

Angola, Cameroon, Kenya, Nigeria, and Ethiopia are among the many African nations that have developed a tradition of science fiction cinema, often reflecting the Afrofuturist movement that associates traditional African history and culture with far-future speculation. Cape Verdean filmmaker Val Lopes also clearly took inspiration from the Afrofuturism, applying its themes and motifs to the documentary format. Lopes looks back at ancient African history and forward to African nations’ possible destiny in the stars (let’s not call it the “colonization of space”) in his hybrid-film, The Africologist, which screens during this year’s African Diaspora International Film Festival in New York.

Technically, Lopes is not the Africologist. She is a fictional CGI time traveler and scholar of comparative civilizations. However, Lopes gets far more screentime, explaining most of what the Africologist sees. Much of the ancient history is highly relevant, such as Caesar’s barbaric burning of the Library of Alexandria and the scholarship of Timbuktu (which was held in decentralized locations to avoid Alexandria’s fate). The more recent history is a but spottier.

Lopes makes some interesting points about Africans’ potential advantages as space travelers. However, any spacecraft they use must observe the laws of gravity and astro-physics. By the same token, the newly independent African states of the 1960s were doomed to economic failure, by instituting unsound command-and-control socialist policies, which inevitably lead to poverty and stagnation. Right now, probably the greatest threat to most African states is the predatory lending of China’s Belt-and-Road program, rather than Lopes’ vague talk of “digital colonialism.”

The Africologist is definitely stronger when it focuses on the ancient past or the far future. The science fiction trappings are entertaining, but the character of the Africologist (who has no personality that viewers can glean) does not bring a lot of added value, except providing a catalyst for the Afrofuturist framing.

Still, the film offers some cautious optimism for a future based in space, which is refreshing. Interesting, but wildly inconsistent, The Africologist should still appeal to Afrofuturism fans when it screens this afternoon (11/25) and Saturday (12/9), as part of this year’s ADIFF.