Among his many roles, benevolent mad scientist, Elon Musk has made up his mind to carry out the ‘insane’ plan to “Occupy Mars” (which nevertheless has success as one of the possible outcomes as he would say). The Sankofa Syntax Newsletter (SSN) is partly an Africanfuturist reaction to this infectious galactic audacity. We will not allow SpaceX and Elon have all the fun that comes from this bit of transgressive genius (even as we acknowledge their status as apex rational hedonists and skilled engineers). As SpaceX fine-tunes their futuristic tools to a point where they start running circles around the angry red planet, the world is deeply inspired. The radical redefinition of space travel via Starship’s unique design, Falcon 9’s revolutionary reusability, etc. remain tech upheavals like no other. For Africanfuturists, these milestones should be ecstatic positive provocations. By the time the first fleet of Starships embark on their historic journey to Mars, the SSN will have morphed into a uniquely African social media platform called Sankofa Social Media. This expansion from newsletter to social media is partly as a toast to the gigantic undertaking of the mission to Mars and a zero-crater touchdown…*glass raised*. The Sankofa SSN is therefore the larval stage while we expect bouncing butterflies when we accelerate expansion into Sankofa Social Media (SSM).   

The term “Sankofa” is a Ghanaian Adinkra symbol which means “to go back and fetch it.” And the term “Africanfuturism” was coined by award-winning Nigerian-American author Nnedi Okoroafor as a subcategory of science fiction designed to give the world an Afrocentric science fiction where Africa is the scene of futuristic tech and civilizations https://nnedi.blogspot.com/2019/10/africanfuturism-defined.html By naming this newsletter the “Sankofa Syntax Newsletter (SSN)”, we thus embrace Africanfuturist principles through adaptation of Ghanaian cultural content that captures the spirit of reclaiming the past to inform the future. As I write this inaugural piece, the Sankofa bird whispers an accelerated need for the continent to turn and fetch what has been left behind…

And as the lines between reality and science fiction are disappearing especially in fields such as Artificial Intelligence, Space Exploration, etc. Africanfuturism is called to go beyond producing homegrown science fiction books and movies. The challenge now is to manifest viable Africanfuturist technologies! Even if it means attempting integrations of science and African spirituality. And this is where the concept of Truth-Overflow comes into play. Truth-Overflow is an envisaged tech-traditionalist or Africanfuturist-tech framework combining with western truth-seeking methods and platforms like X, Truth-Social, etc. to generate conditions that make dilutions, revisionism, misinformation, and propaganda increasingly difficult.  

Just like a developer writing code to fetch data from an API, we craft the SSN to retrieve and unpack Nnedi Okoroafor’s Africanfuturism as an extremely crucial and pivotal movement in the evolution of African thought. The SpaceX “Occupy Mars” project provides compelling inspiration for accelerating that variant of Africanfuturism that concerns itself mainly with reacting to science fiction made real.

Africa must showcase viable Africanfuturist technology or remain mere observers and end-users of global tech evolution (or at best continue to replicate the concepts and inventions of the West which they have proven to be good at and is happening in many parts of Africa…from Nigeria to Rwanda to South Africa we see innumerable examples of Africans assembling or replicating western ideas and inventions…from automobiles to smartphones, drones, solar panels & even sophisticated medical equipment). It would therefore be cool to see accelerated innovation as well. Right now in many parts of Africa, there are already unsung inventors using local content in very impressive ways. Accordingly, the ongoing construction of Sankofa Social Media (with slogan as “Face-Off With The Future”) leans heavily towards use of local content as it aims to be a welcoming digital home for Africanfuturism.

Africanfuturist contribution to space travel could take the shape of wormhole applications of esoteric indigenous knowledge. The better to deal with the ridiculously vast distances of space. For instance, how indeed did the Dogon people of Mali acquire a precise and detailed understanding of the Sirius star system located 8.6 light years from Earth? A knowledge that predates the invention of the modern telescope.

From the next issue, SSN will take flight every Friday at midnight, echoing the cosmic whispers that resonate in that hour. Like an Alfred Hitchcock plot twist, our choice of the midnight hour could jolt a few into uncovering their resident Africanfuturist. Upcoming issues will explore Afrofuturism as a sibling of Africanfuturism which is sure to uncover thrilling tech and cultural possibilities. Subscribe and catch every midnight revelation as SSN journeys through more upheavals of reaction to the cosmic daring of SpaceX and developments on Earth. 

Among his many roles, benevolent mad scientist, Elon Musk has made up his mind to carry out the ‘insane’ plan to “Occupy Mars” (which nevertheless has success as one of the possible outcomes as he would say). The Sankofa Syntax Newsletter (SSN) is partly an Africanfuturist reaction to this infectious galactic audacity. We will not allow SpaceX and Elon have all the fun that comes from this bit of transgressive genius (even as we acknowledge their status as apex rational hedonists and skilled engineers). As SpaceX fine-tunes their futuristic tools to a point where they start running circles around the angry red planet, the world is deeply inspired. The radical redefinition of space travel via Starship’s unique design, Falcon 9’s revolutionary reusability, etc. remain tech upheavals like no other. For Africanfuturists, these milestones should be ecstatic positive provocations. By the time the first fleet of Starships embark on their historic journey to Mars, the SSN will have morphed into a uniquely African social media platform called Sankofa Social Media. This expansion from newsletter to social media is partly as a toast to the gigantic undertaking of the mission to Mars and a zero-crater touchdown…*glass raised*. The Sankofa SSN is therefore the larval stage while we expect bouncing butterflies when we accelerate expansion into Sankofa Social Media (SSM).   

The term “Sankofa” is a Ghanaian Adinkra symbol which means “to go back and fetch it.” And the term “Africanfuturism” was coined by award-winning Nigerian-American author Nnedi Okoroafor as a subcategory of science fiction designed to give the world an Afrocentric science fiction where Africa is the scene of futuristic tech and civilizations https://nnedi.blogspot.com/2019/10/africanfuturism-defined.html By naming this newsletter the “Sankofa Syntax Newsletter (SSN)”, we thus embrace Africanfuturist principles through adaptation of Ghanaian cultural content that captures the spirit of reclaiming the past to inform the future. As I write this inaugural piece, the Sankofa bird whispers an accelerated need for the continent to turn and fetch what has been left behind…

And as the lines between reality and science fiction are disappearing especially in fields such as Artificial Intelligence, Space Exploration, etc. Africanfuturism is called to go beyond producing homegrown science fiction books and movies. The challenge now is to manifest viable Africanfuturist technologies! Even if it means attempting integrations of science and African spirituality. And this is where the concept of Truth-Overflow comes into play. Truth-Overflow is an envisaged tech-traditionalist or Africanfuturist-tech framework combining with western truth-seeking methods and platforms like X, Truth-Social, etc. to generate conditions that make dilutions, revisionism, misinformation, and propaganda increasingly difficult.  

Just like a developer writing code to fetch data from an API, we craft the SSN to retrieve and unpack Nnedi Okoroafor’s Africanfuturism as an extremely crucial and pivotal movement in the evolution of African thought. The SpaceX “Occupy Mars” project provides compelling inspiration for accelerating that variant of Africanfuturism that concerns itself mainly with reacting to science fiction made real.

Africa must showcase viable Africanfuturist technology or remain mere observers and end-users of global tech evolution (or at best continue to replicate the concepts and inventions of the West which they have proven to be good at and is happening in many parts of Africa…from Nigeria to Rwanda to South Africa we see innumerable examples of Africans assembling or replicating western ideas and inventions…from automobiles to smartphones, drones, solar panels & even sophisticated medical equipment). It would therefore be cool to see accelerated innovation as well. Right now in many parts of Africa, there are already unsung inventors using local content in very impressive ways. Accordingly, the ongoing construction of Sankofa Social Media (with slogan as “Face-Off With The Future”) leans heavily towards use of local content as it aims to be a welcoming digital home for Africanfuturism.

Africanfuturist contribution to space travel could take the shape of wormhole applications of esoteric indigenous knowledge. The better to deal with the ridiculously vast distances of space. For instance, how indeed did the Dogon people of Mali acquire a precise and detailed understanding of the Sirius star system located 8.6 light years from Earth? A knowledge that predates the invention of the modern telescope.

From the next issue, SSN will take flight every Friday at midnight, echoing the cosmic whispers that resonate in that hour. Like an Alfred Hitchcock plot twist, our choice of the midnight hour could jolt a few into uncovering their resident Africanfuturist. Upcoming issues will explore Afrofuturism as a sibling of Africanfuturism which is sure to uncover thrilling tech and cultural possibilities. Subscribe and catch every midnight revelation as SSN journeys through more upheavals of reaction to the cosmic daring of SpaceX and developments on Earth.