Title: Shapeshifting As A Posthumanist Mechanism In Africanfuturistic Fiction
Authors: Oghenetejiri EGHENEJI & Professor Enajite OJARUEGA
Volume: 8
Issue: 12
Pages: 73-80
Publication Date: 2024/12/28
Abstract:
: This paper investigates the role of the shapeshifter in Africanfuturistic narrative, especially as it pertains to posthumanism. The paper investigated the shapeshifter as a posthuman subject who embodies the idea of fluidity and disrupts binary systems that foster injustice. This paper situates Nnedi Okorafor as essential to Africanfuturism and thus engages two of her fictional narratives, Who Fears Death and Lagoon. The paper highlights binary systems within the texts that engender conflicts, injustice, and chaos in the fictional societies. These binary oppositions in the texts that predicate conflicts affirm Wynter's assertion of our current mode of being human as flawed. By employing qualitative content analysis, the paper unveils how the shapeshifter, through embodiment, nullifies established binary oppositions. The paper concludes that Okorafor's Who Fears Death and Lagoon provide examples of narratives that envision a posthuman future of Africa through the operation of the shapeshifter. The paper affirms that manifestations of hybridity, inter- and intra-species codependence, fluidity, relationality, and diversity are markers of a posthuman subject and society.