Constructions of Home in the Unhomely: Home-making in Nnedi Okorafor’s Africanfuturist Narratives

Abstract

In this essay, I examine the representation of home in African speculative fiction, focusing on three works by Nnedi Okorafor: Who Fears Death (2010), The Book of Phoenix (2015), and the short story “Mother of Invention” (2018). 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.