Saturday, February 18, 2012

African SciFi

Boing Boing pointed me to the writing of Jonathan Dotse, an African who grew up during the heady days of cyberpunk:
This early exposure to high technology sent me scavenging through piles of discarded mechanical parts in our backyard; searching for the most intriguing sculptures of steel from which I would dream up schematics for contraptions that would change the world as we knew it. With the television set for inspiration and the junkyard for experimentation, I spent my early childhood immersed in a discordant reality where dreams caked with rust and choked with weeds came alive in a not-so-distant future; my young mind well aware of the process of transformation occurring in the world around me; a world I was only just beginning to understand.
The whole thing is worth reading, as he argues that the future of scifi lies not in outer space but in the neglected corners of our planet. Interesting stuff!

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