Resources
Here you’ll find a curated collection of resources including speculative fiction short stories, articles, essays, and more. It began life as a resource list for students of the Applied African SF seminars at Imperial College London and the University of Nairobi.
Following a 2025 Call for Proposals (CfP), we commissioned several new stories. These stories, together with essays, form Applied African SF: Volume 1, published by Ping Press (2026), which can be freely downloaded and shared via bit.ly/AppliedAfricanSF. Physical copies will be print-on-demand and available to purchase online from October 2026. With support from the University of Sussex, we printed 300 promotional copies that will be distributed at book launches and future events.
African Speculative Fiction archives
A range of databases and online collections of African science fiction.
The African Speculative Fiction Society database (up to 2021)
Omenana Short Fiction Directory
Omenana Issue 22: Positive Visions of Democracy
Ping Press Archive
Printed stories
These are not affiliated to the Applied African Speculative Fiction project but are stories which touch on many similar themes. Each of the stories is available in print
Animals on the Run
Written by Okey Egboluche. Part of the “Lagos 2060” anthology.
De Novo
By Judith Bryan in Glimpse
Mami Mataworks
By Russell Nichols in Africa Risen: A New Era of Speculative Fiction
Cloud Mine
By Timi Odueso in Africa Risen: A New Era of Speculative Fiction
Untitled i
By Mohale Mashigo in Intruders: Short Fiction
Naked Earth
by Eugen Bacon, published by Twelfth Planet Press
CJ
By Chinelo Onwualo in Terra Incognita: New Speculative Short Stories from Africa
Mogadishu Maybe
By Chukwuemeka Njoku in Feast, Famine and Potluck
Come Home to Atropos
By Steven Barnes in New Suns
Ganger
By Wole Talabi in “Convergence Problems”
The Satellite Charmer
By Mame Bougouma Diene in Dominion
Monstro
By Junot Diaz in Mothership
Applied African Speculative Volume 1 now available!
Films
The Signal
Directed by Daniel Lasker. A deadly sound transmitted from space known as The Signal, corrupts the minds of all who hear it, turning them into soulless demons under its control.
Pumzi
Written and directed by Wanuri Kahiu. In an arid future Africa, a museum curator manages to germinate a seed and decides to break free from her contained community to try and restore plant-life to the dead land.
Games
Imagine Alternatives
Theory and frameworks
Introduction to Kempala Yénkya
Wole Talabi on games as method, introducing a project imagining Ugandan climate futures.
African Science Fiction and Climate Change: How To Talk About An Apocalypse
Using science fiction to raise awareness about climate change and to boost diversity in climate activism, written by Aramide Moronfoye
Science Fiction as Mode of Action: On MIT Press’s “Uneven Futures”
Roger Luckhurst reviews the new collection of essays “Uneven Futures: Strategies for Community Survival from Speculative Fiction” from MIT Press.
Why Africa Needs To Create More Science Fiction
Written by Wole Talabi
Just Stories: The Role of Speculative Fiction in Challenging the Growing Climate Apartheid
Starting with the current climate emergency, this paper addresses the role of narratives in shaping our views and actions towards managing the burgeoning climate crisis, especially as this is growing both unequally and iniquitously across the globe.
Mosquitoes, mushrooms, magic: Africanfuturist SF for nature’s futures
“Mosquitoes, mushrooms, magic: Africanfuturist SF for nature’s futures” by Charne Lavery, Laura Pereira, Bwalya Chibwe, Nedine Moonsamy, Chinelo Onwaulu, and Naomi Terry
Vector ‘Futures’: Torque Control
Jo Lindsay Walton on applied science fiction: an editorial for Vector 297.
Vector 289 African SF
Vector 289 on African and Afrodiasporic science fiction.
Podcast