Beyond Impossible: Jiba Molei Anderson’s Afro-Odyssey

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Beyond Impossible: Jiba Molei Anderson’s Afro-Odyssey http://scifipulse.net/?p=5721

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BEYOND IMPOSSIBLE: JIBA MOLEI ANDERSON’SAFRO-ODYSSEY"I wanted the world of The Horsemen to feel real, free from the mythology of Afrocentrism and its adherence to Egy

by Julian Chambliss January 28, 2015

In the introduction to Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction, writer and editor Sheree R. Thomasinvokes Ralph Ellison’s 1953 observation that attempting to create a theory of American Negro Culture isnearly impossible without fashioning a more holistic view of American society.[1] The assertion thatspeculative fiction can be connected to the African-American experience challenges white notions ofblack culture’s worth. Imagining a holistic and engaging future from the minority perspective assumesan agency often denied in mainstream cultural discourse. Yet, by imaging a future, creators are freefrom the limiting constraints in society. The creators and the audiences immerse in these imaginarylandscape quietly enter into our contested contemporary landscape and question the assumption of thepast and suggest different paths to the future.

In the U.S. context Afrofuturism is often seen as the counterpointto the Eurocentric future inherent to mainstream media. Codifiedby scholars in the 1990s, but mapped onto affirmative visionscreated by and for African Americans since the nineteenth century,


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modern Afrofuturists draw inspiration from writers, artists andmusicians in the 1970s that incorporated characters, themes, andmilieus associated the African Diaspora. Vast in its permutations,perhaps the strongest link to Afrofuturism in comics can be tracedfrom Stan Lee and Jack Kirby Black Panther (1966) through DonMcGregor and Paul Gulacy’s Sabre (1977) to independent comicpublishers in 1980s and 1990s. With adaptations in film, TV, andanimation of comic characters in vogue, questions aboutrepresentation persist. At this moment the challenge/affirmationof imagining a future rooted in an African-American perspectiveremains a potent practice. To understand the contours of thatcontemporary landscape, I reached out to Jiba Molei Anderson.Anderson is an artist, designer, writer, and educator who has

quietly forged a distinct Afrofuturist narrative through a series of graphic novels. Celebrating a decade ofcreative endeavors, the world he has created is in dialogue with a broader comic tradition, but seeks toforge a unique experience.

JC: What inspired your love of comics?

JMA: That answer is simple: my father. As a little child, I wasenamored with the Adam West Batman television show.Superheroes got me early on and never let go. I started drawingwhen I was very young, maybe 3. The first drawing I remember doingwas a Batman stick figure. One day, my father brought a Batmancomic book home for me to read. The villain in the story wasTwo-Face. The artist was Jim Aparo. It was all over after that.

JC: How has your experience as a comic fan evolved over theyears? What are the comics that mattered to you? How has thatjourney changed over the years?

JMA: From the first comic book I read, I was a fan of comics; not DC,not Marvel, the medium itself. I was voracious. I read it all, devouringas much as possible. I was a fan of Charlton book like The Questionand Captain Atom before DC bought the line. I loved Atlas/Seaboard. They existed from 1974-1975 andwere created by Martin Goodman, former Warren Publishing veteran Jeff Rovin, and writer/artist LarryLieber (Stan Lee’s brother). They hired the best of the best for their titles (i.e. Neal Adams, Steve Ditko,Alex Toth, Howard Chaykin, Rich Buckler, etc.) and offered things that would eventually transform theindustry such return of artwork to artists and author rights to original characters. I was into theindependent comic book scene from about 10 years old. The Pini’s Elfquest was extremely influential as

well as Matt Wagner’s Mage. Reading Heavy Metal made me awareof fantasy illustrators like Boris Vallejo and Frank Frazetta and itopened my eyes to the international comic book scene.

The biggest influence, however, would probably be First Comics


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(FC), the indie publisher from Chicago in the early 80s. I had seen theplay Warp as a young lad. It was the first time I had seen an AfricanAmerican sci-fi superhero. FC turned that play into its flagship comicbook. From there, I discovered Nexus, Grimjack, etc.DC and Marvelwere my gateway drugs into the medium. The independents showedme how cool the medium truly was. In fact, the property that wouldbecome Outworld: Return of the Master Teachers, began duringthis period. This is how precocious I was, how much I knew that Iwould make this medium my life’s path. I was 11 years-old when Ifirst started developing the concept. Outworld is my first originalcreation. It just so happened to take 30 years of growing anddeveloping as a creator before I became comfortable sending it out

into the world.

JC: Afrofuturism is linked to a political and social moment in the 1970s where African-Americanswere engaged with a complex re-discovery of their African identity and culture. What part of thatideology moment inspires you?

JMA: All of it. I was born in 1972. My parents were newly graduatedfrom college, smack dab in the middle of that cultural awakening.Indeed, my mother is from Liberia and my father is from the States.My birth was Pan-African in nature. I grew up in an environmentwhere it was the U.S. outside my window and Africa behind closeddoors. I grew up with the traditions, the food, the politics, the music,the art, the strength and power of African culture, the endurance,tenacity, passion, creativity and drive of African American culture. “Black is Beautiful” was more than a slogan growing up, it was and isa way of life.

JC: Your signature project The Horsemen: Divine Interventionintersect with contemporary African politics, was that adeliberate attempt to engage your audience with a globalnarrative?

JMA: Definitely. Following the Pan-African mindset and my dual cultural nature, I wanted The Horsemento reflect my worldview. I wanted to show a very modern Africa, which was more “real-world” than“Wakanda.” I was extremely tired of the “famine and underdeveloped” narrative that the continent issaddled with in this country. I also wanted to address the problems that Post-Colonialism left behind onthe continent as well.

I wanted the world of The Horsemen to feel real, free from the mythology of Afrocentrism and itsadherence to Egyptology. I wanted to work with a different African faith system, a system that when TheHorsemen was created (in 1997), no one, I mean NO ONE, was thinking of. No one was thinking of usingthe Orishas as a launch point for a comic book world at that time. I wanted to focus more so on theWestern part of the continent where my family, and the majority of African Americans hail from. I wanted


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The Horsemen to be different and contemporary… It needed to be different and contemporary.

JC: Your emphasis on telling stories that are different andcontemporary comes through in The Horsemen. It is a sagamore inline with something like Jonathan Hickman’s PaxRomana or Rick Remender’s Black Science. What are your plansfor the The Horsemen’s world?

I’ve always been a fan of alternate dimensions and, mythology isgreat tool in exploring that concept. Unlike the Marvel Universe,which treats the gods of myth as aliens from other planets, I preferto think of mythological beings as realized potential if certain roadswere traveled as opposed to others. In the broadest of strokes, youcould link my work to Hickman’s or Reminder’s even though TheHorsemen precede both of those titles by a good number of years.The Horsemen universe is in a state of expansion right now. In thecurrent series, Mark of the Cloven (series writer) Jude W. Mire andI are expanding the world of “post-Spark event” Africa and theemergence of Lumumba City. This book is extremely political and

social in its scope. The United States is in an economic shambles and Africa has become the newsuperpower, the new land of opportunity. A reverse Underground Railroad has emerged as the U.S. hasadopted the Retention Act, an extreme piece of xenophobic legislation, which prohibits Americansemigrating to the continent.

Now, in this political hot potato, you have the bastard children of the Deitis also known as the Cloven (theopposite number of The Horsemen). They despise their parents and they see taking over African anddestroying what The Horsemen are building as their opportunity to usurp control of the world from theirelders. We’re three issues in so far, with the next three coming out this year.

Simultaneously, I am working on a major project called Lumumba Funk, which re-imagines TheHorsemen as if they were created in the 70s and became a major hit during that era. This concept is suchthat a completely different team of Horsemen exist… Before the ones we’ve seen currently in the booksthat already exist. I did not create these Horsemen. Someone else did. Lumumba Funk will tell thehistory of the 70s-era Horsemen as well as give an overview of the influential story arcs and how TheHorsemen influenced, and was influenced by, that era. Ultimately, the Horsemen saga, what I’ve coinedThe New Mythology, is one of spirituality and realized potential. It’s the saga of what happens ifhumanity put the B.S. of petty superficial divisions aside and focused on the big picture. And, we needto… Ragnarok is coming!

JC: Afrofuturism has been marginalized in the public’s mind as“outside.” Yet, it falls within the conventions associated withspeculative fiction. What do you think makes Afrofuturismseem so different?

One word: Afro. The minute you assign culture, especially


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African-based culture, to a concept, it immediately becomes theother. It immediately becomes exotic. It immediately gets the“side-eye.” The idea is this: people in the “mainstream” limit AfricanDiasporatic creativity to either music or… well, just music. When wewrite, we must write about “struggle,” whether historical or currentbecause, after all, we are maligned, we have been treated unfairly.We don’t have the luxury, much less the wherewithal, to thinkbeyond struggle, to imagine, going beyond the physical concerns ofthis world.

So, when we do, when we truly create, truly imagine it becomes abig deal… Not just to the “mainstream,” but to ourselves as well. And, it becomes a politically defiant actas well. It’s too deep and we’re too weird. We use the coded language of our culture to tell our storiesand the “mainstream” can’t decipher our language. We rock these esoteric concepts that our people havebeen told we can’t generate and they look at us with a cultural suspicion. So, we’re marginalized whilepeople try to figure us out. When in truth, we’re about five steps ahead of the game.

JC: How can fans contact you?

JMA: Fans can contact me at www.griotenterprises.com, the nexus point for all things from the Future ofEntertainment. They can also join The Horsemen: The New Mythology fanpage(https://www.facebook.com/thehorsemennewmythology?ref=hl) and the Griot Enterprises fan page(https://www.facebook.com/pages/Griot-Enterprises/415449001872707?ref=hl) as well… Cheers!

[1] Sheree Renée Thomas, ed., Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora,First Edition edition (New York: Aspect – Warner Books, 2000).

TAGS AFROFUTURISM BLACK PANTHER

DARK MATTER: A CENTURY OF SPECULATIVE FICTION DON MCGREGOR FEATURE

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Beyond Impossible: Jiba Molei Anderson’s Afro-Odyssey

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