The Childhood Disappointments of a Young African Girl Give Birth to the Super-Powered Black Teen Hero of the Future

At some point, nearly every child had dreams of being a superhero.

The most compelling conversations on the playground centered around what superpower would be the coolest to have or debating the end result of an epic Superman versus Batman battle.

It was action and fantasy that drove most children to have superhero-filled dreams.

For Milumbe Haimbe, that wasn’t the case.

Haimbe also shared a deep desire to become a superhero, but it wasn’t about a cool costume or unleashing vengeance on the evil villains of elementary school.

It was about the possibility of creating and defending a world of peace, a world of economic equality, a world free of stress and depression. She wanted to be the heroine who created a world that was essentially the exact opposite from that of her own.

“I grew up in Zambia in the 1980s, an era that marked the beginning of the country’s worst economic crisis,” she wrote in a special post for CNN. “My childhood memories are of a prolonged state of emergency that was characterized by acute food shortages and an economic decline where the basic needs of the average Zambian family were barely met.”

That very real universe that created Haimbe’s reality left her, her siblings and her close friends working to develop an extraterrestrial language that might be able to reach some of the most popular superheroes of the time.

“Our goal was to send an SOS out to the superheroes in the galaxies,” she added.”…[P]erhaps a spaceship would come down to Earth to save us from our dreary lives and carry us into outer space.”

With so many popular heroic figures to choose from, Haimbe had no idea if it would be Superwoman or the Incredible Hulk rescuing her and her siblings from their “dreary lives.”

What she did know was that the hero would probably be a male and would definitely be white.

At least that’s what mainstream America would want her to think.

The creative spirit inside her grew into an impassioned woman who knew it was about time that younger women in Africa had a young, Black super-powered girl to aspire to be like some day.

So Haimbe created Ananiya.

Ananiya is a 17-year-old girl who joined a fictional resistance at the age of 13 in Haimbe’s graphic novel “The Revolutionist.”

“The Revolutionist” is still described by Haimbe as a “work in progress.”

The series will follow Ananiya as she navigates the complexities of a distant future that is still far too much like the past.

“As the masses are thrust into a state of emergency, Ananiya’s world is characterized by curfews police raids, censorship and propaganda,” Haimbe continues. “Will the revolution overcome? With this literary and visual offering, I describe a world that is both like — and at the same time very much unlike — our own. As a young, Black female, my protagonist, Ananiya, is the most unlikely hero for the revolution.”

Love Black Speculative Fiction? 4 Good Reads of 2014

This year, I happily discovered Black fantasy fiction authors like Balogun Ojetade and Jennifer Fisch Ferguson. While I have enjoyed everything that I have read, there are certain books that have become my favorites.

This list is presented by Latonya Pennington from Blackgirlnerds.

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‘Once Upon a Time in Afrika’ by Balogun Ojetade

This book was an awesome introduction to sword and soul, the genre that has stories set in alternate versions of Africa and Black men and women armed with magic and steel. It was a fast-paced story with action, adventure, a little romance and kick-ass Black men and women. I loved how the author weaved Yoruba mythology into the story. Also, Mistress Oyabakin has become one of my favorite Black female fictional characters.

Good Read: 12 Science Fiction Books Written by Black Authors

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‘Black Space: Imagining Race in Science Fiction Film’

“Black Space: Imagining Race in Science Fiction Film” by Adilifu Nama (2008) is the first book-length study of African-American representation in science fiction films. “Black Space” demonstrates that science fiction cinema has become an important field of racial analysis, a site where definitions of race can be contested and post-civil rights race relations (re)imagined.

 

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‘The Conjure Woman’ 

“The Conjure Woman” is a collection of short stories, written by Charles W. Chesnutt in 1899, that deal with major themes through the lens of an African-American man living in the antebellum South. The prose is a bit dated, and very 19th century, but it establishes the genre very well. Chesnutt’s work is one of the first collections to be truly considered Black speculative fiction/sci-fi/fantasy. Also, “The Conjure Woman” collection is 100 percent free on Project Gutenberg.

 

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‘Black Comics: Politics of Race and Representation’

“Black Comics: Politics of Race and Representation” edited by Sheena C. Howard and Ronald L. Jackson II (2013) is an analytic history of the diverse contributions of Black artists to the medium of comics. Covering comic books, superhero comics, graphic novels and cartoon strips from the early 20th century to the present, the book explores the ways in which Black comic artists have grappled with such themes as the Black experience, gender identity, politics and social media.