Afro-Surrealism

Afro-Surrealism or Afrosurrealism is a literary and present day is a crucial to Afro-Surrealism.

cultural aesthetic that is a response to mainstream Cinematographer Arthur Jafa expanded the field of Afro-
surrealism in order to reflect the lived experience of
Surrealism by experimenting with film. Jafa introduces
people of color. First coined by Amiri Baraka,[1] this the idea of “the alien familiar,” in order to represent the
movement focuses on the present day experience of
Black experience and its innate surreal characteristics. “I
African Americans. Much of Afro-Surrealism is based want it to have something that I and my friends call 'the
on the manifesto written by D. Scot Miller, in which he
alien familiar.' If a work succeeds in a way or is able
says, “Afro-Surrealism sees that all 'others’ who create to conjure what a Black cinema would be or what this
from their actual, lived experience are surrealist...” Afro- hypothetical manifestation of this particular tradition in
Surrealism can be seen in music, photography, film, the the cinematic arena might be, it should be both alien be-
visual arts and poetry. Notable practitioners of Afro- cause you’ve never seen anything quite like it, and at the
Surrealism include Bob Kaufman, Krista Franklin, Kool same time, it should be familiar on some level to Black
Keith, Samuel R. Delany, Roman Bearden and Deana audiences.”[4]
Lawson.
A Manifesto of Afro-Surreal was written by D. Scot
Miller’s and was published in 2009.[1] The manifesto
delineates Afro-Surrealism from Surrealism and Afro-
1 Influence Futurism. The manifesto also declares a the necessity
of Afro-Surrealism, especially in San Francisco, Califor-
Afro-Surrealism came about after the initial rise in nia. The manifesto lists ten tenants that Afro-Surrealism
surrealism in the mid-1920s, after André Breton wrote follows including how “Afro-Surrealists restore the cult
the Surrealist Manifesto. Similar to the mainstream of the past,” and how “Afro-Surreal presupposes that be-
version of surrealism, Afro-Surrealism was not a single yond this visible world, there is an invisible world striving
movement or style. Rather, it incorporated aspects of the to manifest, and it is our job to uncover it.”
Harlem Renaissance, Négritude and magical realism. As-
pects of Afro-Surrealism can be traced to Martiniquan
Suzanne Césaire’s discussion of the “revolutionary impe-
tus of surrealism” in the 1940s.[2] 3 Themes
Marvelous Realism, coined by the Haitian novelist
Jacques Stephen Alexis, can be seen as a precursor 3.1 The Everyday Lived Experience
to Afro-Surrealism. In his 1956 essay for Présence
Africaine, he wrote, “What, then, is the Marvellous, ex- Much of Afro-Surrealism is concerned with the everyday
cept the imagery in which a people wraps its experience, life because it is said that there is nothing more surreal
reflects its conception of the world and of life, its faith, than the Black experience. An example of this would
its hope, its confidence in man, in a great justice, and be a photo by Deana Lawson called Emily and Daughter.
the explanation which it finds for the forces antagonis- According to Terri Francis, “Afrosurrealism is art with
tic to progress?”[3] In his work, Alexis is seen to have an skin on it where the texture of the object tells its story,
acute sense of reality that is not dissimilar to traditional how it weathered burial below consciousness, and how it
surrealism. Suzanne Césaire, a Martinique writer, sim- emerged somewhat mysteriously from oceans of forgot-
ilarly wrote about the surreality of living away from the ten memories and discarded keepsakes. This photograph
Caribbean yet having ties to it. figures Afrosurrealism as bluesy, kinky-spooky.”[5]

3.2 Haunting
2 Development
Afro-Surrealism is often described as having a sense of
Afro-Surrealism was coined by Amiri Baraka in his 1988 a haunting welcoming. As Francis describes it, there is
essay on Black Arts Movement avant-garde writer Henry a sense of disruption from the past in an otherwise or-
Dumas.[2] Baraka notes that Dumas is able to write about dinary or comfortable situation. An example of Afro-
ancient mysteries that were simultaneously relevant to the Surrealism seen as haunting can be seen in Toni Morri-
present day. This idea that the past resurfaces to haunt the son’s Beloved, in that the dead baby comes back to haunt

1
2 4 REFERENCES

[4] Arthur Jafa, “The Notion of Treatment: Black Aesthet-

ics and Film, based on an interview with Peter Hassli
and additional discussions with Pearl Bowser,” in Oscar
Micheaux and His Circle: African-American Filmmak-
ing and Race Cinema of the Silent Era, ed. Pearl Bowser
et al. (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2001), 18.

[5] Francis, Terri (2013-01-01). “Meditation”. Black Cam-

era 5 (1): 94–94. ISSN 1947-4237.

Deana Lawson, Emily and Daughter, 2002

Sethe.[3] The past resurfacing in the present is key aspect

of Afro-Surrealism.

3.3 Present Day Realism

According Francis, the juxtaposition between the old and

the present day is what makes Afro-Surrealism so unique.
As Francis puts it, “Surrealism here, the Afro-surreal, like
the marvelous discussed above, is actually a realism so
real, so contrary to the norms of publicized blackness,
that it represents a rupture, a radical break from ordinary
understanding such that the old feels new—because it was
never known.”[3] Although this movement is related to
Afrofuturism, it is different in that instead of focusing on
the future, Afro-Surrealism focuses more on the present
day.

4 References
[1] D. Scot, Miller. “Call it Afro-Surreal”. San Francisco Bay
Guarian. Retrieved 8 December 2015.

[2] “Editor’s Notes”. Black Camera 5 (1): 1–2. 2013-01-01.

ISSN 1947-4237.

[3] Francis, Terri (2013-01-01). “Introduction: The No-

Theory Chant of Afrosurrealism”. Black Camera 5 (1):
95–112. ISSN 1947-4237.
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