Climate fiction genre slowly takes root in Africa

MAUN, Botswana — As Africa bears the brunt of worsening climate change, writers and novelists on the continent are turning to pen "climate fiction" — or cli-fi — which seeks to challenge Western narratives while attracting and inspiring African readers.

The term was coined by a climate activist in 2008, and high-profile US and British authors from Barbara Kingsolver to Margaret Atwood have since hit the headlines and won plaudits for their novels contributing to the growing literary genre.

In sub-Saharan Africa, writers and editors said cli-fi has been slower to take root, but point to an uptick in recent years with more short stories published online and a newly established award recognizing African writers in this field.

Nigerian author and editor Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki said African cli-fi was more immediate, relevant and personal compared to such literature from elsewhere in the world.

"Ours focuses more on the individual than the theoretical or institutional," said Ekpeki, who has written a cli-fi novelette.

"It's real-time, in the now. Who has no home to live in? No path to go to school or work as their roads are literally broken by floodwaters? Who has no way to eat, no futures?"

Warming fast

From rising heat to seas, droughts, floods and cyclones, Africa is being hit disproportionately hard by climate change impacts.

The continent accounts for less than 3 percent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions and yet is warming faster than the global average, the World Meteorological Organization said.

However, Derek Workman, editor-in-chief of online magazine Kalahari Review in Botswana, said examples of cli-fi written on the continent are still relatively few, while demand from the public remains low.

The genre — originally a subgenre of science fiction — exists mainly on the continent through online publications, he said, adding that physical books published across Africa tend toward memoirs, young adult fiction, or vampire romance novels.

"Sadly, there is a very small appetite for this (cli-fi) — not just in Africa, but worldwide," Workman said.

The Share Africa Cli-Fi Award — the first of its kind to be established and run on the continent — was launched last year by the nonprofit Botswana Society for Human Development, with support from writers, advocates and academics.

One of the shortlisted entries for the new award was The Serpent's Handmaiden by South African writer Vuyokazi Ngemntu.

The short story — set in 2033 in a dystopian drought-hit state that once was South Africa — revolves around a teenage girl's encounters with the mystical serpent Inkanyamba, which torments her in her dreams for ignoring an ancestral calling.

When the girl eventually heeds the call, rain arrives on the parched land.

"I believe cli-fi can be weaponized to highlight the urgency of these matters," said Ngemntu, adding that she wanted to "craft a story that was ours, not mine", referring to all Africans.

"It is something that I feel we are yet to be audacious about as African writers — telling our stories in a way that does not pander to the Western gaze."

Agencies via Xinhua