#7Questions: How I settled on Africanfuturism – TJ Benson

TJ Benson’s first book, a collection of short speculative fiction called ‘We Won’t Fade Into Darkness’ (Parresia, 2018), crept into readers’ heads about four years ago. Since then he’s had a second book published, with a third one on the way. Here, the writer/artist/photographer answers seven questions in the way only he can.

By Abdulkareem Baba Aminu

Your first book, the novella ‘We Won’t Fade Into Darkness’ divided readers, causing many to try and force a label on it. How would you describe it?

TJ Benson: I started writing the stories with the intent of making an African sci-fi world, but when I was done I realized I had created something different from that. My characters used indigenous technology, which is regarded as witchcraft today. They also mostly never leave the continent. I didn’t have words for it until I came across the term ‘Africanfuturism’ coined by the celebrated writer, Nnedi Okorafor, and had an ‘aha!’ moment. So, Africanfuturism.

“I didn’t have words for it until I came across the term ‘Africanfuturism’ coined by the celebrated writer, Nnedi Okorafor, and had an ‘aha!’ moment.”

Your sophomore effort, ‘The Madhouse’ (Masobe, 2021), is causing similar reactions over genre. Where would you place it?

TJ Benson: I fought against the category ‘Magical Realism’ right up to the month of publication, because I felt the supernatural governs the lives of many people who share a country with the characters. Yet the spiritualistic elements in the book weren’t of any specific culture which would have made it African Spirituality, like Ben Okri’s ‘The Famished Road’, so ‘The Madhouse’ is definitely Magical Realism.

What can you dish to us about your upcoming novel ‘People Live Here’?

TJ Benson: Not a lot, I’m afraid. It’s a much smaller novel than ‘The Madhouse’, and more linear in structure, even if I admit it has a lot of twisty turns. It’s me, after all (laughter). All I can tell you is that I’m really excited for it to come out.

You’re also a visual artist, as well as a photographer. How do you approach that aspect of your creativity, and does it feed into your writing work?

TJ Benson: There was no intersection between the mediums I practiced until the global lockdown of 2020 when I lost all language. I started drawing on my photographs and realized I draw from the same well in my spirit that I write from. One pulls the other. Pure photography on the other hand is like speaking an entirely different language for me.

“There was no intersection between the mediums I practiced until the global lockdown of 2020 when I lost all language. I started drawing on my photographs and realized I draw from the same well in my spirit that I write from.”

While it’s too early, what’s your next project, after ‘People Live Here’?

TJ Benson: Another short story collection with a little bit of magic, and a little bit of science fiction. That’s all I can share for now.

At what point in your life did you decide you wanted to be a writer?

TJ Benson: To be honest, I decide every year. But the earliest was when I showed an aunt a novella I had handwritten when I was eleven and she told me to make sure I kept the exercise book safe.

What are you reading – and enjoying – these days?

TJ Benson: Unpublished manuscripts (laughter).