Narratives

Three narratives were developed using the framework’s three value perspectives: 

Nature for Nature

Nature for Society: Sankofa – A dialogue between 3 elders and their caretaker, as the elders remembered the changes they’d seen for the continent during their lives. In this future, Africa is now called “Sankofa,” after a Twi word that translates as “to retrieve,” as in “it is not forbidden to go back to retrieve what you have forgotten.” The caretaker patiently reminds the elders about life on the Sankofan continent: its self-governing smart-city states (including 10 of the world’s most livable cities), its resilient local food production systems, the robust grieving process that helped society weather the crises of the 21st century. Of all the continents, Sankofa was the one that weathered the climate crisis best, and now it allocates billions of Sankofa coins (the world’s preeminent currency) toward education for both Sankofans and foreigners. The elders remember how remarkable it is that they are 160 years old, where Europeans are “lucky if they make it to 95 […] They went through another industrial age, poor things … they didn’t learn how to do it the local way.”

Nature for Society

Nature as Culture: The African Century – A broadcast takeover. Every TV station is interrupted by a delegation from the future “to share good news […] the African Century has arrived.” The minister of economics describes how the continent has become an economic powerhouse thanks to strategic global positioning and the Shared Dreaming Engine, which acts as a platform for an extremely complex person-to-person barter economy within the continent. The Engine also enables people to commune directly with nature – an entity representing all of nature (translated by the broadcaster) expresses gratitude: “They are grateful for the communion they have with man, and … sorry, it’s a joke, you wouldn’t understand it.” With its own rights and its own agency, Nature has a position on the continental security council. The minister of culture explains how cultural knowledge, cultural institutions, and cultural relationships with nature have enabled the continent’s self-sufficiency. The minister of futures explains how narratives about Africa’s future (and its plan for the next 300 years) are now more informed by indigenous perspectives than by the history of injustice or the power of others. As the signal breaks, the spokesperson ends with a charge. “This future is possible. It is hard, it is very difficult, but it is p-”

Nature as Culture

Nature for Nature: Adje’s Journey – A young adult’s search “for wisdom across a borderless world.” The main character’s name is “Adje,” a multilingual pun bridging “Àjẹ́” (a Yoruba word roughly translating to “witchcraft”) and “Adze” (a Fon word meaning “rat”). In an Africa with no nations, Adje can travel freely and learn from the people they encounter. They learn how to travel in the manner of their ancestors, by walking with the wind – they, like 80% of Africa’s young people, are in touch with ancestral knowledge. In North Africa’s deserts, they learn how air travel technology uses thermal updrafts, modeled after “migratory birds that wait for the sun to rise.” With major decreases in international exports due to the continent’s local production and mindful consumption, the oceans they cross are clean and healthy. As they travel, Adje takes “what [they] need from the ocean, and no more.” When they fall ill, they are “welcomed, taken care of, and loved” by a community that practices radical care. In exchange, and for the sake of balance and care, Adje shares what they have learned in their journey: “take as much as you are given, give as much as you take.” Adje asks the Congo River for permission to ride its current. “Thank you river, for granting me that permission,” Adje says. “You have the right to say yes or to say no for us to use you.” At the end of the river, when Adje finds they “miss the people that they have left behind,” they depend on the power of witchcraft to return home.

Community quotes:

Quote 1:“One thing that we would like to emphasize is that a lot of [what was in the visions] is already being done, it just needs to be scaled up. So none of these ideas are coming from nowhere … This is not a transformation of human nature, this is almost a deepening into what we already are. We are not becoming a new species, we are literally going back to who we actually are. Like waking up from a bad dream.”

Quote 2:“One of the magical things, for the lack of a better word, is that this group of people have been brought together for this experience, and that this group of people, individually and collectively, has the capacity to acknowledge those difficult emotions and the tensions where we are […] and at the same time hold space and appreciation for this process […] this is the seeds, and each of us will sow those seeds and reap the rewards in our own contexts. […] We are a magic elixir that’s been fit into a container. There is no container that will fit this elixir, but it’s a start.”

Quote 3:“How often does somebody ask me ‘What do I think about the future of Africa?’ How often does that ever come? Nobody ever asks me. […] I think we’re all committed to changing the narrative of this continent, putting an alternative narrative on the table.”

Key findings

• Indigenous knowledge and the associated threats in mangrove conservation practices in the MTBR are documented for the first time in Benin Republic and Togo.
• The contribution of indigenous practices in solving the Food-Climate-Biodiversity nexus in the MTBR is recorded.
• Map of the different indigenous led initiatives that are driving positive social and environmental change in the MTBR.
• Scenarios of the use of ILK in the desirable futures for the relationship between IPLCs and the MTBR Pathways.

Reports and Publications

Deepening Into Who We Are: Report on the AFRICAN FUTURES Regional Scenarios Workshop.

Carpenter-Urquhart, L., Pereira, L., Bashir, I., Guzha, T., Landin, A., Noor, N. A., Onwualu, C., Ouma, A., Selomane, O., Sumaila, U. R., Syatyoka, V., & Zoeller, K. (2025). Deepening Into Who We Are: Report on the AFRICAN FUTURES Regional Scenarios Workshop. African Futures Project report 5. Stockholm Resilience Centre. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17106594

 – Download the full report here

Photos from fieldwork:

Bios from partners/writers/artists

Writer: Mame Bougouma Diene

Mame Bougouma Diene is a Franco–Senegalese American humanitarian based in Dakar, the francophone spokesperson for the African Speculative Fiction Society (https://www.africansfs.com/), the French language editor for Omenana Magazine, and a regular columnist at Strange Horizons. You can find his fiction and nonfiction work in Omenana, Galaxies SF, Edilivres, Fiyah! Truancy Magazine, EscapePod, Mythaxis, Apex Magazine, Interzone and TorDotCom; and in anthologies such as AfroSFv2 & V3 (Storytime), Myriad Lands (Guardbridge Books), You Left Your Biscuit Behind (Fox Spirit Books), This Book Ain’t Nuttin to Fuck Wit (Clash Media), Africanfuturism (Brittle Paper), Dominion (Aurelia Leo), Meteotopia (Future Fiction/Co-Futures in English and Italian), Bridging Worlds (Jembefola Press) and Africa Risen (TorDotCom). His novelette The Satellite Charmer is translated in Italian by Moscabianca Edizioni, his novelette Ogotemmeli’s Song is translated in Bangla by Joydhak Prakashan, and his short story Leki Leki is currently under translation in Lule Saami. He was nominated for several Nommo Awards, and his debut collection “Dark Moons Rising on a Starless Night” (Clash Books) was nominated for the 2019 Splatterpunk Award. His short story “A Soul of Small Places” co-authored with his spouse Woppa Diallo, won the 2023 Caine Prize for African Writing.

Artist: Blythe Atemenou

Blythe Atemenou is a self-taught artist, born in Benin Republic, shaped by his failures as much as by his visions. He left the beaten paths—finance, architecture, academic success—to follow a darker, more sincere path: that of raw expression. His style is geometric, structured, but always on the edge of the absurd. He seeks neither perfection nor smooth beauty. He creates to provoke fate, to see how far a man can go when he faces his limits with his eyes open. Each line is irreversible, each work is a risk. His art is an act of survival, a way of standing up to vertigo, without cheating, without erasing.”. His works can be consulted on Instagram / X as blytheatemen0u, or on LinkedIn as Blythe Atemenou.

Graphic Designer: Yannick Sonon

Yannick Sonon is a designer, illustrator, 2D animator, and co-founder of Ti’Tans Animation Studio. He is passionate about drawing and digital technologies, translating ideas into images to make them clear, understandable, and accessible to many people. He has developed a wide range of skills that allow him to bring a variety of creative projects to life, ranging from illustration to visual design, including design and animation. Each project is an opportunity for him to explore new ideas, and offer original visual solutions tailored to the needs of both clients and audiences. His approach is guided by rigor, artistic sensitivity, and a sincere desire to share meaningful visual worlds. In 2022, he obtained his National Diploma in Arts and Design (DN MADE), which allowed him to collaborate with numerous institutions in Benin Republic, and other African and European countries. In 2023, he participated in the Incubima Animation training program organized by Sèmè City in Benin Republic, to deepen his animation skills and further develop his creative approach. His work can be consulted on LinkedIn as yannick sonon.