ABSTRACT
Afrofuturist perspectives are uniquely positioned to override the limitations imposed by Eurocentric disciplinary studies, which are bound to historical projects of empire and modern nation formation. Afrofuturism urges scholars to consider the Americas as a locus of African encounters that contain and regulate Eurocentric history, rather than the reverse. However, Anglo-Afrofuturism does not adequately capture the growing volume of transnational, multilingual, and diachronic inquiries leading through the Middle Passage to Latin America. Latin American Afrofuturismo is grounded in Afro-Latin American religions; its heroes combat climate catastrophe, predatory global capitalism, racism, and corruption. This article explores early Afrofuturista texts from Brazil and Cuba and recent examples from Brazil and the Caribbean. Afrofuturismo is retributive and reclamatory, not only envisioning alternative futures, but inscribing the African presence on Latin America's past. Recent Afrofuturist fictions such as Rita Indiana's La mucama de Omicunlé envision a hyper-capitalist environmental wasteland whose possible salvation lies with Afro-Caribbean water-deities Olokún and Yemayá-Erzulie-Lasiren, the vanguard of a pantheon of Orixa superheroes.
