Although the term afrofuturism was coined as relatively recently as 1993 (by critic Mark Dery), the idea of artists reimagining the future with a distinctly African slant is not new. As a literary device, afrofuturism reimagines how society could be if contemporary race relations had played out very differently, offering a direct commentary on modern life through fantasy.

It's part of the reason why the movie Black Panther has been such a runaway success, with the fictitious tech-paradise of Wakanda challenging the commonly held views of what a futuristic society will look like by changing the skin pigmentation of almost everyone in it.

There are musical parallels too, alternate universes created to prove that sparks fly when science fiction and the funk collide, starting in true Superman-style with one man and one outlandish claim about his true origins.