Islam and Science Fiction » Rebecca Hankins

Ali Mazrui’s The Trial of Christopher Okigbo

Rebecca Hankins — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 16:23:36 +0000

Dr. Ali Mazrui, Kenyan born economist and scholar has written one work of science fiction titled, The Trial of Christopher Okigbo. In this 1971 work Mazrui makes use of a thematic device used throughout his writings, both fiction and non-fiction, that he labels ‘the triple heritage” of Africa, those faith traditions that have the strongest influence on the continent; i.e. Christianity, Islam, and the indigenous African/animist systems. Set in the African Afterworld this utopian novel recounts a trial that takes place in heaven concerning major moral issues of loyalty, love, life and death as they relate to the Nigeria/Biafra War of 1967-1970.

Mack Reynolds’s Border, Breed, nor Birth

Rebecca Hankins — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 16:02:49 +0000

This 1962 novel continues Reynolds “North Africa series” and his attack on Islam started in Blackman’s Burden. The agents are finding success in moving the people away from Islam. His depiction of the Muslim leaders as corrupt and greedy has led to rebellion. Reynolds main character, Homer Crawford, sums up the feelings about Islam on page 84 of the novel, “…we don’t even think of the Moslem world as particularly civilized.”

Mack Reynolds’s The Blackman’s Burden

Rebecca Hankins — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 15:45:50 +0000

This 1961 novel depicts Muslims as authoritarian rulers of Africa, whose rigidity and inability to adapt to change worsens the condition of the African people rather than improving their lives. Blackman’s Burden tells the story of a group of Caribbean and African American intelligence agents and their mission to rid Africa, in particular, North Africa, of Islamic influence, corrupt their leaders, and destroy their cultural and religious practices. One central aspect of this plan is to undermine the wearing of the veil by Muslim women. If the women will remove their veils the aid organization promises to provide her with an education and health care. The other interesting aspect of this story is the setting amongst the Taureg tribes, where the men traditionally veil their faces.

Fictional Islam: A Literary Review and Comparative Essay on Islam in Science Fiction and Fantasy

Rebecca Hankins — Sat, 02 Oct 2010 23:28:47 +0000

This article will provide a literary review of some scholarly writings on Islamic science fiction and fantasy and an analysis of two novels that incorporate Muslims and Islam in their science fiction storyline, one from Brian Aldiss’s HARM (2007) and Ali Mazrui’s The Trial of Christopher Okigbo (1971). Although over 30 years separate the publications of Aldiss and Mazrui, the similarities in some of the themes of both books are uncanny and offer some interesting observations on Islam as imagined in the science fiction genre, past and present, minor and major.

Published in the journal Foundation: The International Review of Science Fiction Issue 105: Fall 2009.

The complete article can be downloaded here.