Cognition's Warp

This article examines the use of the near-future scenario in two African films. By analysing the intertexual use of science fiction film iconography in Ousmane Sembène's La Noire de…, Jean-Pierre Bekolo's Les Saignantes and Sylvestre Amoussou's Africa Paradis, the author argues that the latter films should be regarded as post-millennium refashioning of the anticipation narrative. In particular, these latter films using tropes of cyberspace and cyborg figurations need to be read as responses to the prevalence of new African narratives of the occult. The use of cyberspace and cyborgs not only attests to the circulation of science fiction film icons, but also to the search for new semiotic codes for representing social reality.