Envisioning the future of engineering education through Africanfuturism

This paper explores how Africanfuturism, specifically Nnedi Okorafor’s Binti series, offers a transformative framework for reimagining engineering education to promote inclusivity, belonging, and diverse epistemologies. Grounded in Marcus Garvey’s call to honor cultural histories, we critique the colonial legacies of engineering, which favor Western knowledge systems while sidelining non-Western contributions. Drawing from bell hooks’ concept of transformative education, we argue that Africanfuturism challenges exclusionary practices by incorporating ancestral knowledge, cultural traditions, and liberatory visions into STEMM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine) fields. Through thematic analyses of race and prejudice, innovation rooted in tradition, and cultural identity, Binti illustrates how Black epistemologies—grounded in community, spirituality, and historical consciousness—can reshape engineering education. We emphasize the potential of Africanfuturist narratives to decenter whiteness, confront systemic racism, and foster educational environments where marginalized students can thrive. By centering Black radical imagination, this paper advocates for an interdisciplinary, justice-oriented approach that integrates storytelling, cultural identity, and diverse ways of knowing to cultivate engineers committed to equity, empathy, and social transformation. Updated with minor typographical corrections: June 30, 2025.