Intimate Objectivity: On Nnedi Okorafor's Oceanic Afrofuturism

This article presents a reading of Nnedi Okorafor's science fiction novel/petrofiction Lagoon (2016) in order to develop a theory of "intimate objectivity" in which marine biology calmly confronts the fantastic. Drawing on traditions in feminist science studies, postcolonial theory, Afrofuturism, and the ocean humanities, I show how Lagoon's intimate objectivity derives from its dual characterization of visiting aliens as coral reefs and Mami Wata deities. This double signification places Lagoon's aliens as mediators of both indigenous cosmologies and technological evolution, a necessary catalyst for imagining alternative futures distinct from the destructive elements of petroculture.