“We were really lucky,” Marilyn Sides, an English professor who was part of the hiring process, remarked. “She’s somebody who really supports other writers. She writes in this genre herself, and obviously is very connected.” 

Sides was particularly excited about the background in black speculative fiction – a genre under which falls the subsects of afrofuturism and afrosurrealism – that Ndlovu brings to the department. And bring it she has. Every aspect of the talk was carefully crafted and executed so that audience members and authors alike were able to discuss and derive a greater understanding of black speculative fiction through the lens of two forces within the genre. 

“I wanted two speakers that would be in conversation together to talk about science fiction and AfroSurrealism and Black speculative fiction, and I think P. Djèlí Clark and H.D. Hunter were just the perfect conversationalists together,” Ndlovu said. 

The two authors were a pairing which allowed for multiple perspectives to be in communication. P. Djèlí (pronounced “Jel-ee” or “Jah-lee”) Clark writes for more mature audiences and has an established career with novels like “Ring Shout,” also serving as an assistant professor in the department of history at the University of Connecticut. Meanwhile, Hunter is an up-and-coming YA writer whose debut novel, “Futureland,” contains elements of the graphic novel. Hunter, who has a background in indie publishing, was inspired in part by his experience growing up.

“I’ve been writing for a long time. Since I was a kid, just kind of for fun or through whatever outlets that the school had. Simultaneously, I was always consuming speculative media. Whether it be science fiction or fantasy, cartoons, the stuff that I liked to watch and read was always in that realm. But it was not always representative of black Americans and there wasn’t a ton of diversity of kinds of culture and ethnicity in general in the media that I was consuming when I was a kid,” Hunter said. “But there was one show. It’s called ‘Happily Ever After’… I loved that show, and I think that my first inclination of ‘I can write a story that’s a fairy tale or a fable or a fantasy or science fiction and put myself in it or put people that look like me in it’ probably came from that show. But it wasn’t until way later after high school after college that I sort of made the connection and started doing it in an intentional way.”

For both authors, history and homelands play a major role in their work. History is also an important element for the black speculative fiction genre as a whole. Ndlovu notes that the terms underneath the black speculative fiction umbrella are, to an extent, fluid. She says that it is up to the authors to define where their pieces may fit under that umbrella, whether labeled “Afrofuturism,” “African surrealism,” “AfroSurrealism,” “Africanjujuism” or something else.

“All these different terms that have come up help to capture the diversity of the black community. And I think that’s a good thing that someone like me from Zimbabwe and southern Africa can find space in the genre. That somebody like [Hunter] who’s from Atlanta, Georgia, as well as P. Djèlí Clark, who has roots in the Caribbean in Trinidad and Tobago, that we’re from completely different places, but we’re able to find a home in speculative fiction,” Ndlovu said. 

This gets at one of the most poignant points of the talk itself: part of the value of the event was having faculty, students and authors in conversation, to bring together multiple perspectives in order to conduct a productive, meaningful conversation. A large part of this was driven by Ndlovu’s own experience and knowledge of the authors themselves, leading her to ask layered, complex questions – which Sides emphasized: “Oh they were just brilliant!”

“My personal definition of AfroSurrealism is that it tells the narrative of the contemporary black experience,” said Ndlovu. “AfroSurrealism taps into the absurdity by using horror and magical realism to think through that lived experience and Afrofuturism is doing similar work. Only that it’s kind of speculating on how the present and the past will shape Afro futures.” 

Both authors at the event incorporate past and future elements to think through very real traumas and issues, and black speculative fiction is a genre gaining popularity for its ability to do so on a wider scale.

“I feel like we’re watching something amazing develop in real time,” said Hunter. “It’s been developing so long without us being able to watch as closely … writers have been doing this for generations that just weren’t in the limelight enough. And so it felt really humbling to be a part of an event that is focused on those things. And it also felt great as a takeaway to say this is just a starting point.” 

Although on a small scale, this event is indicative of the growth in popularity black speculative fiction is seeing, as Hunter points out, the genre has a long – if buried – history. Ndlovu details her own experience as a Zimbabwean whose family and community uses mythology to better understand and process real-world issues. 

“Zimbabwe was under a 40-year … Mugabe dictatorship, and we used the concept of immortality to think through what does it mean to live under absolute power,” Ndlovu said. “I’ve taken that with me and used things like immortality, mermaids and spaceships to think about the real world and real structures in the world and systems of injustice.” 

One thing touched on in the talk was the effectiveness of the genre as a way to work through historical traumas, particularly in Clark’s novel “Ring Shout.” 

“Using speculative fiction weirdly provides a little bit of displacement. It’s not right now, it’s not that exact history,” Sides said. “By having that, you get a chance to get into it in not the usual way … It’s not palatable. It just gets you out of this conditioned reflex that you have to these things.” 

Black speculative fiction is growing through multiple mediums – through film with the release of “Black Panther” and through music with artists like Janelle Monae. And with that growth, definitions of these subsects gain more nuance, a fact Clark pointed out during the talk as a positive sign – if sometimes difficult to navigate.

“My favorite avenue to revisit the past is definitely Afro-speculation,” Hunter said of the genre, going on to recommend all of Clark’s works. Clark was an inspirational force in the industry for Hunter and one of Ndlovu’s teachers at the Clarion West Writer’s Workshop. Ndlovu and Hunter have previously collaborated on a grassroots collective supporting black speculative fiction writers through mentorship and creative writing classes, called Voodoonauts. Hunter has been working in the black speculative fiction genre in multiple capacities. Perhaps part of what makes him successful in these various roles is his intentionality. Each character, chapter, and project carries with it specific meaning and purpose.

“I hope that folks can see what I’m trying to embody in this newer generation of publishing professionals,” Hunter said. “The publishing industry is big and old-fashioned and unwieldy. I feel like a disruptive force a lot of times and I’m always proud of it, but sometimes, it’s not fun at all. Sometimes it feels like walking backwards, but I think that being transparent and honest about my experience as somebody who is trying to create art for a living … I want to share what that feels like to people who might have that same aspiration or maybe are just curious.”

Hunter details the differences he has noticed moving from indie to more major publishing: kids, who remain his primary audience for their “Futureland” series, are not included in test groups. In the same vein, adults are typically the ones securing media for kids, so Hunter explains that they must walk the marketing line between staying true to what kids will read versus what adults will buy. Part of his mission is to make his novels accessible and engaging to a group who tends to drop out of the reading realm: tween to teen boys. Generally, Clark, Hunter, and Ndlovu all are seeking to expand the genre of black speculative fiction, making it more visible and accessible to a variety of groups – including in academia.

“I’m just hoping that people read more widely, as well as experiment with speculative fiction themselves. I think speculative fiction, especially in academic settings, is sometimes viewed as not a serious form of literature,” Ndlovu said. “But I think just hearing from Clark and how history and all his research has informed his fiction shows that it’s rigorous. So I hope people are encouraged to play with ghosts and mermaids and not feel like they can’t do that in an academic setting. They can certainly do that at Wellesley.”

Hunter, who has a sequel to his debut novel coming out on Nov. 7, called “The Nightmare Hour,” and an AfroSurrealist short story coming out Nov. 13 from the Porter House Review, emphasized his gratefulness for Wellesley, the Newhouse faculty and staff, Ndlovu, Clark, and the full audience who chose to attend. This Wellesley event has the distinct honor of being Hunter’s first college book talk: perhaps a testament to the ever-widening avenues which black speculative media is carving out in the literary world.

For those looking to get into black speculative fiction, Ndlovu and Hunter gave their recommendations for black speculative fiction in multiple media:

Collections and novels:

• Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark
• Fifth Season by NK Jemisin
• What it Means When a Man Falls from Sky by Lesley Arimah 
• Chain Gang All Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei Brenyah
• And This is How to Stay Alive by Shingai Njeri Kaguna  
• Jackal Jackal by Tobi Ogundiran
• Pet by Akwaeke Emezi 
• Binti trilogy by Nnedi Okorafor
• Dread Nation by Justina Ireland

Films:

• Get Out, by Jordan Peele
• Sorry to Bother You, directed by Boots Riley
• I Am A Virgo, by Boots Riley 
• Atlanta, by Donald Glover
• They Cloned Tyrone, directed by Juel Taylor

Music: 

• “Metropolis EP” by Janelle Monae

One of the most notable moments of the season was the inaugural “Sisters Meet,” hosted by Smith College. Only three teams were present: Wellesley, Mount Holyoke and Smith, all part of the original ‘Seven Sisters’ group of colleges. The first of its kind, this meet was junior Emily Doyle’s favorite meet of the season. 

“You get a lot more flexibility to do stuff that you want at Sisters,” Doyle said. “You talk to other teams a lot more. It’s a lot of fun.” With only three teams and no men’s events, the meet not only ran faster but forged a further connection between the three colleges, promoting a more intimate atmosphere. And with 66 points, 10 points ahead of second place Smith College, Wellesley took first in the team competition.

Individually on the track, sophomore Aoife Fitzgerald, first-year Ella Whinney, and senior Claire Anderson won the 400, 1000, and 3000 meter events respectively, while Wellesley’s 4×400 meter team, comprised of Fitzgerald, first-year Charlie Barron, senior Alejandra Castillo, and first-year Sara Maeve Klingensmith, and distance medley relay team, comprised of Whinney, senior Ellie Murphy-Weise, first-year Aleah Ghiasuddin, and first-year Claire Peng, also took the win. On the field, Doyle won the weight throw while Klingensmith, fellow first-year Dova Koretsky, and sophomore Erin Dickinson swept the triple jump. 

“We had a solid indoor season with solid performances, improvement across the team, and exceptional team chemistry and camaraderie,” said cross country and track and field coach Phil Jennings, noting the Sisters meet as a highlight of the season. 

Though the Sisters Meet was the last meet for some, eight Wellesley athletes qualified for the Division III New England Championships held at The Track at New Balance in Boston on Feb. 24 and 25. In order to compete at this meet, athletes must meet qualifying times earlier in the season, earning them a spot among some of the best athletes in the region. Fitzgerald competed in the 400 meter, while Ghiasuddin competed in the 800 meter, Murphy-Weise in the 1600 meter, Anderson in the 5000 meter, and Whinney ran the 3000 meter to take an impressive third place in the event. The 4×200 meter relay team also competed, consisting of Klingensmith, Fitzgerald, and sophomores Merete Ogah and Ria Goveas.

“Making it to DIII was one of my goals and being able to compete there was like a dream come true,” said sprinter Ogah. “It’s definitely motivating me to work hard and try to make it there again.”

The season brought a multitude of personal records for a variety of athletes, including thrower Emily Doyle. “I PRed at every single meet except for one, so I was pretty happy with that. … I feel like I had a very different experience from everybody else coming in from a year and a half off. I was so ready to get back into competing that I didn’t really care how well I did. And honestly, I think that helped my performance. I was just excited about the season and excited to throw and have fun.” 

Beyond her own personal progress, Doyle is excited for the future of the team; with five throwers this season, it is the most they’ve had since she has been part of the team. With quite a few first years in each of the event groups — throws, jumps, sprints, and distance — it was a season of firsts for many. One such first: the 4×200 meter relay team made up of Klingensmith, Fitzgerald, Merete Ogah, and Ria Goveas, set a new Wellesley record in the event with a time of 1:49.63, just breaking last year’s record of 1:50.61 set by Sally Richardson, Kate Winkler, Dallis Kehoe, and Eriko Darcy.  

“My favorite experience was when our relay team broke the school record,” said Ogah. “We had never run the relay together before, so it came as a total surprise.”

With a slew of accomplishments to mark the season, its conclusion called for celebration — but also preparation for the upcoming outdoor track and field season. “I’m excited to kick off the outdoor season with our spring break trip down to Atlanta next week and continue building off of the progress we made this indoor season,” Jennings said. “With only five outdoor meets before the DIII New England Championship meet, we want to make the most of each competitive opportunity.” In Atlanta, the team will compete at Emory University — a change from the usual New England competitors. And both coaches and athletes seem to have big goals for the outdoor season. 

“Team goals for the outdoor season include winning the outdoor Wellesley-Smith-Mount Holyoke tri-meet, improving on last year’s finish at NEWMAC’s, and continuing to have more qualifiers for the DIII New England Championships,” said Jennings. 

Meanwhile, Doyle has her own goals. “Breaking the javelin record would be really cool … [the current record] is right around my PR, so I think I can do it,” said Doyle. 

So, perhaps there are more firsts to come, more records to be broken, and more meets to be won. In closing, Jennings encourages spectators to come support the team at their one home meet versus Smith College and Mount Holyoke College on April 22.

Recently featured in Netflix’s new series, “African Queens: Njinga,” Carter Jackson was called into the project as an expert on Queen Njinga, the first woman king of the 16th century Ngolo region of Africa who fought against the slave trade. 

“I think the first time I got goosebumps was when I watched the trailer because I did not expect to be in the trailer,” said Carter Jackson. “I’m in it twice, which is wild to me.” 

Executive produced and narrated by Jada Pinkett Smith and starring Adesuwa Oni as Njinga, the project is significant in many ways. For one, it brings the work of scholars to the forefront — most notably, the work of Boston University Professor of African American studies and history Linda Heywood, who wrote the book on Queen Njinga. Carter Jackson uses Heywood’s book in her own class, but as she notes, she can only reach 15 to 20 students at a time, while Netflix’s reach is far more expansive. Using Netflix as a platform to convey Queen Njinga’s story also increases accessibility. 

With this series, Queen Njinga’s legacy leaps outside “the bounds of the ivory towers of academia,” allowing it the opportunity to reach anyone with access to the streaming service. This is a step into transforming years of research from scholars into a more digestible form, conveyed through poignant visuals — adding a new format to learn from in addition to academic texts and podcasts. But being a docudrama, the series still adheres to scholarly roots, which is where Carter Jackson comes in. 

“What I love about it is that it’s the best of both worlds,” said Carter Jackson. “You get the drama that you would get in ‘Game of Thrones,’ but you also get the history. Historians and experts are backing up what you’re saying. … .We are sort of your Google or your Wikipedia. We give you the historical context, we tell you what’s happening and why it matters. And so you can enjoy it while you’re watching it, but you can also learn something new.” 

The docuseries format melds the informative and entertaining in a way that simultaneously values accuracy and storytelling. 

“I think you had to have something like this because very few people know who Queen Njinga was,” Carter Jackson explained. “This was the first moment where she’s being introduced to the public in a major feature. So I think for everyone who was involved, it was really important that we be honest and factual about what happened and that we tried to stay as close to the historical texts as possible.” 

Because the series is based on historical events, Carter Jackson noted that not everything can be fully accurate because historians do not know every detail. They can, however, make educated guesses based on available scholarly work and historical evidence to create the most authentic visual representation possible. The inclusion of these details adds texture and nuance to the series. 

Beyond her role as a historian, Carter Jackson has a story of how she became involved in production. Called up by producers about a year ago because of her experience teaching about Queen Njinga, she was soon invited to fly to London to film. 

“We filmed in this really cool studio. It was all day long. And they peppered me with questions about Queen Njinga,” she recounted. 

Under a barrage of questions for both the pre-interview — during which she helped filmmakers get a better idea of what the film should look like, from costuming to time period accuracy and more — and the interview itself. Though she often teaches about Queen Njinga, Carter Jackson still took time to prepare for this process, rereading Heywood’s book, refreshing her knowledge and coming up with her own talking points. Then, radio silence from producers until the series was about to be released. 

“It was a long time in the making. I don’t know if people realize that when these documentaries are made, it’s often a year or sometimes years in advance. You do all of this work, and then forget about it,” Carter Jackson said. “It may take another year or two before it actually comes out and you get to see all that you put into it.”

In the meantime, Professor Carter Jackson continued teaching. As Wellesley’s Michael and Denise Kellen ’68 Associate Professor of Africana studies, Carter Jackson teaches “anything Black history and culture” Currently, she is teaching “Enslaved Women in the Atlantic World’ and ‘African American History: From Reconstruction to the Present.’

“When I teach my Black women history classes or Women in slavery in the Atlantic world, I start with Queen Njinga,” said Carter Jackson. “My students know that when I talk about the slave trade, I don’t start with kidnappings. I start with kingdoms. I try to let my students know what Africa looks like before Europeans get there.” 

She says that she will be using the series, now that it’s been released, to aid her teaching. Not only will it serve her as a teaching tool, but the content of the series is a source of passion for Carter Jackson.

“Studying and talking about Queen Njinga is something I’m really passionate about and I’m just so empowered by her role in history, like what she did, not just for her people but how she set an example really for all rulers and leadership,” Carter Jackson said. 

One of the most significant outcomes of the project is presenting an African woman as a paradigm for successful, long-lasting leadership. 

Carter Jackson explains that Queen Njinga ruled for a long time, living to approximately 80 years old and even riding into battle on horseback well into her sixties. Even more impressive to Carter Jackson, however, is the tradition she started; her sister took the throne after her and of the 100 years following Queen Njinga’s death, 80 of them were ruled by women.

“I think we have such a strong precedent for understanding male leadership. But we don’t know what it looks like to have a woman in power and to keep having women in power,” Carter Jackson said. “[Queen Njinga] worked as hard as she possibly could to stop the slave trade, to stop the Portuguese from encroaching on her kingdom and from stealing her people and other people’s people. We don’t have enough examples of that kind of courage.” 

Even with the odds against her, Queen Njinga continued to oppose the Portuguese, demonstrating both her strength as a strategist and her compassion for her people: a striking duality. 

“It’s just a really powerful story to me and the fact that it’s true! It happened! I always say we don’t have to make these things up. It’s nice to have mythical kingdoms and characters, but history really is exciting. And there are people, real people, that that we can draw upon that do amazing things and you should know their names,” Carter Jackson said.

Carter Jackson also notes some of the unique aspects of Queen Njinga’s life.

“She was pretty fierce, “ said Carter Jackson. “Some people say she killed her brother for the throne and had harems of both men and women. She sort of had a queer sexuality about her. There’s a lot of her about her life that is just ahead of its time. She was a real pioneer and a real heroine.”

Explaining that she feels as though she was filling in the gap for Heywood, who was unable to be part of the project, Carter Jackson lent a passion and informed perspective to the series. As an author, scholar and podcaster herself, Carter Jackson has been able to spread historical information across a variety of mediums. Now, in the new frontier of film, she is making her mark yet again.