Embodied climate knowledge in African cli-fi: Alistair Mackay's It doesn't have to be this way (2022) and Nnedi Okorafor's Noor (2021)

Abstract

This article argues that embodied knowledge depicted in climate fiction novels by African authors offers insights into marginalized subjectivities; and that these perspectives can reduce epistemic oppression in climate change knowledge.1 Two novels set in a future time characterized by climate collapse are analyzed: It Doesn't Have To Be This Way (2022) by South African author Alistair Mackay and Noor (2021) by American-Nigerian author Nnedi Okorafor. The novels foreground queer perspectives2 and experiences with disability and discrimination, challenging hegemonic epistemology in climate change knowledge. An overview of the genre is provided to explain the selection of the two novels; followed by a conceptual discussion of epistemic oppression in climate change research and how embodied knowledge in fiction can counter it. Thereafter, econarratology is briefly introduced as a methodological approach. In the novels' temporal and spatial contexts of climate collapse, the characters reveal powerfully embodied accounts of subjectivity, offering understudied hermeneutical resources in African contexts.