Visions of China: Political Friendship and Animosities in Southern African Science Fiction

Using contemporary science fiction as a barometer, we can see the African imaginary to be seemingly preoccupied with the idea of China and with forecasting various dystopian scenarios regarding the future of China–Africa relations. Yet, through an examination of three short stories from Southern Africa – Tendai Huchu’s ‘The Sale’ (2013), Abigail Godsell’s ‘Taal’ (2009) and Mandisi Nkomo’s ‘Heresy’ (2013) – I explore a complex relationship whose participants are intimately aligned: China and Africa have an historical connection that asks us to take seriously the practice and potential of political friendship. Through a close reading of these short stories, it becomes possible to consider how the relationship need not result in Chinese neocolonialism and exploitation. Working with the conceptual framework of political friendship, I illustrate how these short stories cumulatively serve to unravel easy distinctions between the friend and the enemy, thereby intimating that, in the future, southern Africa can benefit from approaching China as both friend and enemy.