Metallic Mode: Exploring African Speculative Fiction through the Affordances of Metal

African sf occupies a particularly interesting interstitial space, blurring lines between science fiction and the fantastical. The literature defies easy categorization. This paper looks at the associations between metal and Africa to explore such defiance and to develop the idea that African sf can be called a “metallic mode.” I explore the affordances of metal in two contemporary texts: Namwali Serpell’s The Old Drift (2019) and Andrew Miller’s Dub Steps (2015). Informed by Caroline Levine’s work on form and its affordances, I examine the potential we might find in the properties of metal to think and speak about African sf. The paper ultimately looks at how the literature communicates through metallic historicity, malleability, ductility, non-linearity, recyclability, conductivity, and technological capability to cast African sf as a complex mode that forges a space of its own in the broader terrain of sf.