CONVERGENCE PROBLEMS

The second collection of Africanfuturism, speculative fiction, and mystical short stories by Nigerian author and engineer Talabi.

In this collection of 16 stories, mostly set in Nigeria, characters are faced with the problems and promises that arise in an ever-changing, technologically advancing world. Sometimes those challenges are smaller, as in “Debut,” when two AI nodes create a collaborative piece of art made for other AI. When they spread their art across global systems, other AI systems express their pleasure in ways that disrupt humanity’s daily lives. Some challenges are on a more significant scale, as in “Ganger,” in which climate refugees have no choice but to live in a tech billionaire’s domed city. Everything they do is managed, mitigated, and restricted by neural implants. Laide Haraya, determined to find a way out of her monotonous, meaningless existence, stumbles on a way to hide her mind inside a droid. Now that she can do what she wants without being detected, she must decide whether she’ll risk her freedom to help others find theirs. In other stories, the challenges are more personal. In “Performance Review,” employers remotely monitor employees’ brain activity, speech, and movement as well as use high-level surveillance during working hours; Nneka must choose between losing her job and taking company drugs to increase her (arbitrary) performance metrics. In “Saturday’s Song,” a woman seeks whoever sent an evil spirit to kill her partner. Doing so requires being permanently possessed by the lord of the chains—and deciding whether freedom lies in forgiveness or vengeance. Written with an emotional economy few storytellers can master, the tales are accessible even to those with no background in Nigeria or Africanfuturism. Talabi plays with narrative form; puts women, people with disabilities, and LGBTQ+ people front and center; and tackles complicated topics like suicide and domestic violence, all while looking for happiness, hope and meaning in an uncertain world.

A fascinating and riveting exploration of what the future may hold—for better or worse.