A pioneering work of Afrofuturism and antiracist fiction by the author
of Black No More, about a Black scientist who masterminds a worldwide
conspiracy to take back the African continent from imperial powers
A Penguin Classic
"An amazing serial story of Black genius against the world" is how
Black Empire was promoted upon its original publication as a serial in
The Pittsburgh Courier from 1936 to 1938. It tells the electrifying
tale of Dr. Henry Belsidus, a Black scientific genius desperate to free
his people from the crushing tyranny of racism. To do so, he concocts a
plot to enlist a crew of Black intellectuals to help him take over the
world, cultivating a global network to reclaim Africa from imperial
powers and punish Europe and America for white supremacy and their
crimes against the planet's Black population.
At once a daring, high-stakes science fiction adventure and a strikingly
innovative Afrofuturist classic, this controversial and fearlessly
political work lays bare the ethical quandaries of exactly how far one
should go in the name of justice.