Afro Futures 2050 is an ambitious storytelling project designed to reimagine Africa’s future. The project invites writers, storytellers, and visionaries across the continent to gather, create, and share future-focused narratives that reimagine our trajectory, which is the first step in turning dreams into reality.
By 2050, Africa will be home to one in four people on Earth. A new initiative called Afro Futures 2050 aims to harness that momentum, inviting Africans to envision how the continent can look, feel, and operate in a future fuelled by possibility.
“Rather than waiting for change, we’re empowering communities to imagine tomorrow and take practical steps to build it today,” says Bethea Clayton, MD of FluxTrends, which launched the project in collaboration with creative entrepreneur and storyteller Li Ndube.
The initiative was co-founded by Bronwyn Williams, a futurist, economist and business trends analyst at FluxTrends, where she has been working full-time with founder Dion Chang since 2015.
FluxTrends, a strategic foresight consultancy, has long been involved in projects that go beyond predicting future trends. Influenced by previous collaborative projects like the Iraq 100 and the Eco Futures Project, the Afrofutures initiative emerged from a tradition of using fiction and storytelling to explore both desirable and undesirable futures.
“We’re involved with quite a lot of these projects,” Bronwyn says. “Foresight is about dreaming futures, not just about predicting them. It’s what you want, as opposed to what’s likely.”
A new vision
It’s very much a passion project for the small Johannesburg team, but its aims are ambitious. Stories are more important than most people realise, according to Bronwyn. “We as humanity are led by our stories,” she says. “We’re not led by our technology. Technology only gives us the scaffolding upon which to build those stories. And if the stories are powerful and poignant, they will attract, like a gravitational force. Our goal is to get as many stories out there as possible.”
Afro Futures 2050 is more than just a storytelling project; it’s a call to action. Africa needs to start reclaiming its own narratives. “Too often, stories about Africa are told about us, not by us,” Bronwyn says.
Fittingly, the initiative embraces Africa’s oral tradition, which helps allows anyone on the continent to participate. “We wanted to make the barrier to entry as low as possible. You can use your phone, write it out, or take a picture. Stories can be submitted in writing or orally, and if you’re feeling more creative, go ahead and create a video to go along with it, but it’s not required. We accept anything from a voice note to a scribbled Word document. We’re encouraging people to submit stories in their own voice and vernacular – whatever language or form of expression they’re comfortable with.”
The submissions are intended to be brief and potent — no longer than two or three minutes for voice notes, and up to 1,500 words for written entries. The aim is to capture the essence of a future vision without overwhelming the contributors or the audience.
“It’s simple enough that school children could do it if they wanted to,” Williams notes. “We’re not setting a huge quality barrier on the content. We’re looking for the quality of the ideas.”
Reimagining the future
The target year for these visions is 2050 — a timeframe close enough to feel within reach, yet distant enough to allow for imaginative leaps. “Around 2050 is also when Africa will become the population gravitational force of the planet, in terms of where the critical mass of humanity will be born,” Bronwyn says. “It’s shifted from China to India last year, and Africa will get its turn in about 20 years time.”
“If Africa is going to be the gravitational force, are Africans building their version of the future or someone else’s?” she asks.
Plans are in motion to establish story hubs across Africa, with initial targets including Egypt, Kenya, and Nigeria. The goal is clear: ensure broad geographic representation and weave together the continent’s many futures into one powerful collective narrative.
FluxTrend calls on communities to establish local Chapters to collect and curate stories in their own communities. These stories don’t have to be limited by facts or trends – they are about imagining the future boldly and authentically. It’s not about researching industries or relying on external permission – it’s about using imagination as a tool to build the future we want to see.”
Sectors like wine and tourism could contribute to this broader storytelling vision. Both industries are uniquely positioned to challenge conventional perceptions of Africa, including notions around luxury, lifestyle, and consumption. The wine industry can be involved not only as storytellers but also as potential sponsors and collaborators in the events ahead.
From submission to celebrations
Collected submissions will be curated on the FluxTrends YouTube channel. Written pieces may be enhanced with background music or visual storytelling using AI tools, and the public will be encouraged to engage with the content, voting for their favourite stories in a model reminiscent of the Eurovision Song Contest.
Looking ahead, there are plans for a celebratory gala event – an “Oscars” for African storytellers – towards the end of the year. Depending on the nature of the submissions, there is potential for creating anthologies, online publications, and even animated adaptations of the stories, ensuring that the visions shared through this initiative continue to inspire well beyond the initial project.
“The next thing we will be releasing is the plans for the actual events that will consolidate all this, because it’s going to be a physical, tactile, ‘breaking bread’ element, to take things from the abstract into the practical and getting people into a room.”
“What we’re working towards collecting the stories and selecting the winners at an event that showcases our creative talents and visions at the scale, with the respect and, dare I say, glamour that they deserve.”
The power of imagination
Changing the dominant story about Africa isn’t just about pride or vanity; it’s a strategy with serious economic implications.
“We need to make Africa exciting again,” Bronwyn says. “There’s been quite a lot of discourse around both credit rating agencies and negative sentiment globally. The negative stories dominating the African continent have a material impact on our growth, given that investors see crime, corruption, famine, and poverty as the African narrative. There’s also a commercial incentive to changing that story. Expectations change people’s behaviour.
“So this is a really important initiative. It’s not like a luxury indulgence. Changing the stories about what Africa is, where it’s going, is incredibly powerful from an economic perspective, from a power perspective and from a future prosperity perspective.”
