Africa's Planetary Futures

FES 4 is devoted to "Africa's Planetary Futures": Africa is experiencing a momentous technological turn and undergoing vast spatial and temporal reconfigurations, which have to do with the acceleration of the dynamics of mobility and circulation, structural demographic shifts and attendant issues of social health, the emergence of new urban forms and life styles, as well as innovative artistic and cultural practices. Furthermore, and contrary to long-held representations, it is increasingly assumed that the continent is the last frontier of capitalism, a key laboratory of the world in the making, and a place where the future of life itself, of the Earth and of the human and other species might be played out (Mbembe 2016). This issue of From the European South intends to foreground and discuss some of these transformations from a variety of viewpoints, both continental and diasporic. It observes in particular what increasingly appears as “the planetary turn of the African predicament” and assesses the latter in relation to broader issues facing the earth at large.