Tricksters, Warriors & Kings: African Archetypes in Modern Sci-Fi Storytelling

Dear Spacetravellers,

First things first: this week, Planet Falrus hit #1 on Amazon’s bestseller list for Children’s Literature — alright, in the free category… but for a small planet with limited infrastructure and only one known export (chaos), that’s still pretty impressive 🚀

Now — onto this week’s deep dive in worldbuilding and old storytelling technologies.

African Archetypes Hiding in Sci-Fi

Science fiction loves its archetypes:

• the rebellious hacker

• the honor-bound soldier

• the burdened ruler

  
  

But these forms didn’t start in neon-lit megacities or aboard star cruisers. Many of these characters have older ancestors in African folklore, where individuals are rarely framed as purely “heroes” or “villains,” but as actors within a moral ecosystem.

Below are three of the most persistent archetypes — and how they map surprisingly well onto sci-fi protagonists and antagonists.

1. The Trickster — Chaos as Intelligence

African trickster figures — from Anansi the Spider (Akan) to the clever hare (Southern Africa) and the Yoruba tortoise — win by subverting rules, not following them.

Their cultural roles:

• expose hypocrisy

• flatten power hierarchies

• break systems to reveal their limits

Sci-fi analogues include:

• the hacker who slips past corporate firewalls

• the smuggler who jokes through firefights

• the AI that “reinterprets” its directives

The trickster isn’t virtuous — they’re necessary. In oppressive systems, mischief becomes moral.

2. The Warrior — Duty Over Individualism

In many African traditions — from the Maasai Moran to Zulu impi regiments — warriors fight for continuity, not personal victory. Their loyalty is collective, ancestral, ecological.

Key traits:

• discipline

• courage

• obligation to a community

Sci-fi counterparts:

• clan-born space marines

• honor-bound alien soldiers

• the trooper who’d die before abandoning their unit

Western media often romanticizes the lone gunslinger. African warrior cultures emphasize the custodian of legacy.

3. The King — Cosmic Administration

African kingship isn’t just political. Figures like the Ooni of Ife or the Asantehene govern across domains: spiritual, ancestral, human, and ecological.

Archetypal responsibilities:

• balancing cosmic order

• arbitrating conflicts

• protecting knowledge & wealth systems

Sci-fi equivalents:

• galactic emperors holding star systems together

• planetary administrators juggling resource scarcity

• AI sovereigns managing entropy

The tension isn’t conquest — it’s maintenance of equilibrium.

Why This Matters for Sci-Fi Worldbuilding

African oral traditions quietly reveal something modern storytellers often forget:

Characters are shaped by systems — not in isolation.

This is gold for speculative fiction because:

• future societies need cultural logic

• power must be textured, not cartoonish

• conflict can be philosophical, not just kinetic

When tricksters, warriors, and kings enter spacefaring worlds, sci-fi gains new questions about authority, obligation, survival, and who gets to define “order.”

For Storytellers & Worldbuilders

African folklore provides three immediate gifts for speculative design:

✔ templates for negotiating power

✔ metaphysics of balance and disruption

✔ evolutionary pressure via chaos

Or, as we say aboard Planet Falrus: it gives your universe narrative gravity.

Explore More

To dive deeper into Planet Falrus, African storytelling, and the strange frontier between folklore and space opera, visit our StoryPlanet YouTube channel.

For more on Planet Falrus, including when Book 2 comes out please follow e on Goodreads.

All my love,

Joanna