Retrofuturist Speculations: Race as Technology in Olaudah Equiano's Vision of a Future.

This article examines Olaudah Equiano’s 1789 autobiography, *The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, The African. Written by Himself*, through the lens of retrofuturism and the concept of "race as technology," proposing that Equiano’s work functions not merely as a historical slavery narrative but as a speculative exploration of global Black identity and futurity. It highlights Equiano’s complex self-fashioning via his three names—Olaudah Equiano, Gustavus Vassa, and "the African"—as a strategic deployment of racial and cultural identities to navigate and challenge transnational systems of white supremacy. The article also discusses ongoing scholarly debates about Equiano’s origins and how historicist approaches to his identity often reinforce contemporary anxieties about Blackness and belonging. By applying retrofuturism, the analysis situates Equiano’s narrative as a "near future" vision that anticipates and critiques present and future conceptions of global Blackness, emphasizing the enduring significance of his authorship in discourses on race, freedom, and personhood.