TIL Black Americans were developing the Afro-Futurism/Black Sci-Fi genre of literature as early as the mid-19th century. Titles such as 'Blake' (1859), 'Iola Leroy' (1892), 'Imperium In Imperio (1899)
You might be right about these not being sci-fi, but sci-fi can take place in the period in which it was written. Alternative history plus sci-fi can definitely be a thing. Or writing sci-fi that's supposed to take place in just a few years.
In this case, yes. It's not a serious question. It's poking at me. Of course I don't find the DaVinci Code to be sci-fi. The question makes no sense and comes across as aggressive.
It explores alternate history but doesn't contain any sci-fi elements. At least not that I recall. So that made the question seem very unserious to me. Especially since I had already agreed with you that it wasn't sci-fi.
"Samuel R. Delany described it as "about as close to an SF-style alternate history novel as you can get.
Further, while it incorporates elements of the fugitive slave narrative, Blake's narrator is also a scientist, whose focus on data collection and research stand in repudiation of the racial science of the day.[10] In fact, this reflects one of Delany's major themes: that Africa and its contributions to science and math were foundational to the Western world.[12]"
Considering we're talking about the era of the belief in Drapetomania, I'd say a slave revolt followed by an attempt by black people to take over Cuba would be considered sci-fi by a lot of readers.
No sci-fi wasn't an official thing, yet the title of this is 'were developing the Afro-Futurism/Black Sci-Fi genre...'
I'd say a fictional story about slaves successfully rebelling and taking over a country, narrated by a scientist, who does science things, counts.
It is ridiculous how much hair-splitting is done when it's Black culture, and I'm quite embarrassed by the attempt to claim entire wikipedia sections are 'wrong' like this.
(Not saying you're saying that, I understand we're on the same page.)