Achille Mbembe

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Lore & Background

Mbembe was born near Otélé in Cameroon in 1957. He obtained his Ph.D. in history at the University of Sorbonne in Paris, France, in 1989, and subsequently a D.E.A. in political science at the Instituts d'études politiques in the same city. He was assistant professor of history at Columbia University, New York, from 1988 to 1991, a senior research fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., from 1991 to 1992, associate professor of history at the University of Pennsylvania from 1992 to 1996, and executive director of the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (Codesria) in Dakar, Senegal, from 1996 to 2000. He was also a visiting professor at the University of California, Berkeley, in 2001, and a visiting professor at Yale University in 2003. He was a research professor in history and politics at Harvard University's W. E. B. Du Bois Research Institute. In 2020 Mbembe delivered the presidential lecture in the Humanities at Stanford University. His central work, On the Postcolony, was published in Paris in 2000 in French and the English translation was published by the University of California Press, Berkeley, in 2001. In 2015, Wits University Press published a new, African edition. In this text, Mbembe argues that academic and popular discourse on Africa gets caught within various cliches tied to Western fantasies and fears. Following Frantz Fanon and Sigmund Freud, Mbembe holds that this depiction is not a reflection of an authentic Africa but an unconscious projection tied to guilt, disavowal, and the compulsion to repeat. Mbembe claims that Michel Foucault's concept of biopower is no longer sufficient to explain contemporary forms of subjugation, and adds the concept of necropolitics, showing how sovereignty becomes enacted through the creation of zones of death. He has also examined Johannesburg as a metropolitan city and the work of Frantz Fanon. Mbembe denounces the lack of democracy in Africa, and calls for the end of the CFA franc, and of French military bases in Africa.

Reader's Guide

Achille Mbembe's significance lies in his contributions to postcolonial studies and critical theory, particularly through his concept of necropolitics, which extends Foucault's biopower to analyze how sovereignty operates through the creation of death zones. His work On the Postcolony critiques Western depictions of Africa as projections tied to guilt and disavowal. Mbembe has been a leading figure in new wave French critical theory, though he has rejected the label of postcolonial theorist, seeing his project as one of acceptance and transcendence of difference. His political positions have sparked controversy, including his support for the academic boycott of Israel and his comparison of Israeli practices to South African apartheid, which led to the cancellation of a keynote address at the Ruhrtriennale in 2020 after a German official claimed he had relativised the Holocaust. This event drew support from Israeli and Jewish academics and raised concerns about the weaponization of antisemitism. Mbembe's legacy includes awards such as the Geschwister-Scholl-Preis (2015), Gerda Henkel Prize (2018), Holberg Prize (2024), and Spinozalens (2025).

Did You Know?

• Mbembe obtained his Ph.D. in history at the University of Sorbonne in Paris in 1989.
• He was executive director of the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (Codesria) in Dakar, Senegal, from 1996 to 2000.
• In 2020 Mbembe delivered the presidential lecture in the Humanities at Stanford University.
• He has an A1 rating from the National Research Foundation.
• Mbembe is married to Sarah Nuttall, who is professor of literary and cultural studies and director of the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research.