Creator
Achille Mbembe
Guest Author
Achille Mbembe: The universal right to breathe
‘Modernity has been an interminable war on life. And it is far from over.’ We need to start anew; reclaim the oxygen that belongs to all on Earth
No African is a foreigner in Africa – except down in South Africa
In sorrow over the way migrants are treated in South Africa, Achille Mbembe calls for Africa to adopt a pro-migration stance
‘If we don’t rehabilitate reason, we will not be able to fix our broken world’
Achille Mbembe is the first African scholar to win the prestigious Gerda Henkel Prize. He was recently interviewed by historian Andreas Eckert
‘I was there’: Essays that map a life
Academic Achille Mbembe sat down with retired journalist Jolyon Nuttall, who is also his father-in-law, to talk about his new book of essays
The great riddance
Security now matters more than freedom in the increased ‘bordernisation’ of Europe which renders those seeking refuge subhuman and vulnerable
Africa needs free movement
The continent needs a humane migration policy in a world that is anti-migrant and anti-black.
Scrap the borders that divide Africans
The continent was a place where people could always move freely, and this is what we must strive for, writes Achille Mbembe.
Negative messianism marks our times
In a world without accountability, liberal democracy is the major casualty
The digital age erases the divide between humans and objects
Africa, with its ancient conceptions of the relations between being and matter, is fertile ground for digital technologies.
The age of humanism is ending
The divergence of democracy and capital will defy reason and politics will become brutal survivalism.
Mantashe and militant student protesters agree on university shutdowns, but this is the last thing Africa needs
African universities were once considered vital tools for nation building and destroying them risks reversing the developmental gains we have made.
Achille Mbembe: The value of Africa’s aesthetics
The philosopher’s classic 2001 work, ‘On the Postcolony’, has been republished in an African edition that features a brand-new preface by him.
Class, race and the new native
South Africa today suffers a confusion between the rule of the people, the rule of law and the rule of property.
Juju prances into the gaps left by ANC
The EFF is a metaphor for the structural incompleteness of SA’s democracy.
Blind to colour – or just blind?
The ANC has let the most reactionary sectors of white society off the hook while chasing away those progressive and antiracist whites.