Who gets to define Africa—and on whose terms? That question drives a compelling new book profiling six African intellectuals whose work challenges the foundations of global knowledge. From Valentin-Yves Mudimbe’s critique of Western knowledge systems to Achille Mbembe’s exploration of power and “necropolitics,” these thinkers are going beyond analyzing Africa and are reshaping how the world thinks about power, identity, and knowledge itself. It also includes Kwasi Wiredu’s philosophical decolonization and Oyèrónkẹ́ Oyěwùmí’s revelatory critique of how gender was imposed on Yoruba society. Ghanaian economist George Ayittey’s cheetahs-versus-hippos framework and Sabelo Ndlovu-Gatsheni’s decolonial theory round out a roster that is reclaiming Africa as a subject of knowledge rather than a mere object of study.
The Conversation
