V. Y. Mudimbe

V. Y. Mudimbe was a Congolese philosopher, novelist and poet who studied at Lovanium University in Kinshasa and at Leuven, and later taught at Stanford and Duke University. In The Invention of Africa he used methods drawn from Michel Foucault to show how the idea of Africa was built up in European writing by travellers, missionaries and anthropologists. He argued that African philosophy must reckon with this 'colonial library' even as it seeks its own voice. He also wrote several novels in French.

Key ideas

• The Africa known to the West was largely invented by European discourses of travel, mission and anthropology.
• These texts form a 'colonial library' that still shapes how Africa is described, even by Africans.
• African gnosis, systems of knowledge about Africa, must be studied critically rather than taken at face value.
• Debates over whether there is an African philosophy are themselves shaped by the categories of Western thought.
• Knowledge about societies is always produced from a particular position and within relations of power.

Major works

• The Invention of Africa (1988)
• The Idea of Africa (1994)
• Parables and Fables (1991)
• Tales of Faith (1997)
• L'Odeur du père (1982)
• Entre les eaux (1973)

In the Book corner

• The Invention of Africa 1988 · Advanced
  A study by a Congolese philosopher and novelist, subtitled Gnosis, Philosophy, and the Order of Knowledge. Using methods drawn from Michel Foucault,…

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