Achille Mbembe is a professor of history and political science at the Witwatersrand University of South Africa and director of research at the Witwatersrand Institute for Social and Economic Research (WISER) in Johannesburg. He is also a visiting professor at Harvard University and the author of numerous books, notably on the theme of modes of reflection and operation in decolonized Africa, such as Sortir de la grande nuit, Critique de la raison nègre et Politiques de l’inimitié, as well as De la postcolonie. Essai sur l’imagination politique dans l’Afrique contemporaine.

In 2021, he was commissioned by the President of the French Republic to lead a series of discussions in twelve African countries and within the African diaspora in France in preparation for the “New Africa-France Summit” of October 8, 2021. Between March and July 2021, more than 65 debates and meetings took place and allowed the realization of the report The New Africa-France Relations, published before the Africa-France Summit in Montpellier.

Previously, Achille Mbembe was the executive secretary of the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (Codesria). He studied history in France from 1982 to 1986 (doctorate from the University of Panthéon-Sorbonne obtained in 1989), then was assistant professor from 1987 to 1990 at Columbia University (New York, USA).