Achille Mbembe is a key thinker in contemporary African philosophy who has been influential in literary and cultural theory, African literature, and postcolonial studies. Oliver Coates introduces key concepts within Mbembe’s thought in relation to African history, literature, and philosophy.

This accessible guide:

• Considers examples from African literature in Arabic, English, French, and Yoruba, and shows the relevance of Mbembe’s thought beyond Anglophone writing;
• Explores how Mbembe’s work relates to contemporary global events and charts Mbembe’s intellectual development between Cameroon, France, and the USA;
• Discusses core concepts from across Mbembe’s career, including the positioning of Africa within Western and Afrodiasporic thought, the colony, postcolony, necropolitics, decolonization, Afropolitanism, technology, and the environment;
• Reveals Mbembe’s engagement with key global events, including the #RhodesMustFall and #BlackLivesMatter movements, and the call for the restitution of African objects in Western museums.

Offering a clear and accessible route into what can be a complex area, this book shows the significance of Mbembe’s thought across literature, history, postcolonial studies, gender studies, and critical theory.

Oliver Coates is Director of Studies in History and Politics at St. Edmund’s College, University of Cambridge, UK, and Associate Researcher of the Institut des mondes africaines, CNRS, Paris. His recent research has been published in the International Journal of African Historical Studies, the Journal of Asian and African Studies, and the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of African History.