These comprehensive notes provide an in-depth analysis of Achille Mbembe's key arguments in On the Postcolony, expanding on the concepts discussed in the video with additional context, explanations, and connections to broader philosophical concepts. The notes are structured thematically with expandable sections for detailed study, including extensive page references, related concepts, and critical analysis.
Achille Mbembe's analysis in On the Postcolony reveals colonial violence as a sophisticated system of domination that perpetuates itself through recursive cycles. Unlike conventional interpretations of violence as merely instrumental, Mbembe demonstrates how it becomes self-justifying and institutionalised.
Mbembe identifies a tripartite structure through which colonial violence operates:
Founding Violence: The initial conquest establishes colonial space through brute force, including military invasions and systematic destruction of indigenous structures. This creates what Mbembe terms a "tabula rasa" where colonial authority can be imposed without meaningful resistance. This phase resembles what Marx described as primitive accumulation, but extended to include epistemic and cultural annihilation.
Authority Conversion: The transformation of raw violence into institutional power through legal systems, administrative structures and economic policies. Mbembe draws parallels with Weber's concept of state monopoly on violence, but highlights how colonial authority lacked the legitimising social contract of European states.
Maintenance Violence: Ongoing enforcement mechanisms that make colonial rule appear permanent and natural. This includes everything from punitive expeditions to systemic discrimination in education and employment. The cyclical nature creates what Mbembe calls "unconditionality" - violence that requires no external justification.
Colonial systems dismantled indigenous moral frameworks through several interlocking mechanisms:
First, they positioned the colonised as always-already deserving of violence, constructing narratives of African "savagery" that justified brutal suppression. This aligns with what Edward Said termed "Orientalism", but with distinct African characteristics.
Second, they systematically eliminated platforms for moral questioning, replacing indigenous justice systems with colonial courts that served as instruments of control rather than arbitration. Mbembe notes how this created a moral vacuum where violence became the primary mode of interaction.
Third, they established absolute oppositions (Manichean worldviews) where colonialists represented civilisation and progress while the colonised embodied backwardness and disorder. This binary thinking made violence appear not just necessary but morally righteous.
Mbembe incorporates psychoanalytic theory to show how colonial violence operated at unconscious levels:
"The colonised does not exist as a self; the colonised is, but in the same way as a rock is—that is, as nothing more."
This psychological violence created what Frantz Fanon called "epidermalization" - the internalisation of inferiority. The colonial subject became both object and observer of their own dehumanisation, trapped in what Mbembe describes as a "zone of non-being".
Mbembe demonstrates how colonialism relied not just on physical violence but on the creation of powerful narratives that framed Africa as fundamentally other. These representations served to naturalise colonial domination while erasing African subjectivity.
Colonial discourse developed several recurring tropes about Africa:
Africa as a "vast dark cave of confusion" suggested a continent without history or rationality, echoing Hegel's dismissal of Africa as "unhistorical". The "black hole of reason" metaphor positioned Africa as the antithesis of Enlightenment values, while the description of Africa as "a nothing whose special feature is to be nothing at all" enabled the colonial fantasy of creating civilisation ex nihilo.
Mbembe traces how these constructs drew from earlier European traditions of representing the "savage" but were adapted to justify the particular violence of African colonialism. Unlike the "noble savage" myth applied to other colonised peoples, African representations emphasised absolute lack and negation.
Colonial anthropology developed the notion of African "simple societies" characterised by:
Arbitrary facticity: The claim that African customs lacked historical reasoning, existing merely as irrational traditions. This denied African systems of knowledge and governance their complexity and historicity.
Frozen time: The assertion that African societies existed outside historical progress, what Herder called "peoples without history". This justified colonial intervention as bringing Africa into history.
Person-entities: The claim that African social organisation privileged collective identities over individual subjectivity. This denied African personhood while paradoxically justifying colonial policies that treated Africans en masse rather than as individuals.
While building on Said's Orientalism, Mbembe identifies key differences in African colonial representations:
Where Orientalism constructed its other as mysterious and decadent, African colonial discourse emphasised absence and lack. The African "imaginary" served not just to exoticise but to fundamentally negate, creating what Mbembe calls a "negative ontology".
Moreover, African representations were more explicitly tied to material practices of violence. The colonial imaginary didn't just justify domination but necessitated constant physical enforcement, creating what Mbembe terms the "necropolitical" dimension of African colonialism.
Mbembe's analysis reveals how colonial systems fundamentally denied African subjectivity through processes of radical objectification. This went beyond mere dehumanisation to create what he terms "the sphere of objects" - a liminal space where the colonised were neither fully human nor entirely inert matter.
Building upon but radically transforming Hegel's master-slave dialectic, Mbembe demonstrates how colonial objectification differed from classical slavery:
"the colonized could be destroyed, as one may kill an animal"
Unlike Hegel's dialectic which posits mutual recognition as eventual outcome, colonial objectification created what Mbembe calls "absolute asymmetry". The colonised existed in a state of what Agamben would term "bare life" - biological existence stripped of political being.
This objectification served specific economic purposes under colonialism. As Mbembe notes, the conversion of persons into objects enabled their incorporation into colonial production systems as interchangeable units of labour rather than as human beings with rights or agency.
Colonial systems created an impossible paradox where Africans were simultaneously:
Subjects: Expected to demonstrate limited agency for productive labour and colonial service. This required recognition of certain human capacities like language comprehension and technical skills.
Objects: Denied fundamental rights and treated as property with no inherent claim to dignity or self-determination. This extended to legal systems where testimony from Africans carried less weight than European testimony.
Mbembe traces how this paradox manifested in colonial legal systems, where Africans could be both witnesses in court (requiring recognition of their capacity for truth-telling) and simultaneously be barred from testifying against Europeans (denying their full personhood). The psychological toll of this impossible position created what Fanon called "the lived experience of the black man".
Mbembe uncovers how colonial regimes combined brutal violence with paternalistic rhetoric to create systems of what he terms "domestication" - a form of governance that positioned the coloniser as benevolent parent and the colonised as perpetual child.
The colonial relationship was often framed in familial terms:
"speak to him/her as a child, reprimand or congratulate him/her"
This discourse drew from European paternalistic traditions but took on particular racialised dimensions in the colonial context. The "civilising mission" was presented not as exploitation but as education, with violence reframed as disciplinary measures for the colonised's "own good".
Mbembe shows how this framing created psychological binds where resistance to colonial rule could be portrayed as childish rebellion rather than legitimate political action. The infantilisation of African societies served to naturalise European domination while obscuring its economic motivations.
Mbembe reveals the perverse logic by which colonial violence was paradoxically presented as:
A civilising burden: The coloniser's violence was framed as an unfortunate necessity to uplift backward peoples. This echoed earlier justifications of slavery as bringing Africans to Christianity.
An improvement initiative: Brutal labour regimes were described as "teaching" Africans the value of work, while land dispossession was portrayed as introducing proper land use.
A paternal duty: The coloniser positioned themselves as morally obligated to use violence, creating what Mbembe calls "the white man's burden as sadism" - where domination becomes framed as care.
This ideological construction created what Althusser would call "interpellation" - where the colonised were recruited into seeing their own subjugation as beneficial. Missionary schools played key role in disseminating this worldview, teaching Africans to interpret colonial violence through the lens of paternal care rather than exploitation.
Mbembe's analysis reveals how colonial regimes employed sophisticated systems of delegated authority that mirrored pre-modern European feudalism while adapting it to the racialised context of African colonialism. This decentralised approach to violence created pervasive systems of control that penetrated all levels of society.
The colonial system of delegated violence bore striking resemblance to medieval feudalism, but with crucial differences:
Private actors - including colonial settlers, trading companies, and missionary organisations - were granted quasi-governmental powers to administer justice, collect taxes, and maintain order. This created what Mbembe terms a "patchwork sovereignty" where violence could be exercised at multiple levels without central coordination.
African intermediaries played a particularly complex role in this system. Colonial powers co-opted local leaders, giving them limited authority to enforce colonial policies while remaining subordinate to European officials. This created what Lugard would call "indirect rule", but Mbembe shows how it actually produced more direct and intimate forms of violence as African enforcers sought to prove their loyalty.
The system encouraged micro-aggressions throughout colonial hierarchies, with each level exercising violence against those below to demonstrate their authority. Mbembe describes this as a "pyramid of violence" where brutality filtered down through every social stratum.
Mbembe demonstrates how colonial economic systems became thoroughly enmeshed with this delegated violence:
"set up relations between state, society and market"
African businesses were forced into intermediary roles, facilitating resource extraction while bearing the brunt of colonial taxation. This created what Mbembe calls "comprador capitalism" - a system where local economic activity served primarily to facilitate colonial exploitation rather than indigenous development.
The most perverse aspect of this system was how it made African elites complicit in their own people's exploitation. By tying economic privilege to colonial collaboration, the system created powerful incentives for Africans to participate in their own subjugation while disguising this as "progress" or "modernisation".
Mbembe's groundbreaking analysis reveals how ostensibly independent African states perpetuated colonial patterns of governance through sophisticated systems of resource allocation designed to maintain power rather than foster development.
Postcolonial elites maintained power through an interlocking system that Mbembe terms the "trinity of control":
Violence as enforcement: The threat or use of force remained fundamental to maintaining the allocation system, though often disguised as "law and order" or "national security". This created what Mbembe later called necropolitics - the power to decide who may live and who must die.
Transfers of wealth: Resources were distributed not according to economic logic but as political patronage, creating networks of dependency that sustained elite power. This included everything from government contracts to access to foreign currency.
Strategic allocations: Positions in bureaucracy and state enterprises were doled out to maintain ethnic and regional balances, creating what Mbembe calls "a calculus of loyalty" where competence mattered less than political reliability.
This system created what some economists have called rentier states, but Mbembe shows how in Africa this went beyond simple corruption to become a fundamental organising principle of postcolonial governance.
Mbembe identifies the fundamental paradox of postcolonial allocation systems:
"The objective of this sort of sovereignty was that people obey."
Unlike Weber's definition of the state which centres on monopoly of legitimate violence, postcolonial states in Mbembe's analysis often lacked this legitimacy. Instead, they maintained power through what he terms "circularity" - systems where the sole purpose of governance was the perpetuation of governance itself.
This manifested in several ways:
Non-productive bureaucracy: Government positions existed primarily to distribute patronage rather than deliver services, creating bloated administrations where work was optional but loyalty mandatory.
Performance without progress: Development projects were undertaken for their symbolic value rather than practical impact, with stadiums and conference centres prioritised over schools and hospitals.
Simulated modernity: Postcolonial states often mimicked the forms of modern governance (constitutions, elections, five-year plans) while subverting their substance, creating what Mbembe calls "the grotesque as mode of governance".
Mbembe provides a devastating critique of how Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs) imposed by international financial institutions in the 1980s and 1990s fundamentally destabilised African postcolonies while claiming to modernise them. His analysis reveals the profound contradictions between neoliberal theory and African political realities.
Mbembe demonstrates how SAPs failed to achieve their stated goals due to several fundamental flaws:
First, they removed the delicate systems postcolonial societies had developed to manage conflict. By demanding sudden reductions in public spending and employment, SAPs dismantled the patronage networks that had maintained fragile social peace. This created what Mbembe terms "the shock of de-allocation" - a violent disruption of established political economies.
Second, the programmes created severe "subsistence crises" by eliminating subsidies and price controls on basic commodities. As Mbembe notes, this wasn't merely economic hardship but a fundamental threat to social order, recalling Hobbesian fears of the war of all against all.
Third, SAPs ignored local political economies by imposing standardised solutions. The insistence on market liberalisation failed to account for how African markets were embedded in social relations rather than existing as autonomous spheres. Mbembe shows how this led to perverse outcomes where liberalisation often strengthened authoritarian regimes rather than fostering democracy.
Mbembe's analysis reveals how SAPs inadvertently increased state violence through several mechanisms:
As formal economies contracted, states relied more heavily on coercive means to maintain control. Police and military forces became crucial for suppressing popular discontent over price rises and unemployment, leading to what Mbembe calls "the militarisation of austerity".
Simultaneously, the retreat of the state from social provision created space for non-state armed groups to provide services and protection, further fragmenting sovereignty. This dynamic helps explain the rise of warlordism in 1990s Africa, where non-state actors filled governance vacuums.
Most perversely, Mbembe shows how SAPs often strengthened the very corruption they sought to eliminate. With formal salaries rendered worthless by inflation and currency devaluation, officials turned to informal extraction to survive, creating what he terms "the informalisation of the state".
Mbembe's analysis of Africa's underground economies reveals how they represent not merely criminal activity but alternative systems of power and governance that emerge when formal states fail. These parallel systems create their own forms of sovereignty that challenge conventional understandings of politics and economics.
The collapse of formal economies under structural adjustment gave rise to what Mbembe terms "paramilitary economies":
"resorting to brute force has become the rule"
These systems blend economic activity with violence in ways that recall Hobbes' state of nature, but with modern weaponry and global connections. Mbembe identifies several key features:
First, the erosion of state monopolies on violence allowed non-state actors - from rebel groups to criminal syndicates - to establish their own systems of taxation and protection. These groups often provided more reliable security than weakened states, creating perverse legitimacy.
Second, the globalisation of illicit markets connected African conflicts to international networks of arms dealers, drug traffickers and commodity smugglers. Mbembe shows how this created what he calls "warlord globalisation" - where local violence became integrated into transnational capitalism.
Third, these systems developed their own codes of conduct and dispute resolution mechanisms, creating parallel legal systems that often proved more effective than corrupt state courts. This represents what anthropologists call legal pluralism, but with heavy reliance on violence.
Mbembe analyses how postcolonial states responded to these challenges by developing hybrid systems of control:
"parallel decisions coexist with centralised decisions"
This represents a radical departure from Weberian bureaucracy, creating governance systems where formal and informal power structures interact in complex ways:
State officials often maintain dual roles - their formal bureaucratic positions and their informal economic activities. This creates what Mbembe terms "the bifurcated state" where public and private interests become indistinguishable.
Decision-making becomes opaque, with power flowing through personal networks rather than institutional channels. Mbembe shows how this produces governance by rumour and uncertainty, where formal policies may be deliberately undermined by those meant to implement them.
Most significantly, these systems prove remarkably resilient to reform efforts. Attempts to impose transparency or accountability often simply drive corruption deeper underground while changing little in practice. Mbembe argues this reveals fundamental flaws in conventional good governance approaches.
Mbembe's concept of entanglement represents a radical departure from conventional Western frameworks for analysing African societies. It offers a nuanced approach that captures the complex, non-linear realities of postcolonial African existence.
Mbembe systematically dismantles three dominant Western paradigms for understanding Africa:
Modernisation theory: Mbembe critiques its linear assumptions about development, showing how it fails to account for Africa's unique historical trajectories. The theory's insistence on universal stages of growth ignores how African societies incorporate modernity while maintaining distinct cultural logics.
Marxist separations: While acknowledging Marxism's insights into colonial exploitation, Mbembe challenges its rigid separation of economic base and cultural superstructure. In African contexts, he argues, economic and cultural spheres are deeply intertwined in ways that Marxist analysis often misses.
Neoliberal institutionalism: Mbembe exposes how neoliberal approaches mistakenly assume African societies can be understood through the same rational choice frameworks as Western markets. This ignores how economic behaviour in Africa is embedded in complex social and historical relationships.
Mbembe particularly criticises how these frameworks privilege external interpretations over African self-understandings, creating what he calls "theoretical colonialism" - where African realities are forced into foreign conceptual boxes.
Against these reductionist models, Mbembe proposes entanglement as a more accurate framework:
"multiple durées made up of discontinuities, reversals, inertias, and swings"
This concept draws from but expands upon Braudel's longue durée, incorporating several key dimensions:
Temporal entanglement: African societies simultaneously embody multiple historical timescales - precolonial, colonial and postcolonial temporalities coexist and interact in complex ways. This challenges linear notions of progress.
Spatial entanglement: Local African realities are inextricably connected to global systems through diasporas, transnational networks and digital technologies, creating what Mbembe later termed "Afropolitanism".
Cultural entanglement: African identities blend indigenous traditions with colonial inheritances and global influences in ways that defy simple categorisation. This produces creative hybridities rather than mere mimicry.
Mbembe's framework helps explain why conventional development interventions often fail - they misunderstand the fundamentally entangled nature of African social realities.
Mbembe's analysis of multiplied identities reveals how Africans creatively negotiate postcolonial power structures through sophisticated performances of selfhood. This goes beyond simple resistance to show how identity becomes a strategic tool for survival and mobility.
Mbembe introduces the concept of conviviality to describe the complex relationships between rulers and ruled:
"An intimate tyranny links the rulers with the ruled."
This represents a departure from conventional resistance theory, showing how:
Public performances of loyalty often mask private critiques, creating what Mbembe calls "the art of disengagement" - where apparent compliance conceals mental reservation.
Ceremonial participation serves as both survival strategy and subtle subversion. By enthusiastically performing expected roles, subjects can sometimes carve out spaces of autonomy within oppressive systems.
The boundaries between complicity and resistance become blurred, challenging binary notions of oppression and liberation. Mbembe shows how this ambiguity can be strategically useful for marginalised groups.
Mbembe analyses how postcolonial subjects maintain multiple, sometimes contradictory identities:
Public vs private selves: The same individual might enthusiastically perform loyalty to the regime in public while privately organising resistance. This duality recalls Du Bois' concept of double consciousness, but with added postcolonial dimensions.
Official vs unofficial roles: Many Africans occupy formal positions within state bureaucracies while simultaneously participating in informal economies and social networks. This creates complex ethical negotiations.
Traditional vs modern identities: Subjects fluidly move between indigenous cultural frameworks and global modernities, creating what Mbembe terms "identity bricolage".
Rather than seeing this multiplicity as pathological, Mbembe presents it as a creative adaptation to postcolonial realities. The ability to navigate different identity registers becomes a crucial survival skill in contexts of instability and oppression.
This analysis helps explain phenomena like the "straddling" strategies of African migrants or the code-switching of urban elites, showing how multiplied identities operate across social classes.
Mbembe's concept of hallucinatory power offers a radical rethinking of how authority operates in postcolonial Africa, moving beyond conventional analyses of state power to examine its psychological and theatrical dimensions.
Mbembe analyses the peculiar linguistic strategies employed by postcolonial regimes:
Political discourse blends grandiose revolutionary rhetoric with vulgar colloquialisms, creating what Mbembe terms "the obscene as mode of governance". This paradoxical language serves several functions:
First, it establishes an intimate connection between rulers and ruled through shared vulgarity, while maintaining hierarchical distance through official jargon. This creates what Bakhtin might call a "grotesque political body" - simultaneously elevated and debased.
Second, the mixing of sacred and profane language mirrors the entanglement of modern state institutions with traditional cosmologies. Mbembe shows how presidential speeches might combine Marxist terminology with ancestral invocations, creating a distinctly postcolonial political theology.
Third, this linguistic strategy produces what Mbembe calls "hermeneutic fatigue" - the exhaustion of meaning that makes sustained critique impossible. When official discourse becomes deliberately opaque and contradictory, it disarms opposition through confusion rather than persuasion.
Mbembe examines how postcolonial rulers cultivate an omnipresent image:
"non-localized universal presence"
This phenomenon operates through several mechanisms:
The proliferation of presidential portraits in public spaces creates what Mbembe terms "the tyranny of the gaze" - a constant surveillance that operates even in the ruler's physical absence. This builds on but transforms Foucault's panopticon concept for African contexts.
State media saturation ensures the ruler's voice and image dominate public consciousness. Mbembe analyses how radio broadcasts and television appearances follow ritualised patterns that blend information with incantation.
The ruler's biography becomes national mythology, with key life events commemorated as public holidays and institutionalised in school curricula. This creates what Mbembe calls "biopolitical hagiography" - the sanctification of the leader's life story as collective heritage.
Ultimately, this universal presence operates as a form of symbolic violence that precedes and enables physical repression. By saturating the social imaginary, the regime makes alternatives literally unthinkable.
Mbembe's analysis reveals the disturbing continuities between colonial and postcolonial governance, challenging narratives of clean breaks with the past while offering nuanced explanations for these enduring patterns.
Mbembe documents the transformation of state security forces into predatory entities:
"administration of a summary, barren violence for purposes of appropriation"
This phenomenon represents several interlocking developments:
The colonial legacy of policing as extraction rather than protection persists, with security forces maintaining their role as revenue collectors through roadblocks and arbitrary fines. Mbembe shows how this creates a protection racket masquerading as public service.
Structural adjustment's erosion of state salaries has led to the informal privatisation of policing, where officers must extract resources directly from citizens to survive. Mbembe terms this "violent entrepreneurship" - the fusion of coercion and economic activity.
The boundaries between official and unofficial violence blur, with police units often operating criminal enterprises while still wearing state uniforms. This creates what Mbembe calls "the criminalisation of the state" - where legal and illegal activities become indistinguishable.
Mbembe's analysis of sexual violence reveals its systemic role in postcolonial governance:
The exploitation of minors by political elites serves as both personal gratification and public demonstration of impunity. Mbembe connects this to colonial patterns of sexual domination, showing how postcolonial rulers have inherited rather than rejected these practices.
Rape becomes a tool of political terror, particularly against opposition communities. Mbembe situates this within broader patterns of gender-based violence as instrument of control, but with distinct postcolonial inflections.
The public/private divide collapses around sexual violence, with politicians' private predations becoming open secrets that reinforce their power. Mbembe analyses how this creates a politics of shame that traps victims in silence while emboldening perpetrators.
Ultimately, Mbembe shows how these continuities expose the false promise of postcolonial liberation, while avoiding simplistic narratives of African failure. The structural legacies of colonialism create path dependencies that constrain even well-intentioned leaders, producing what he terms "the postcolony as palimpsest" - where new regimes overwrite but never fully erase colonial blueprints.
Mbembe's analysis of postcolonial state legitimacy reveals a complex system of governance that blends modern bureaucratic forms with pre-colonial and colonial logics of power, creating what he terms "convivial authoritarianism".
Postcolonial states develop elaborate rituals of power that serve multiple functions:
The use of official codes and administrative rituals creates what Mbembe calls "the theatrical state" - where governance becomes as much about performance as policy implementation. This draws from both colonial administrative practices and pre-colonial royal traditions.
Bureaucratic theatrics, such as grandiose development project launches or endless committee formations, serve to simulate state efficacy while often delivering little substantive change. Mbembe connects this to what Bayart termed "the politics of the belly" - where state resources are consumed through ritualised redistribution rather than productive investment.
"dramatise their magnificence where the population joins in"
This ceremonial governance creates a paradoxical relationship between rulers and citizens, where public participation in state rituals provides a veneer of popular consent while masking deeper authoritarian tendencies.
Mbembe's concept of convivial authoritarianism describes a system where:
"the people in postcolonies cooperate with celebrations of power" (pg 102)
This represents a distinct form of authoritarianism that differs from classical dictatorships in several key ways:
It relies on what Mbembe terms "political improvisation" - flexible adaptations of governance strategies that blend coercion, co-option and performance. This makes the system more resilient than rigid authoritarian models.
The state cultivates an image of accessibility through highly visible but ultimately symbolic interactions with citizens. Mbembe shows how presidential "meet-the-people" tours or highly publicised donations to local communities create an illusion of reciprocity.
Public spaces become arenas for negotiated compliance rather than outright oppression. Mbembe draws parallels with James Scott's concept of "public transcripts", but shows how African contexts add layers of creative ambiguity.
Mbembe analyses the paradoxical dynamic where:
"social taboos are broken in a friendly manner that also respects them" (pg 112)
This creates systems of:
Controlled transgression: The state permits limited criticism or opposition, but within strictly defined boundaries that ultimately reinforce regime stability.
Ritualised rebellion: Annual protests or permitted opposition rallies serve as safety valves that channel discontent into manageable forms, recalling Gluckman's analysis of rebellion rituals.
Performative opposition: Opposition parties and civil society groups often engage in highly visible but ultimately symbolic resistance that changes little substantively.
Mbembe shows how this system of taboo transgression creates the appearance of democratic contestation while maintaining authoritarian control, representing a distinctly postcolonial form of governance.
Mbembe's analysis of colonial time constructs reveals how European powers deployed temporal ideologies as crucial tools of domination, creating what he terms "chronopolitical regimes" that continue to influence postcolonial African realities.
The colonial portrayal of Africa as existing outside historical time served several strategic purposes:
The claim that African societies were static and unchanging justified colonial intervention as bringing historical movement to supposedly inert cultures. This drew from Hegel's dismissal of Africa as "unhistorical" while adding pseudo-scientific racial theories.
The denial of African historical progress allowed colonists to position themselves as the sole agents of change and development. Mbembe shows how this created what he calls "the colonial present" - a perpetual state of intervention justified by African "backwardness".
The emphasis on cyclical repetition rather than linear progress in African societies served to naturalise colonial domination as part of an eternal order. Mbembe connects this to broader European philosophies of history that positioned Europe as history's vanguard.
These temporal constructs had material consequences, from the dismissal of African land use patterns as "timeless" to justify dispossession, to the classification of African cultural practices as "primitive" rather than evolving.
Mbembe analyses how colonial discourse positioned Africa in a temporal hierarchy:
"burdened by superstitions, spells and charms" (pg 4)
This temporal othering operated through several mechanisms:
The classification of African spiritual practices as "superstition" rather than religion positioned Africans as pre-modern, in contrast to Europe's self-proclaimed rational modernity. Mbembe shows how this drew from but radicalised earlier European discourses about "primitive" societies.
The colonial administration of justice created separate legal timelines for Europeans and Africans, with "native courts" applying so-called customary law imagined as unchanging, while European courts followed progressive statutes.
Educational systems taught African history as a series of static "tribal" cultures rather than dynamic civilizations, reinforcing the frozen time narrative. Mbembe connects this to what Hobsbawm and Ranger called "invented traditions".
Ultimately, Mbembe shows how these temporal constructs weren't merely ideological but served concrete economic and political purposes in maintaining colonial domination and extracting African resources.
Mbembe's analysis of colonial economic systems reveals how extraction was not merely an economic process but a comprehensive regime of violence and control that reshaped African societies at their foundations.
The colonial economy rested on systems of coerced labour that differed significantly from both pre-colonial African systems and European industrial models:
First, forced labour served to convert land into productive assets for colonial interests. Mbembe shows how this involved not just physical coercion but the complete reorganisation of African spatial relationships, creating what he terms "landscapes of extraction".
Second, these systems created wealth exclusively for colonisers while impoverishing African communities. The notorious rubber terror in the Congo Free State exemplifies this dynamic, where extreme violence served pure economic extraction.
Third, colonial labour regimes established enduring dependency relationships. By destroying traditional subsistence economies and imposing cash taxation, colonists forced Africans into wage labour on European terms. Mbembe connects this to what Polanyi called "the great transformation", but with added racial dimensions.
These systems were justified through racist ideologies that portrayed Africans as naturally indolent, requiring coercion to "teach" them the value of work. Mbembe demonstrates how this ideology served to naturalise exploitation while obscuring its systemic violence.
Colonial extraction operated through multiple interlocking channels:
Taxation systems were designed not to fund public services but to force African producers into colonial markets. Mbembe analyses the infamous hut tax as a tool of economic coercion rather than fiscal policy.
Export-oriented production deliberately distorted African economies towards monoculture crops and mineral extraction. Mbembe shows how this created enduring structural imbalances that postcolonial states would struggle to overcome.
Infrastructure development served extraction rather than integration, with railways and ports designed solely to move resources from interior to coast. Mbembe terms this "arterial colonialism" - creating economic veins without circulatory systems.
Mbembe's analysis reveals how these mechanisms were not simply economic policies but constituted a comprehensive system of what he calls "necroeconomics" - economic practices fundamentally premised on the devaluation of African life.
Mbembe's examination of colonial psychology moves beyond material exploitation to reveal how European powers sought to colonise the very minds of African subjects, creating what he terms "the interior empire".
Colonial regimes developed sophisticated systems of behavioural control:
"inculcate habits in the colonized"
This psychological engineering operated through multiple channels:
Missionary education systems sought to erase indigenous worldviews while instilling European values. Mbembe shows how this created what Freire would call "the banking model of education" - depositing colonial knowledge while suppressing African ways of knowing.
Reward/punishment systems carefully calibrated behaviour modification, with small privileges granted for compliance and severe penalties for resistance. Mbembe analyses how this created what psychologists now term learned helplessness on a societal scale.
The internalisation of discipline extended to bodily practices, from European dress codes to table manners. Mbembe demonstrates how this "microphysics of power" (following Foucault) served to remake African subjects from the inside out.
These systems produced what Mbembe calls "the colonial mirror" - where Africans were taught to see themselves through European eyes, internalising racist stereotypes as self-knowledge.
Colonialism created perverse pathways to limited social mobility:
"achieve the recognition of the coloniser by adopting approved behaviours" (pg 31)
This recognition operated through several mechanisms:
The "évolué" system in French colonies granted limited rights to Africans who adopted European lifestyles. Mbembe shows how this created a fragile privileged class entirely dependent on colonial approval.
Christian conversion offered spiritual salvation alongside social advancement, creating what Mbembe terms "the baptismal bargain" - trading cultural identity for limited acceptance.
Language proficiency in European tongues became a marker of civilisation, with indigenous languages systematically devalued. Mbembe connects this to what Phillipson later called linguistic imperialism.
Mbembe's analysis reveals how these recognition systems created psychological fractures that would endure long after formal colonialism ended, shaping postcolonial African subjectivities in profound ways.
Mbembe's analysis of the family state metaphor reveals how colonial powers deployed domestic imagery to naturalise oppressive hierarchies, creating what he terms "the colonial household" as a governing paradigm.
The colonial relationship was frequently framed through familial tropes that served specific ideological functions:
The positioning of colonisers as "guardians" and colonised as "protégés" created an illusion of benevolent responsibility that masked extractive realities. Mbembe shows how this drew from European noblesse oblige traditions while adding racial dimensions.
Violence was reframed as disciplinary correction, with colonial brutality portrayed as necessary for the colonised's moral development. Mbembe analyses how this mirrored Victorian parenting ideologies that justified corporal punishment as "for their own good".
The family metaphor created psychological binds where resistance could be framed as childish ingratitude rather than legitimate political action. Mbembe connects this to what Stockholm syndrome describes in interpersonal relationships, but operating at societal scale.
"virtually a stranger in his/her own home" (pg 35)
This paradoxical condition - where Africans were simultaneously part of the colonial "family" yet alienated from their own lands - reveals the fundamental contradictions of colonial domestic ideology.
Mbembe explores the psychological consequences of this familial framing:
The alienation produced by being rendered foreign in one's own homeland created what Mbembe terms "ontological homelessness" - a profound dislocation from both traditional identities and the promised colonial modernity.
Colonial education systems taught Africans to view their own cultures through European eyes, creating what Du Bois called double consciousness, but with added dimensions of familial betrayal.
The breakdown of intergenerational transmission - where elders could no longer pass down knowledge to youth educated in colonial systems - produced cultural ruptures that would haunt postcolonial societies.
Mbembe shows how this "stranger at home" syndrome continues to influence contemporary African diasporic experiences and postcolonial identity formations.
Mbembe's examination of feudal delegation systems reveals how colonial powers adapted pre-modern European governance models to African contexts, creating hybrid regimes of distributed violence.
The colonial administration of violence followed quasi-feudal patterns:
Private actors including chartered companies and settler farmers were granted extraordinary powers to raise troops, levy taxes and administer justice. Mbembe shows how this created what he terms "corporate sovereignties" - enclaves of private rule within nominal state territories.
The delegation of judicial powers to colonial settlers created systems of arbitrary justice where Africans had little recourse. Mbembe analyses how this produced what kangaroo courts exemplify - legal theatre masking extralegal violence.
African intermediaries were incorporated into these systems as subaltern enforcers, granted limited authority over their own people. Mbembe demonstrates how this created internal hierarchies of violence that fragmented resistance.
This feudal delegation differed from European feudalism in its racial dimensions, creating what Mbembe calls "the pigmentocracy of violence" - where authority was distributed according to racial hierarchies rather than traditional feudal bonds.
The decentralised system produced pervasive low-level violence:
"random, consistent violence anywhere from private individuals" (pg 29)
This environment of perpetual insecurity served several colonial functions:
It normalised violence as an everyday experience, breaking down traditional social protections. Mbembe connects this to what Galtung would later call structural violence, but with more visible direct manifestations.
The unpredictability of aggression prevented organised resistance by keeping communities in constant defensive postures. Mbembe shows how this created what psychologists term hypervigilance on a societal scale.
Micro-aggressions served as constant reminders of colonial power even in the absence of major military presence. Mbembe analyses how this "drizzle of violence" was more psychologically effective than occasional large-scale repression.
These systems would leave enduring legacies in postcolonial security arrangements and everyday experiences of state power across Africa.
Mbembe's examination of colonial business intermediaries reveals how economic collaboration became a complex site of both complicity and survival, creating what he terms "the grey zone" of colonial political economy.
The colonial transformation of African agriculture involved strategic incorporation of local actors:
"set up business in agriculture and raw material"
This process created paradoxical economic positions:
African farmers who adapted to cash crops gained relative prosperity but became dependent on colonial markets. Mbembe shows how this created what dependency theorists would call "the development of underdevelopment" - economic activity that ultimately reinforced subordination.
Local traders became essential middlemen in colonial commodity chains, but were systematically prevented from moving into higher-value processing. Mbembe analyses this as "truncated entrepreneurship" - allowing limited African business growth that never threatened European dominance.
The colonial state actively shaped these intermediary roles through licensing systems, credit controls and infrastructure development. Mbembe demonstrates how this constituted what he terms "directed capitalism" - market relations carefully constrained to serve colonial ends.
These arrangements would leave enduring legacies in postcolonial African business cultures and state-business relations.
African intermediaries facilitated colonial reach into rural communities:
"relations between state, society and market" (pg 40)
This penetration operated through multiple channels:
Credit systems tied peasants to colonial markets through debt relationships. Mbembe shows how this created what later theorists would call "financial inclusion as control".
Local chiefs were incorporated into tax collection systems, transforming traditional authority into colonial administration. Mbembe analyses this as "the bureaucratisation of custom" - the repurposing of indigenous institutions for colonial governance.
Transport networks were developed to extract commodities rather than connect communities, creating what Mbembe terms "arterial economies" - systems that moved resources out while preventing horizontal African trade.
Mbembe's analysis reveals how these penetration strategies created postcolonial path dependencies that continue to shape African rural economies today.
Mbembe's examination of postcolonial resource control reveals the disturbing continuities with colonial economic systems, creating what he terms "the postcolonial extractive state".
Postcolonial elites maintained power through interlocking systems:
Structuring local inequality: Resource distribution followed colonial-era ethnic and regional hierarchies. Mbembe shows how this created what divide-and-rule strategies had established - fragmented societies easier to control.
Facilitating elite coalitions: Resource wealth was shared among ruling cliques to maintain loyalty. Mbembe analyses this as "the political marketplace" - where support was purchased rather than earned through governance.
Securing external support: Resources were leveraged to gain international backing during the Cold War. Mbembe demonstrates how this perpetuated what he terms "extraversion" - dependence on external powers rather than domestic legitimacy.
This trinity created governance systems where, in Mbembe's words, "the state became a machine for distributing resources to maintain itself rather than develop the nation".
Postcolonial states developed sophisticated systems to distribute resources:
"tax breaks, subsidizing of inputs, widespread use of bank overdrafts" (pg 51)
These mechanisms served several functions:
They created networks of dependency where business success required political connections. Mbembe shows how this produced what rentier capitalism theorists describe, but with postcolonial specificities.
They maintained urban elites while neglecting rural producers, continuing colonial spatial inequalities. Mbembe analyses this as "the postcolonial urban bias" - the concentration of resources in capital cities.
They fostered corruption systems where formal rules were routinely bypassed through informal networks. Mbembe terms this "the informality of formality" - where official systems existed primarily to be circumvented.
Mbembe's analysis reveals how these allocation mechanisms continue to shape contemporary African political economies, explaining many governance challenges today.
Mbembe's analysis of circular power systems reveals how postcolonial African states developed governance models that existed primarily for their own reproduction rather than public service delivery, creating what he terms "autophagic states" - systems that consume their own potential for development.
The fundamental logic of postcolonial governance:
"The objective of this sort of sovereignty was that people obey."
This principle manifested in several distinctive ways:
State institutions were designed primarily to demonstrate power rather than deliver services. Mbembe shows how this created what Potemkin governance - impressive facades masking institutional emptiness.
Public ceremonies and rituals of loyalty became more important than substantive policy implementation. Mbembe analyses this as "the performative state" - where governance becomes theatre rather than administration.
Bureaucratic systems prioritised control over efficiency, creating what Mbembe terms "red tape as weapon" - administrative procedures designed to frustrate rather than facilitate.
This obedience-focused governance represented a continuation of colonial logics rather than the clean break promised by independence movements.
The economic dimensions of circular power systems:
Salaries were paid without labour expectations, creating what Mbembe calls "the salary as tribute" - payments maintaining political loyalty rather than compensating work. This system drew from colonial-era chiefly stipends but expanded them across the bureaucracy.
Debt was used as control mechanism, with state banks providing loans that created permanent dependency. Mbembe shows how this produced "debt bondage" - where elites were trapped in relationships of obligation to the regime.
Resources were allocated to maintain power rather than develop capacity, creating what Mbembe terms "the development of underdevelopment" - systems that actively prevented economic transformation to preserve existing power structures.
Mbembe's analysis reveals how these circular systems continue to shape contemporary African governance challenges, explaining many development paradoxes.
Mbembe's critique of Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs) provides a devastating analysis of how neoliberal reforms destabilised African political economies while failing to achieve their stated goals, creating what he terms "the adjustment paradox" - interventions that exacerbated the very problems they sought to solve.
The fundamental flaws in SAPs as implemented in Africa:
They removed the conflict management systems that fragile postcolonial states had developed, what Mbembe calls "dismantling the safety valves". This ignored how African political systems had evolved to manage tensions through carefully calibrated patronage.
They created "subsistence crises" by abruptly withdrawing social supports while markets were still underdeveloped. Mbembe shows how this reproduced what Polanyi described in The Great Transformation - the disastrous consequences of disembedding markets from social relations.
They ignored local political economies by imposing standardised solutions. Mbembe analyses this as "the neoliberal template" - one-size-fits-all policies that failed to account for African realities.
These flaws were not accidental but reflected what Mbembe terms "the coloniality of adjustment" - the continuation of colonial patterns of external imposition dressed in new economic theories.
The devastating social consequences of adjustment policies:
Increased material scarcity led to what Mbembe calls "the economisation of survival" - where daily existence became a series of desperate calculations. This created conditions ripe for political violence as groups competed over shrinking resources.
The return to arbitrariness saw the re-emergence of authoritarian solutions to economic crises. Mbembe shows how this produced "the strongman revival" - the appeal of authoritarian figures promising stability amid chaos.
Widespread violence became both cause and consequence of state retreat, creating what Mbembe terms "the vicious circle of adjustment" - where economic shocks weakened states, leading to violence that further undermined development.
Mbembe's analysis helps explain many contemporary African governance challenges as legacies of this adjustment era, revealing the enduring consequences of 1980s-90s economic reforms.
Mbembe's analysis of the military-commercial complex reveals how postcolonial African states developed unique configurations where economic and military power became fundamentally intertwined, creating what he terms "the warlord state" - a hybrid form blending formal governance with commercialised violence.
The blurring of boundaries between commerce and coercion:
"resorting to brute force has become the rule"
This fusion operates through several distinct mechanisms:
State security forces increasingly engage in direct economic activities, from running mining operations to controlling transportation routes. Mbembe shows how this creates what predatory state capitalism - where the means of violence become means of accumulation.
Military elites transition into business roles while maintaining their security networks, creating what Mbembe terms "khaki capitalism" - economic systems dominated by actors with military backgrounds and mentalities.
Private security companies proliferate, often staffed by former state military personnel, producing a continuum between official and privatised violence. Mbembe connects this to global trends of neoliberal privatisation, but with distinct African characteristics of institutional fluidity.
This complex represents a significant departure from conventional Weberian models of state monopoly on violence, creating governance systems where economic and military power are fundamentally inseparable.
The emergence of non-state violent entrepreneurs:
Mbembe identifies several categories of these new actors:
Traffickers: Who control cross-border flows of both licit and illicit goods, often with the tacit approval or direct participation of state actors. Mbembe shows how they create what he terms "shadow sovereignties" - alternative systems of control operating alongside formal state structures.
Brokers: Who mediate between formal and informal economies, between local communities and national elites, between African states and global markets. Mbembe analyses their role as creating "the connective tissue" of contemporary African political economies.
Leaders of bands: Local strongmen who control territory and populations through mixtures of coercion and patronage. Mbembe connects these figures to longer traditions of African big-man politics, but operating in contexts of state fragility.
These new operators fundamentally transform the nature of sovereignty in African contexts, creating systems where power is constantly negotiated rather than centrally held.
Mbembe's examination of deregulation's consequences provides a powerful critique of neoliberal assumptions, showing how the retreat of the state in Africa has often led not to vibrant markets but to violent disorder, creating what he terms "the paradox of liberalisation".
The causal connections between economic and political changes:
"the rise of violence and the creation of private military organizations"
This relationship operates through several interlocking mechanisms:
The withdrawal of state economic controls created vacuums filled by violent entrepreneurs. Mbembe shows how this process mirrors what Hobbes described in the state of nature, but with modern organisational forms and weaponry.
The removal of price controls and subsidies on basic commodities made survival precarious for millions, increasing incentives for criminality and violent appropriation. Mbembe analyses this as "the economisation of violence" - where coercion becomes a rational livelihood strategy.
Currency devaluations and public sector layoffs pushed educated professionals into informal survival strategies, eroding the middle class that might have stabilised democratic transitions. Mbembe terms this "the lumpenisation of the bourgeoisie".
These dynamics help explain why economic liberalisation in Africa has so often failed to produce the political liberalisation that Western theorists predicted.
The broader societal consequences of deregulation:
Loss of state regulatory capacity created conditions for environmental degradation and public health crises. Mbembe shows how this represents what biological warfare theorists might call "structural biopolitics" - the withdrawal of life-supporting systems.
Erosion of administrative power led to the collapse of basic services from education to sanitation, producing what Mbembe terms "the unmaking of civil society" - the destruction of the very institutions that might have held states accountable.
Collapse of conflict resolution mechanisms saw disputes increasingly settled through violence rather than law or custom. Mbembe connects this to longer traditions of African dispute resolution, showing how deregulation destroyed these without creating viable alternatives.
Mbembe's analysis provides crucial insights into contemporary African governance challenges, showing how 1980s-90s economic reforms continue to shape political realities today.
Mbembe's examination of power indicators in postcolonial Africa reveals a fundamental crisis of political legibility, where traditional signs of authority become unstable or misleading, creating what he terms "the enigma of power" - governance systems that are simultaneously omnipresent and illegible.
The paradoxical nature of postcolonial decision-making:
"parallel decisions coexist with centralized decisions"
This phenomenon manifests in several distinctive ways:
Formal state institutions issue proclamations that may or may not correspond to actual power realities. Mbembe shows how this creates what Potemkin governance - impressive facades masking institutional emptiness or alternative power structures.
Real authority often resides in informal networks that operate alongside official channels. Mbembe analyses this as "the shadow state" - parallel systems of influence that undermine formal institutional arrangements.
The boundaries between public and private decision-making become hopelessly blurred, with personal relationships often trumping official hierarchies. Mbembe connects this to longer traditions of neopatrimonialism, but with postcolonial specificities of scale and complexity.
This crisis of indicators creates governance systems where even experienced observers struggle to determine where power truly resides or how decisions are actually made.
The breakdown of command structures:
"instructions from above are distorted or disobeyed below" (pg 80)
Mbembe identifies several mechanisms driving this distortion:
Local intermediaries creatively reinterpret central directives to suit their own interests or local conditions. Mbembe shows how this represents not mere corruption but a fundamental characteristic of postcolonial governance systems.
Street-level bureaucrats develop their own informal rules and practices that may substantially alter policy implementation. Mbembe analyses this as "the vernacularisation of power" - the adaptation of formal systems to local realities.
Information flows become intentionally distorted as various actors seek to protect their interests. Mbembe terms this "the political economy of misinformation" - where truth becomes a scarce and strategically managed resource.
These dynamics help explain why even well-intentioned reforms often fail to achieve their objectives in African contexts, as they become transformed through multiple layers of interpretation and adaptation.
Mbembe's analysis of citizenship in contexts of parallel economies reveals fundamental transformations in the relationship between individuals and states, creating what he terms "informal citizenship" - modes of belonging based on economic participation rather than legal status.
The redefinition of belonging in economic terms:
Where formal citizenship becomes devalued due to state incapacity or indifference, economic participation in parallel systems emerges as an alternative basis for rights and protection. Mbembe shows how this creates what informal economy theorists might call "survival citizenship".
Membership in trading networks, religious groups or neighbourhood associations often provides more tangible benefits than formal state citizenship. Mbembe analyses this as "the privatisation of citizenship" - where collective goods are accessed through non-state channels.
Violent actors like warlords or gang leaders may offer more effective protection than state security forces, creating perverse incentives for allegiance. Mbembe connects this to what Tilly described in his analysis of state formation, but in reverse - the fragmentation rather than consolidation of protection systems.
This access-based citizenship represents a fundamental challenge to conventional notions of national belonging and state sovereignty.
The stratification of parallel citizenship:
"the strong have immunity over violence and the weak are forced to labour" (pg 82)
Mbembe identifies several key dynamics in this system:
Elites within parallel systems enjoy de facto immunity from both state laws and informal justice systems. Mbembe shows how this creates what he terms "zones of exception" - spaces where normal rules don't apply to powerful actors.
Ordinary citizens become trapped in systems of exploitative labour with little legal protection. Mbembe analyses this as "the informalisation of precarity" - the extension of insecure work conditions into all aspects of life.
The boundaries between free and forced labour become blurred, with debt, kinship obligations and violence creating complex systems of coercion. Mbembe connects this to longer histories of unfree labour in African contexts.
These dynamics help explain contemporary African migration patterns, as citizens seek alternative systems of belonging beyond failing nation-states.
Mbembe's analysis of forced taxation systems reveals how the collapse of formal state revenue mechanisms in many postcolonies has led to the emergence of violent extraction regimes that fundamentally transform state-citizen relations, creating what he terms "predatory fiscalism".
The transformation of security forces into revenue agents:
Roadblocks become ubiquitous sites of fiscal extraction rather than public safety checkpoints. Mbembe shows how this represents the inversion of Weberian state rationality, where security apparatuses become primarily economic rather than political institutions.
Raids on markets and businesses serve as irregular taxation events rather than law enforcement actions. Mbembe analyses this as "the militarisation of revenue collection" - where coercion replaces consent in fiscal relations.
Illegal seizures of property are reframed as legitimate revenue measures through bureaucratic euphemisms. Mbembe demonstrates how this creates what he terms "the lexicon of extraction" - linguistic strategies that mask violent realities.
This transformation of police roles fundamentally alters citizens' perceptions of state legitimacy and the social contract, creating conditions of permanent fiscal insecurity.
The circular logic of coercive taxation:
"taxes are used to fund the violence which collects them" (pg 86-88)
This self-perpetuating system operates through several mechanisms:
Extracted resources finance the very security forces that conduct further extraction, creating what Mbembe calls "the ouroboros state" - a system that consumes itself to sustain itself.
Local commanders often retain portions of collected "taxes" to fund their operations, producing what feudal-style systems of fiscal decentralisation within nominally unified states.
The boundaries between official taxation and criminal extortion become hopelessly blurred, undermining any remaining notions of reciprocal obligations between state and citizen.
Mbembe's analysis helps explain the paradox of increasingly violent yet financially precarious African states, where coercive capacity grows even as public services deteriorate.
Mbembe's critique of Western self-definition reveals how European identity and modernity were fundamentally constituted through the ideological negation of Africa, creating what he terms "the dialectics of alterity" - a relational identity built on radical exclusion.
The philosophical foundations of European self-imagining:
"the West defines its own being by comparing itself to Africa's supposed non-being"
This ontological contrast operates through several conceptual moves:
African societies were positioned as the absolute "Other" against which Europe could define its supposed rationality and progress. Mbembe shows how this drew from but radicalised earlier Orientalist discourses.
African epistemologies and cosmologies were systematically excluded from considerations of valid knowledge systems. Mbembe analyses this as "the epistemic closure" of European thought - the active foreclosure of alternative ways of knowing.
The very category of "Africa" became a floating signifier for absence, lack and negation in European philosophy. Mbembe traces this through Hegel's dismissal of Africa as "unhistorical" to contemporary development discourses.
This ontological violence, Mbembe argues, established the conceptual foundations for material colonial violence by rendering Africa simultaneously indispensable yet negated in European self-understanding.
The paradoxical nature of this relational identity:
"the very definition of the West relies on Africa"
Mbembe unpacks this dependency through several insights:
European humanism's universal claims depended on the simultaneous exclusion of African humanity. Mbembe shows how this created what he terms "the paradox of Enlightenment" - universal ideals built on particular exclusions.
Modern European economic systems were fundamentally shaped by African slavery and colonialism, despite ideological claims to autogenous development. Mbembe connects this to Marx's primitive accumulation, but emphasises its racial dimensions.
Contemporary Western identity continues to rely on African crises as foils for its self-image as benevolent and developed. Mbembe analyses this as "the humanitarian gaze" - a mode of seeing Africa that reaffirms Western superiority.
This analysis challenges decolonial projects to move beyond mere inversion of these binaries, towards what Mbembe calls "the universal right to difference" - a world where Africa can exist beyond Western imaginaries.
Mbembe offers a fundamental critique of Western social engineering approaches to African development, exposing how they perpetuate colonial patterns of thought while failing to engage with African realities, creating what he terms "the development illusion".
The cyclical nature of Western development orthodoxies:
"civil society, conflict resolution, and alleged transitions to democracy"
Mbembe analyses how these frameworks misunderstand African political realities:
The civil society discourse assumes Western-style associational life where it often doesn't exist, ignoring how African communities organise differently. Mbembe shows how this leads to misguided interventions that strengthen elite NGOs while marginalising traditional structures.
Conflict resolution models frequently impose external templates that ignore local peacebuilding traditions. Mbembe demonstrates how this creates what he terms "therapeutic imperialism" - the imposition of foreign conflict management paradigms.
Democratic transition narratives impose linear models that fail to account for Africa's complex political trajectories. Mbembe connects this to modernisation theory's flawed assumptions about universal development paths.
These fads represent what Mbembe calls "development as spectacle" - performative interventions that achieve little substantive change while reinforcing Western epistemic dominance.
The failure of Western social science to understand Africa:
"comprehend the political in Africa or with producing knowledge" (pg 7)
Mbembe identifies several fundamental flaws in prevailing approaches:
The privileging of policy relevance over theoretical rigour has produced shallow analyses that serve donor agendas rather than scholarly understanding. Mbembe shows how this creates what he terms "the consultancy complex" - a self-referential system of applied research divorced from deeper inquiry.
The marginalisation of African intellectuals in knowledge production about Africa perpetuates colonial patterns of epistemic violence. Mbembe analyses this as "the extractive economy of knowledge" - where data is mined from Africa but theorised elsewhere.
The dominance of English-language publishing creates systematic biases against African intellectual traditions. Mbembe connects this to broader patterns of linguistic imperialism in global academia.
Mbembe's critique calls for a fundamental rethinking of how knowledge about Africa is produced, valued and circulated in global academic systems.
Mbembe's examination of language in African studies reveals how the marginalisation of African languages constitutes a fundamental barrier to genuine understanding, creating what he terms "the hermeneutic gap" - an unbridgeable chasm between Western interpretations and African realities.
The systematic devaluation of African language competence:
"Knowledge of local languages... is deemed unnecessary"
This neglect has profound consequences:
Research conducted through interpreters or in European languages misses crucial nuances embedded in African linguistic structures. Mbembe shows how this produces what epistemic injustice theorists might call "hermeneutic marginalisation".
The dominance of European languages in African academia creates systematic distortions in how knowledge is produced and validated. Mbembe analyses this as "the cognitive alienation" of African intellectuals - forced to think and write in conceptual frameworks foreign to their lived realities.
Policy interventions based on mistranslations or partial understandings frequently produce unintended consequences. Mbembe demonstrates how this has led to countless development failures across the continent.
This linguistic barrier helps explain why Western social science has struggled to develop adequate frameworks for understanding African political and social phenomena.
The intellectual costs of linguistic exclusion:
Misrepresentation of African concepts occurs when they are forced into European linguistic categories. Mbembe shows how this creates what he terms "conceptual lost in translation" - fundamental ideas that cannot be adequately rendered in colonial languages.
Superficial analyses emerge when researchers cannot access primary sources or engage directly with local discourse. Mbembe connects this to broader problems of academic Orientalism in African studies.
Epistemic erasure occurs when African knowledge systems are rendered invisible by linguistic barriers. Mbembe analyses this as "the silencing effect" of colonial language regimes - the systematic exclusion of alternative ways of knowing.
Mbembe's critique calls for a fundamental revaluation of African languages as essential tools for understanding African realities, not merely as objects of study but as mediums for serious theoretical work.
Mbembe challenges Western linear conceptions of historical progress by proposing a complex understanding of African temporalities that better captures the continent's historical experiences, creating what he terms "entangled time" - a multidimensional framework for understanding African history.
The coexistence of different historical rhythms:
"discontinuities, reversals, inertias, and swings"
Mbembe's temporal model incorporates several key dimensions:
Precolonial temporalities persist alongside colonial and postcolonial timeframes, creating what Mbembe calls "palimpsestic time" - where different historical layers remain simultaneously present. This challenges historicist assumptions about clean periodisation.
Cyclical conceptions of time from African cosmological traditions interact with linear modern time, producing unique temporal hybrids. Mbembe shows how this creates what he terms "time folds" - moments when distant pasts suddenly feel contemporaneous.
The traumatic ruptures of colonialism create temporal disjunctures where progress and regression become entangled. Mbembe analyses this through what Walter Benjamin called "messianic time", but with distinct postcolonial inflections.
This framework helps explain why conventional development timelines consistently fail in African contexts, as they impose foreign temporal expectations on fundamentally different historical experiences.
The complex interplay of historical paths:
"a variety of trajectories neither convergent nor divergent but interlocked" (pg 16)
Mbembe identifies several characteristics of this interlocking:
African societies simultaneously embody multiple developmental paths that cannot be reduced to traditional/modern binaries. Mbembe shows how this challenges modernisation theory's unilinear assumptions.
Global historical forces interact with local temporal logics in unpredictable ways. Mbembe analyses this as "temporal creolisation" - the blending of different historical rhythms through colonial encounter.
The future is experienced not as empty homogenous time (per Benjamin) but as already populated by past potentials. Mbembe terms this "the future anterior" of African time - what will have been shapes what could be.
This temporal framework provides crucial tools for rethinking African development outside Eurocentric historical expectations and teleologies.
Mbembe develops a radical phenomenology of postcolonial African life that centres embodied experience over abstract theorisation, creating what he terms "flesh philosophy" - a grounding of knowledge in the lived realities of African bodies.
The primacy of bodily existence in African phenomenology:
"his/her eyes, ears, mouth—in short, his/her flesh, his/her body"
This embodied epistemology operates through several key principles:
Cognitive knowledge is always mediated through sensory experience in African thought traditions. Mbembe shows how this contrasts with Western mind-body dualism, offering alternative epistemologies of knowing.
Political power operates directly on bodies through both violence and care in postcolonies. Mbembe analyses this as "biopolitics in the flesh" - where governance becomes intimate and corporeal rather than abstract and institutional.
Historical trauma is carried in bodily memory and practice across generations. Mbembe connects this to what postcolonial theorists call "embodied history" - the ways collective memory persists through gesture, posture and sensation.
This focus on embodiment provides crucial correctives to Eurocentric philosophies that privilege abstract reason over situated knowing.
The critique of abstract theorisation:
"living in the concrete world" (pg 16)
Mbembe's materialist approach emphasises:
The importance of daily practices and mundane routines in constituting African subjectivities. Mbembe shows how this challenges idealist traditions that prioritise consciousness over practice.
The ways infrastructure, urban spaces and built environments shape political possibilities. Mbembe analyses this as "the architecture of the everyday" - how material conditions enable or constrain certain modes of being.
The economic foundations of cultural and intellectual life in contexts of material scarcity. Mbembe terms this "the political economy of cognition" - how survival needs condition thought itself.
This grounded approach provides crucial methodological correctives to tendencies in African studies towards excessive abstraction divorced from lived realities.
Mbembe's articulation of African humanism represents a radical philosophical intervention that seeks to transcend the limiting dichotomies imposed by colonial thought while grounding African subjectivity in embodied, historical experience. This framework emerges from his critique of both colonial dehumanisation and what he sees as the limitations of traditional African philosophy responses to colonialism.
Mbembe's rejection of essentialist identity constructions:
"the asserted denial and the reaffirmation of that humanity now look like the two sterile sides of the same coin"
This conceptual move involves several philosophical innovations:
Mbembe critiques both colonial denials of African humanity and romanticised Négritude affirmations as being trapped in the same dialectical impasse. He shows how these apparent opposites actually reinforce the terms of colonial discourse by accepting its fundamental either/or logic.
His approach draws on but transforms post-structuralist critiques of binary thinking, applying them specifically to the African colonial encounter. Unlike some post-structuralists, however, Mbembe grounds his theory in the material histories of African societies rather than purely textual analysis.
The framework incorporates insights from Ubuntu philosophy while avoiding its potential essentialisms. Mbembe's humanism emphasises becoming over being, focusing on the processes through which African subjectivities are continually made and remade in historical context.
This represents a significant departure from both colonial anthropology and early postcolonial Afrocentric responses, offering a more nuanced theoretical framework for understanding African identities in their complexity and fluidity.
The grounding of knowledge in embodied experience:
"his/her eyes, ears, mouth—in short, his/her flesh, his/her body" (pg 16)
This corporeal epistemology involves several key dimensions:
Mbembe develops what might be termed a phenomenology of the colonised body, showing how knowledge emerges from situated, sensory experience rather than abstract rationalism. This challenges Cartesian mind-body dualisms that have dominated Western philosophy.
The concept builds on Fanon's work on racial embodiment while extending it to broader epistemological concerns. Where Fanon focused on the racialised body's experience under colonialism, Mbembe explores how embodied knowing can form the basis for postcolonial African thought.
This approach resonates with indigenous African knowledge systems that privilege experiential learning and oral transmission over textual abstraction. Mbembe however avoids romanticising these traditions, showing how they too must be critically engaged.
The "flesh" in Mbembe's formulation serves as both metaphor and material reality - the literal site where colonial violence was inflicted and postcolonial identity must be reconstructed. This creates what he terms an "epidermal epistemology" - knowledge emerging from the very site of racial marking.
The living African subject as historical agent:
"who lives and espouses his/her contemporaneousness" (pg 16)
This conception of African subjectivity involves several crucial aspects:
Mbembe rejects both colonial denials of African historical agency and nativist appeals to pre-colonial purity. Instead, he posits the African subject as fully contemporary - shaped by but not determined by history.
The framework acknowledges the profound transformations wrought by colonialism while insisting on African capacities for creative adaptation and reinvention. This represents what Mbembe calls "the plasticity of African subjectivity" - its ability to absorb and transform external influences.
Mbembe's humanism incorporates elements of existentialist thought in its emphasis on self-creation, but grounds this in collective historical experience rather than individual isolation. The African subject emerges through community and history, not in abstraction from them.
This vision provides crucial resources for contemporary African thought, offering ways to engage global modernity while maintaining critical distance from both Western universalism and defensive traditionalism.
Ultimately, Mbembe's African humanism represents both a philosophical breakthrough and a political project - an attempt to conceive African being beyond the terms set by colonialism, while remaining grounded in the material realities and historical experiences of African people. It offers a framework for thinking through what it means to be human in postcolonial Africa without recourse to either Western models or nostalgic traditionalism.