Valentin-Yves Mudimbe (born 8 December 1941,
Jadotville,
Belgian Congo
The Belgian Congo (french: Congo belge, ; nl, Belgisch-Congo) was a Belgian colony in Central Africa from 1908 until independence in 1960. The former colony adopted its present name, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), in 1964.
Colo ...
) is a Congolese philosopher, professor, and author of poems, novels, as well as books and articles on African culture and intellectual history. Mudimbe is Ruth F. DeVarney Professor of Romance Studies and professor of
comparative literature
Comparative literature is an academic field dealing with the study of literature and cultural expression across linguistic, national, geographic, and disciplinary boundaries. Comparative literature "performs a role similar to that of the study ...
at
Duke University and ''maître de conferences'' at the
''École des hautes études en sciences sociales'' in Paris.
Early life and career
He was born in the Belgian Congo, now the
Democratic Republic of the Congo
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...
. As a young man, he joined a monastery, but left in 1962 in order to study the forces that shaped African history. He studied in
Louvain (PhD, 1970), came back to Congo and flew to the United States in 1979 for political reasons. He has taught at
Haverford College and
Stanford University, and is now Professor Emeritus in the Program in Literature at
Duke University. His work has had a major impact on many disciplines including African studies, Philosophy, Sociology, Anthropology, Linguistics, Literature, and History.
Work
Mudimbe's work is considered as highly influential for
African studies
African studies is the study of Africa, especially the continent's cultures and societies (as opposed to its geology, geography, zoology, etc.). The field includes the study of Africa's history (pre-colonial, colonial, post-colonial), demography ...
, notably for his major book ''The Invention of Africa'' (1988). His writings transformed the intellectual history of Africa by challenging the dominant historic reconstruction of
Greek philosophy
Ancient Greek philosophy arose in the 6th century BC, marking the end of the Greek Dark Ages. Greek philosophy continued throughout the Hellenistic period and the period in which Greece and most Greek-inhabited lands were part of the Roman Empi ...
which according to him was racialised. The influence of Mudimbe's writings for African studies was compared to that of
Edward Said
Edward Wadie Said (; , ; 1 November 1935 – 24 September 2003) was a Palestinian-American professor of literature at Columbia University, a public intellectual, and a founder of the academic field of postcolonial studies.Robert Young, ''Whit ...
's book
Orientalism for
postcolonial studies
Postcolonialism is the critical academic study of the cultural, political and economic legacy of colonialism and imperialism, focusing on the impact of human control and exploitation of colonized people and their lands. More specifically, it is ...
. Mudimbe showed that without critiquing the epistemologies which were the basis of the discourses about Africa critical approaches can become fruitless.
He received the Herskovits Award given by African Studies Association in 1989.
Mudimbe focuses most closely on
phenomenology
Phenomenology may refer to:
Art
* Phenomenology (architecture), based on the experience of building materials and their sensory properties
Philosophy
* Phenomenology (philosophy), a branch of philosophy which studies subjective experiences and a ...
,
structuralism, mythical narratives, and the practice and use of language. As a professor, he has taught courses on these topics, as well as on ancient Greek cultural geography.
Education
*Junior College Degree,
Lovanium University
Lovanium University (french: Université Lovanium) was a Catholic Jesuit university in Kinshasa in the Belgian Congo. The university was established in 1954 on the Kimwenza plateau, near Kinshasa. The university continued to function after indep ...
, Leopoldville (Kinshasa), Congo (1962)
*Diploma, Lovanium University, Kinshasa, Congo (1964)
*BA, Lovanium University, Kinshasa (1966)
*Graduate Studies, University of Paris (1968)
*PhD with High Honors,
Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium (1970)
Books
;Novels
*''Déchirures'' (1971)
*''Entre les eaux'' (1973); trans. as ''Between Tides'' by Stephen Baker (1991)
*''Entretailles'' (1973)
*''L'Autre Face du royaume'' (1973)
*''Les Fuseaux'' (1974)
*''Le Bel immonde'' (1976); trans. as ''Before the Birth of the Moon'' by Marjolijn de Jager (1989)
*''L'Ecart'' (1979); trans. as ''The Rift'' by Marjolijn de Jager (1993)
*''Shaba deux'' (1988)
*''Les Corps glorieux des mots et des êtres'' (1994)
;Essays
*The Mudimbe Reader, Edited by Pierre-Philippe Fraiture and Daniel Orrells, University of Virginia Press.
*''L'Odeur du père'', Présence Africaine (1982)
*''The Invention of Africa : Gnosis, Philosophy and the Order of Knowledge'', Indiana University Press (1988)
*''Parables and Fables : Exegesis Textuality and Politics in Central Africa'', The University of Wisconsin Press (1991)
*''The Surreptitious Speech: Presence Africaine and the Politics of Otherness 1947-1987'', University of Chicago Press (1992)
*''Africa & the Disciplines'', coeditor, University of Chicago Press (1993)
*''The Idea of Africa, African Systems of Thought'', Indiana University Press, (1994)
*''Tales of Faith: Religion as Political Performance in Central Africa'', Athlone Press (1997)
*''Nations, Identities, Cultures'', editor, Duke University Press (1997)
*''Diaspora and Immigration'', coeditor, ''South Atlantic Quarterly'' special issue, Duke University Press (1999)
*''The Normal & Its Orders'', coeditor, Editions Malaïka (2007)
*''On African Fault Lines: Meditations on Alterity Politics'', University of KwaZulu-Natal Press (2013)
Secondary literature
;In English
*''White fathers in colonial central Africa : a critical examination of V.Y. Mudimbe's theories on missionary discourse in Africa'' Friedrich Stenger, Münster : London : Lit, 2002.
Wylie on Mudimbe, 'The Idea of Africa', Kenneth C. Wylie, H-Africa (1996).
*''Singular performances : reinscribing the subject in Francophone African writing'', Charlottesville : University of Virginia Press, 2002.
*"
An Archaeology of African Knowledge: A Discussion of V. Y. Mudimbe", D. A. Masolo.
*''Postcolonial theory and Francophone literary studies'', Adlai Murdoch and Anne Donadey. Gainesville : University Press of Florida, 2005.
*''Postcolonial Francophone autobiographies : from Africa to the Antilles'' Edgard Sankara, Charlottesville : University of Virginia Press, 2011.
*''VY Mudimbe: Undisciplined Africanism'' Pierre-Philippe Fraiture, Liverpool, Liverpool University Press, 2013.
*Neil Lazarus (2005
Representation and terror in V.Y. Mudimbe Journal of African Cultural Studies, 17:1, 81-101
;In French
*''V.Y. Mudimbe, ou, Le discours, l'écart et l'écriture'', Bernard Mouralis, Présence Africaine, Paris, 1988
*''Le roman africain face aux discours hégémoniques : étude sur l'énonciation et l'idéologie dans l'œuvre de V.Y. Mudimbe'', Jean-Christophe Luhaka A. Kasende, L'harmattan 2001.
*''L'Afrique au miroir des littératures, des sciences de l'homme et de la société : mélanges offerts à V.Y. Mudimbe'', Kasende, Jean-Christophe Luhaka A, L'harmattan, 2003.
*''V.Y. Mudimbe et la ré-invention de l'Afrique: poétique et politique de la décolonisation des sciences humaines'', Kasereka Kavwhairehi, éditions Rodopi, 2006.
*''Pour un nouvel ordre africain de la connaissance : hommage à V.Y. Mudimbe'' sous la direction de Alphonse Mbuyamba-Kankolongo, Paris, 2011.
See also
*
African philosophy
*
List of American philosophers
This is a list of American philosophers; of philosophers who are either from, or spent many productive years of their lives in the United States.
{, border="0" style="margin:auto;" class="toccolours"
, -
! {{MediaWiki:Toc
, -
, style="text-al ...
*
Postcolonialism
References
External links
Mudimbe's faculty pageat
Duke UniversityUniversity of Cambridge– lecture announcement which explains some of Mudimbe's beliefs (especially about the
social science
Social science is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of societies and the relationships among individuals within those societies. The term was formerly used to refer to the field of sociology, the original "science of so ...
s) and gives some biographical information
Electronic Review of French and Italian Literary Essays– review of Mudimbe's ''The Invention of Africa'' by a Northwestern University professor; touches on his philosophies
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mudimbe, V.Y.
Duke University faculty
20th-century American philosophers
21st-century American philosophers
1941 births
Living people
People from Likasi
Democratic Republic of the Congo non-fiction writers
Democratic Republic of the Congo Africanists
Democratic Republic of the Congo philosophers
Democratic Republic of the Congo poets
Democratic Republic of the Congo novelists
Lovanium University alumni
Catholic University of Leuven (1834–1968) alumni
French philosophers