Mail & Guardian
Mail & Guardian
achille mbembelatest news & developments
Anti-apartheid activist: Robert Sobukwe, leader of the Pan Africanist Congress, in his cell at the prison on Robben Island. Derek Hook and Leswin Laubscher’s book Darkest Before Dawn tells the story of the years after his release. Photo: Getty Images
ACHILLE MBEMBE

Sobukwe and the Red Berets

This is an edited extract from the book Darkest Before Dawn: Writings, Testimonies and Correspondence from the Life of Robert Sobukwe

  • Derek Hook
  • Leswin Laubscher
7 min read
Through research and partnering with communities, universities can tackle the Southern African region’s problems, such as poverty, climate change and unemployment
ACHILLE MBEMBE

Academics, students urge Wits University to divest from fossil fuels

Staff and students argue it is unethical for university to profit from an industry that damages the planet and distorts science

  • Sheree Bega
7 min read
Frank B. Wilderson III standing in front of Vista University campus in Soweto, where he was a lecturer. This image is taken from an article written by Wilderson and published by Tribute magazine in 1994. The article exposed links between Vista University and the Broederbond. (Supplied)
ACHILLE MBEMBE

Part I: ‘Afropessimism’ and the rituals of anti-black violence

Frank B Wilderson discusses ‘Afropessimism’, his memoir that analyses structural violence

  • Zamansele Nsele
15 min read
Vuma Levin (Lauren Mulligan)
ACHILLE MBEMBE
Video

Vuma Levin initiates his cycle

The guitarist is growing into his groove, with a new concept album launching soon

  • Gwen Ansell
7 min read
A curator, artist, intellectual, critic and mentor always looking to create space for black artists in South Africa’s white art world, David Koloane was a towering, critical figure.
ACHILLE MBEMBE

David Koloane’s art is a love letter to Jo’burg

Two art exhibitions reveal the intimate relationship between one of South Africa’s great modernists and the city of his life

  • Niren Tolsi
10 min read
Blame: South Africans
ACHILLE MBEMBE

No African is a foreigner in Africa – except down in South Africa

In sorrow over the way migrants are treated in South Africa, Achille Mbembe calls for Africa to adopt a pro-migration stance

  • Achille Mbembe
17 min read
A penitentiary geography: A Spanish Civil Guard pulls an African migrant from a border fence between Morocco and Spain’s North African enclave of Melilla.
ACHILLE MBEMBE

The great riddance

Security now matters more than freedom in the increased ‘bordernisation’ of Europe which renders those seeking refuge subhuman and vulnerable

  • Achille Mbembe
16 min read
Hours after falling into a pit latrine, Michael Komape’s mother still desperately hoping he could be rescued alive, had to sit, looking at the little hand, waiting for social services to come. (Elijar Mushiana/Gallo Images/Sowetan)
ACHILLE MBEMBE

​The age of humanism is ending

The divergence of democracy and capital will defy reason and politics will become brutal survivalism.

  • Achille Mbembe
7 min read
The ANC’s policy documents do not address how it will bring about a ‘second transition’ for the poor.
ACHILLE MBEMBE

Rule of property versus rule of the poor?

After a decade of self-congratulation, SA is coming to a triple realisation that is exacting a heavy toll on its psyche, writes Achille Mbembe.

  • Achille Mbembe
6 min read