Valentin-Yves Mudimbe, one of Africa’s great minds and philosophers, recently passed. Born in 1941 in Likasi, in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Jadotville), Mudimbe initially pursued a monastic path before abandoning a clerical destiny to focus on higher education.

After earning a degree in philosophy from the Catholic University of Louvain in 1970, he taught at the National University of Zaire. In 1979, he fled to the US due to political tensions. There, he established himself at Duke University, becoming a foundational figure in African and postcolonial studies.

Mudimbe is best known for his seminal work, The Invention of Africa (1988), a rigorous critique that dismantles Western constructions of African otherness. He exposed the biased narratives that continue to confine the continent within colonial frameworks and called for a radical rethinking of knowledge about Africa, free from external impositions. This book remains a cornerstone of the postcolonial movement and a call for Africa to reclaim its own narrative.

Mudimbe was a poet and novelist who explored the tensions between tradition and modernity, faith and reason, in works such as Entre les eaux (1973) and L'Odeur du père (1982). His dense, pedagogical style reflected his vocation as an educator, blending intimate storytelling with political commentary.

Mudimbe’s death comes as Africa ramps up efforts to reclaim its narratives. With the continent’s cultural industry projected by UNESCO to be worth several billion dollars by 2030, his intellectual legacy is more relevant than ever.

Yet, the passing of the man who sought to decolonize African imaginations and assert the continent’s future has gone largely unnoticed.

This article was initially published in French by Servan Ahougnon

Edited in English by Ola Schad Akinocho