The ghost of postcolony yet to come.
Sunak's wife looks like a vengeful ghost standing there.
July 5, 2024 at 2:47 PM
The ghost of postcolony yet to come.
It's (always) a good time to re-read Achille Mbembe's "Provisional Notes on the Postcolony" (1992)
September 1, 2025 at 10:18 PM
It's (always) a good time to re-read Achille Mbembe's "Provisional Notes on the Postcolony" (1992)
Revisiting my essay on Achille Mbembe as it seems to me his concepts of the postcolony and necropolitics pretty aptly describes the United States rn. publicseminar.org/2016/09/mbem...
March 12, 2025 at 4:33 AM
Revisiting my essay on Achille Mbembe as it seems to me his concepts of the postcolony and necropolitics pretty aptly describes the United States rn. publicseminar.org/2016/09/mbem...
Thinking about Achille Mbembe, and the United States as the postcolony coming home to roost.
Africa contra Hegel - Public Seminar
There was once a fantasy, shared by left and right alike, that the states of the under-developed world could come,...Read More
publicseminar.org
July 12, 2025 at 5:41 AM
Thinking about Achille Mbembe, and the United States as the postcolony coming home to roost.
just remembered that final scene in Bend it like Beckham where Irish football coach and the Jess's dad play cricket together at the end lol
#postcolony
#postcolony
January 11, 2025 at 9:24 PM
just remembered that final scene in Bend it like Beckham where Irish football coach and the Jess's dad play cricket together at the end lol
#postcolony
#postcolony
"If one is not a human being, what is one?"
Prof. Achille Mbembe,
Historian & Political Theorist.
'On the Postcolony' (2001)
Prof. Achille Mbembe,
Historian & Political Theorist.
'On the Postcolony' (2001)
The proposal was adopted with 123 votes in favour and three against - the United States, Israel and Argentina.
Fifty-two countries abstained, including the United Kingdom and European Union member states.
www.bbc.com/news/article...
Fifty-two countries abstained, including the United Kingdom and European Union member states.
www.bbc.com/news/article...
UN votes to recognise enslavement of Africans as 'gravest crime against humanity'
The landmark resolution calls for an apology and contributions to a reparations fund, without specifying an amount.
www.bbc.com
March 25, 2026 at 10:40 PM
"If one is not a human being, what is one?"
Prof. Achille Mbembe,
Historian & Political Theorist.
'On the Postcolony' (2001)
Prof. Achille Mbembe,
Historian & Political Theorist.
'On the Postcolony' (2001)
If we really want to play this game every European country that unified in the course of the 19th century is a lie and has no cultural integrity. Every postcolony is an inauthentic, desperate fabrication. Every condensed imperial metropole is a pathetic shadow of something that once was real…
September 1, 2025 at 2:36 PM
If we really want to play this game every European country that unified in the course of the 19th century is a lie and has no cultural integrity. Every postcolony is an inauthentic, desperate fabrication. Every condensed imperial metropole is a pathetic shadow of something that once was real…
Only the one chapter in Achille Mbembe's On the Postcolony, the slacker.
August 27, 2026 at 3:34 PM
Only the one chapter in Achille Mbembe's On the Postcolony, the slacker.
December 19, 2024 at 8:42 AM
Just as I'm reading Mbembe's Postcolony again, first the story about AI use by African autocrats and now this.
It is time to read and teach it again. (And realise it's relevant beyond the continent)
It is time to read and teach it again. (And realise it's relevant beyond the continent)
all of this means that notions of “sources” and “archives” and “evidence” and “fact” are fraught, convenient fictions, at best
yet, many who write about these things do not contend with their fictional—fabulist?—nature, and so we get strange accounts, or none at all
yet, many who write about these things do not contend with their fictional—fabulist?—nature, and so we get strange accounts, or none at all
September 14, 2026 at 12:56 PM
Just as I'm reading Mbembe's Postcolony again, first the story about AI use by African autocrats and now this.
It is time to read and teach it again. (And realise it's relevant beyond the continent)
It is time to read and teach it again. (And realise it's relevant beyond the continent)
‘Mbembe has been accused of writing at a “frustrating level of abstraction” and performing “language acrobatics”. But those who stay the course are rewarded.’
Kevin Okoth on the postcolonial theorist Achille Mbembe:
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Kevin Okoth on the postcolonial theorist Achille Mbembe:
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Kevin Okoth · The Pessimist’s Optimist: Beyond the Postcolony
Achille Mbembe is the pessimist’s optimist: he delivers a devastating analysis of the contemporary moment while never...
www.lrb.co.uk
July 2, 2025 at 2:51 PM
‘Mbembe has been accused of writing at a “frustrating level of abstraction” and performing “language acrobatics”. But those who stay the course are rewarded.’
Kevin Okoth on the postcolonial theorist Achille Mbembe:
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Kevin Okoth on the postcolonial theorist Achille Mbembe:
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
I love my role as the Episcopalian church, monarchy v. republic, colony vs. postcolony political scientist :)
May 14, 2025 at 1:24 AM
I love my role as the Episcopalian church, monarchy v. republic, colony vs. postcolony political scientist :)
‘Normative accounts of democracy claim that the arbitrary use of force stands in opposition to democratic rights. For Mbembe, however, necropolitics isn’t democracy’s opposite but its dark underbelly.’
Kevin Okoth on Achille Mbembe:
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Kevin Okoth on Achille Mbembe:
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Kevin Okoth · The Pessimist’s Optimist: Beyond the Postcolony
Achille Mbembe is the pessimist’s optimist: he delivers a devastating analysis of the contemporary moment while never...
www.lrb.co.uk
July 12, 2025 at 7:35 AM
‘Normative accounts of democracy claim that the arbitrary use of force stands in opposition to democratic rights. For Mbembe, however, necropolitics isn’t democracy’s opposite but its dark underbelly.’
Kevin Okoth on Achille Mbembe:
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Kevin Okoth on Achille Mbembe:
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
India is the biggest postcolony in the world. India and postcolonial are oft considered synonymous. What happens in India has wider implications.
Solidarity w/ the student protesters simply demanding accountability from political reps. Some have had to cut off ties w/ biofam to march in the rally.
Solidarity w/ the student protesters simply demanding accountability from political reps. Some have had to cut off ties w/ biofam to march in the rally.
July 20, 2026 at 5:17 AM
India is the biggest postcolony in the world. India and postcolonial are oft considered synonymous. What happens in India has wider implications.
Solidarity w/ the student protesters simply demanding accountability from political reps. Some have had to cut off ties w/ biofam to march in the rally.
Solidarity w/ the student protesters simply demanding accountability from political reps. Some have had to cut off ties w/ biofam to march in the rally.
well you know what they say about postcolony being the avant-garde of capitalism...
December 11, 2025 at 9:41 PM
well you know what they say about postcolony being the avant-garde of capitalism...
Very rich essay. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Kevin Okoth · The Pessimist’s Optimist: Beyond the Postcolony
Achille Mbembe is the pessimist’s optimist: he delivers a devastating analysis of the contemporary moment while never...
www.lrb.co.uk
July 2, 2025 at 7:21 PM
Very rich essay. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Interview with my colleague Sandipto Dasgupta about his excellent new book, Legalizing the Revolution: India and the Constitution of the Postcolony.
Today on the blog, Sandipto Dasgupta discusses his new book on the transition from anticolonialism to postcolonialism in the writing of the Indian constitution. He questions narratives of a conflict between singular "indigenous" vs. "Western" political traditions.
From Anticolonialism to Constitutional Capture: An Interview with Sandipto Dasgupta
by Zainab Firdausi
web.sas.upenn.edu
June 3, 2025 at 6:29 PM
Interview with my colleague Sandipto Dasgupta about his excellent new book, Legalizing the Revolution: India and the Constitution of the Postcolony.
43. This doesn’t contradict my earlier point about historians needing to engage more with philosophy; On the Postcolony is a great example of what happens when a historian engages with theory. Unfortunately he stopped being one after that.
July 27, 2025 at 7:40 PM
43. This doesn’t contradict my earlier point about historians needing to engage more with philosophy; On the Postcolony is a great example of what happens when a historian engages with theory. Unfortunately he stopped being one after that.
Had a long, in-depth conversation with Vatsal Naresh about my book. Here is the Spotify link:
open.spotify.com/episode/0pwh...
open.spotify.com/episode/0pwh...
Sandipto Dasgupta, "Legalizing the Revolution: India and the Constitution of the Postcolony" (Cambridge UP, 2024)
New Books in Intellectual History · Episode
open.spotify.com
December 2, 2024 at 3:06 PM
Had a long, in-depth conversation with Vatsal Naresh about my book. Here is the Spotify link:
open.spotify.com/episode/0pwh...
open.spotify.com/episode/0pwh...
And, unfortunately, there was a Wits University Press booksale and I indulged my annoying, laborious, inconvenient, filthy habit of buying books on the road
October 2, 2025 at 2:41 PM
And, unfortunately, there was a Wits University Press booksale and I indulged my annoying, laborious, inconvenient, filthy habit of buying books on the road
Cf Mbembe, „The Thing and its Doubles“ - one of the better texts in On the Postcolony
January 28, 2025 at 4:19 PM
Cf Mbembe, „The Thing and its Doubles“ - one of the better texts in On the Postcolony
‘Achille Mbembe warns us that the condition of the colonies is rapidly becoming the condition of all of subaltern humanity.’
Kevin Okoth:
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Kevin Okoth:
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Kevin Okoth · The Pessimist’s Optimist: Beyond the Postcolony
Achille Mbembe is the pessimist’s optimist: he delivers a devastating analysis of the contemporary moment while never...
www.lrb.co.uk
July 4, 2025 at 1:49 PM
‘Achille Mbembe warns us that the condition of the colonies is rapidly becoming the condition of all of subaltern humanity.’
Kevin Okoth:
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Kevin Okoth:
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
‘Achille Mbembe warns us that the condition of the colonies is rapidly becoming the condition of all of subaltern humanity.’
Kevin Okoth on the post-colonial theorist: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Kevin Okoth on the post-colonial theorist: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Kevin Okoth · The Pessimist’s Optimist: Beyond the Postcolony
Achille Mbembe is the pessimist’s optimist: he delivers a devastating analysis of the contemporary moment while never...
www.lrb.co.uk
July 14, 2025 at 11:10 AM
‘Achille Mbembe warns us that the condition of the colonies is rapidly becoming the condition of all of subaltern humanity.’
Kevin Okoth on the post-colonial theorist: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Kevin Okoth on the post-colonial theorist: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...