Violence in/and the Great Lakes: The Thought of V-Y Mudimbe and Beyond (Thinking Africa)

This collection is, in the best sense of the term, a homage to Valentin Mudimbe. The festschrift's essays honor the intellectual legacy of Mudimbe - for decades now, one of Africa and the diaspora's most significant minds - by taking up the challenges his work poses, be they ethical, political, philosophical, literary, sociological, anthropological, or psychological challenges. The book gathers a group of US- and Africa-based scholars, many of whom are long-time Mudimbe collaborators and colleagues, who use the questions posed, the critiques and insights offered, and the paradigms constructed by Valentin Mudimbe's oeuvre to understand the implication - and, in some instances, the application - of Mudimbe's work in our moment. In this way, the project is true to Mudimbe's deepest commitment, because the collection, for all the range of its contributions, for all the variegated and often dissonant - yet resonant - ways in which the authors take up Mudimbe's thinking, never strays too far from the historic question of violence and the effects of that violence in the Great Lakes region of Africa, and, indeed, of violence in Africa itself. This is, in every important way, the founding inquiry of Mudimbe's work, and it is sustained in this book. Also, his thoughts are given important new life, new philosophical shape, and new political impetus. Questions continue to haunt his writing and, of course, the continent itself. In so honoring Valentin Mudimbe, the book is grounded in a key contribution by Mudimbe himself. Mudimbe is thus, as has long been his wont, reflecting upon his work in the company of those scholars whose work he has influenced and whom, it is clear, have been important interlocutors for Valentin Mudimbe. ( Thinking Africa) [ African Studies, Philosophy, Sociology, Cultural Studies] Is ... a homage to Valentin Mudimbe. This collection of essays honours the intellectual legacy of Mudimbe, for decades now one of Africa and the diaspora's most significant minds, by taking up the challenges -- ethical, political, philosophical, literary, sociological, anthropological, psychological -- his work poses. This book gathers a group of US- and Africa-based scholars, many of whom are long-time Mudimbe collaborators and colleagues, who use the questions posed, the critiques and insights offered and the paradigms constructed by Mudimbe's oeuvre to understand the implication -- and, in some instances, the application -- of Mudimbe's work in our moment.--Provided by publisher Introduction : silhouette of the unknown woman For a common ascension in humanity : the intellectual's mission in the Great Lakes Region Life, 'life' and death Violence of details and details of violence in novels by V-Y Mudimbe Representations of violence in V-Y Mudimbe's novels Making visible and eradicating Congo's history of violence : maiming the Female/National Body A phemonenology of violence On the banality of violence : state, power and the everyday in Africa Postcards from the postcolony Debitores Sumus ... on ways of exhausting our question on violence Coda : violence and the sublime.