African philosopher Achille Mbembe has gained an enviable reputation as a scholar who challenges the tenets of modernity. Some aspects he tests are the move towards more capitalist economies, an increase in social stratification and the universalisation of western, European thought. From On Private Indirect Government (2000) to his recent book Critique of Black Reason (2017), his interest has always been how the world can account for the construction and consequences of race and racism. In Critique of Black Reason, Mbembe challenges readers to rethink the present with the view to charting a future that will differ from the past and the present. A key interest is how race and racism played a role in how the modern world is organised. However much the world might have benefited from modernity, race and racism played an integral role in its construction. He believes it is of utmost importance that this aspect of modernity is examined as it continues to exclude people and create new and...
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