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T his special issue is part of the collaborative research project initiated by the Chair in Epistemologies of the Global South with 
Emphasis on Af rica, based at the University of 
Bayreuth in Germany, and the Johannesburg Institute 
for Advanced Study (JIAS), based at the University 
of Johannesburg in South Af rica. The collaborative 
project is entitled “The Changing Af rican Idea of 
Af rica and the Future of Af rican Studies.” At the 
University of Bayreuth, the research project is also 
part of The Af rican Multiple Cluster of Excellence 
supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft 

(grant number EX 20521-390713894). The overarching 
agenda of The Af rican Multiple Cluster of Excellence 
is that of reconfiguring Af rican Studies, and at the 
centre of this is the imperative of doing Af rican 
Studies with Af ricans while also privileging Af rican 
voices and intellectual/academic productions. 

The project commenced in April 2022 with a series 
of keynote seminar series and the commissioning 
of this special issue themed “The Af rican Idea of 
Af rica.”  Af rica as an idea, concept, space, home and 
other iterations, continues to elicit contestations 

By Sabelo J. Ndlovu-Gatsheni & Bongani Ngqulunga

OPINION

Introduction: 
From the idea of Africa to 
the African idea of Africa



7

OPINION

and animated debates in both scholarly circles, as 
well as in political discourses of governance and 
development. Consequently, to write about Af rica 
has not been an easy task for both Af ricanists and 
Af rican scholars. This is why Binyavanga Wainaina 
(2022) posited the question of how to write about 
Af rica. Perhaps, it was these contestations that 
provoked the Harlem Renaissance poet Countee 
Cullen in his famous poem “Heritage” (1924) to posit 
in poetic terms the soul-searching question: “What is 
Af rica to me?” John Henrik Clarke (1991: xiii) expanded 
the question to “What is Af rica to Af ricans, and what 
is Af rica to the world?”  

It perhaps these same concerns that prompted the 
Congolese scholar Valentine Y. Mudimbe to write 
The Invention of Af rica: Gnosis, and the Order of 
Knowledge (1988) and The Idea of Af rica (1994). In 
these two widely celebrated works, Mudimbe delves 
deeper into the complex politics of knowledge, 
representation(s), and indeed invention and 
reinventions of Af rica. He explained in detail how 
missionaries, explorers, anthropologists and other 
literate observers of Af rica propagated an exotic idea 
of Af rica.  To make sense of the politics of knowledge 
and representation, Mudimbe coined the term “the 
colonial library” as an epistemic f raming of a particular 
idea of Af rica, which still remains a challenge in 
Af rican Studies. At the centre of the idea of Af rica are 
complex and tormenting issues of subject, subjection, 
subjectivation, and subjectivity, which Sabelo J. 
Ndlovu-Gatsheni (2013: 101) described as “the ticklish 
subject,” borrowing a concept f rom Slavoj Zizek. 

Reflecting on Mudimbe’s concept of “the invention 
of Af rica,” Lewis R. Gordon (2008: 204) elaborated on 
Mudimbe’s idea and posited that Af rica was invented 
in a double-sense: “It was invented by the system of 
knowledge constituted by the process of conquest 
and colonization, which always erupted with discovery, 
on the one hand, and it was also constituted by the 
processes of resistance borne out of those events the 
consequence of which is an effect of both on each 
other.” As far back as 1963, Ali A. Mazrui published “On 
the Concept of ‘We Are All Af ricans,’” where he delved 
into the politics of resistance to colonialism and rise of 
pan-Af rican ideas. Pan-Af ricanism was propagated by 
such figures as Kwame Nkrumah who made it clear 
that Af rica was born in him and Julius Nyerere who 
articulated the concept of  the “Af rican sentiment” 

(Mazrui 1963: 24-26). This thinking created the Af rican 
idea of Af rica (internal, Af rican-centred view of 
themselves), as a shift f rom the Mudimbean idea of 
Af rica (external representation). Ngugi wa Thiong’o 
(2009: 72) expressed this shift in this way:

V. Y. Mudimbe describes the idea of Af rica 
as a product of the West’s system of self-
representation, which included creation of an 
otherness conceived and conveyed through 
conflicting systems of knowledge. But I prefer to 
think of the idea of Af rica—or, more appropriately, 
the ‘Af rican idea,’ as Af rican self-representation. 
To distinguish it f rom the Mudimbeist formula 
according to which Europe is finding itself 
through its invention of Af rica, I see the Af rican 
idea as that which was forged in the diaspora and 
travelled back to the continent. 

Ngugi wa Thiong’o (2009: 35) introduced the concept 
of “re-membering Af rica” as a central leitmotif of 
the Af rican idea of Af rica. Re-membering is the 
opposite of dismemberment.  It entails the recovery 
of f ragments. It means the picking up of pieces. It is a 
reconstitution and restitution process after centuries 
of de-constitution and destitution. Ngugi wa Thiong’o 
(2009: 35) depicted it as the “quest for wholeness, a 
question that has underlain Af rican struggles since 
the Atlantic slave trade.” Therefore, such initiatives as 
Ethiopianism, Garveyism, Negritude, Pan-Af ricanism, 

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Lewis R. Gordon (2008: 204) 
elaborated on Mudimbe’s idea and 
posited that Africa was invented in 
a double-sense: “It was invented by 

the system of knowledge constituted 
by the process of conquest and 

colonization, which always erupted 
with discovery, on the one hand, and it 
was also constituted by the processes 
of resistance borne out of those events 
the consequence of which is an effect 

of both on each other.”



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the Black consciousness movements, Af rican 
socialism(s), the Af rican renaissance, and many others 
are constitutive of “re-membering.” These initiatives 
were and are also part of what Adom Getachew (2019) 
depicted as “worldmaking after empire.”

The current calls for a new understanding of Af rica are 
inspired by what Sabelo J. Ndlovu-Gatsheni (2018; 2020; 
2021) has depicted as the “resurgent and insurgent 
decolonization of the 21st century.” This resurgent and 
insurgent decolonial politics is characterised by what 
Geo Maher (2022) depicted as “the second sight of the 
colonized” drawing f rom W. E.B. Du Bois. At the centre 
of this decolonial politics is not only the re-opening 
of basic epistemological questions, but also the 
exploration of heteropatriarchal sexism, the afterlives 
of racial enslavement, racial capitalism, colonialities, 
as well as the recovery and articulation of knowledges 
and ideas that have been marginalised. 

It is within this context that the contributions to this 
special issue are largely informed by the decolonial 
and anticolonial spirit of revisiting, recovering and 
articulating Af rican ideas of liberation and the 
imaginings of a liberated Af rica. The essays are 
unique in that they recover and affirm, subject to 
the ideas of critical analysis, what remains useful for 
the unfinished struggle for liberation. Consequently, 
the very Af rican struggles for liberation are opened 
to new critiques and new affirmations informed by 
empathetic readings and keen revisions of the past.

The first essay by Bongani Ngqulunga is focused 
on genealogies of Af rican nationalism and how 
national imaginaries articulated the idea of Af rica, 
where what is explored are individual thinkers and 
ideas. What is underscored are the complexities of 
ideas and the avoidance of easy dismissals of some 
of the imaginings and ideas. The second essay 
is by Tlhabane Mokhine Dan Motaung and, like 
Ngqulunga, he focuses on the Af rican nationalist 
idea of Af rica. Af rican nationalist thought dominated 
the twentieth century and animated the anticolonial 
struggles, as well as decolonial imaginaries of 
liberation. The degeneration of a once coherent 
Af rican national self-consciousness into detestable 
forms of ethnic conflicts, genocides, nativisms and 
xenophobia is opened to analysis in this article. The 
expansive work of Mahmood Mamdani is mobilised 

and deployed to understand both colonial and 
postcolonial realities of Af rica. 

The contributors to this special issue also turn their 
analytical lens to specific political figures like Julius 
Nyerere, Robert Mugabe and Thabo Mbeki in their 
critical explorations of the Af rican ideas of Af rica. 
Some of these figures dominated the political 
landscape of Af rica and they invariably contributed 
to specific ideas of Af rica. William Mpofu’s essay 
is focused on Thabo Mbeki in South Af rica, who 
became a leading voice of the “Af rican Renaissance” 
and actively participated in reworlding Af rica f rom 
Af rica, including its institution-building. Prolific 
Maturuse’s essay is focused on distinctive “Af rican 
philosopher” leader Julius K. Nyerere of Tanzania and 
his ideas of Af rican socialism. 

Blazio Manobo’s essay centers on Robert Gabriel 
Mugabe of Zimbabwe, a controversial leader who 
is both adored and loathed in equal measure. 
Mugabe’s delivery of land to his people, in the face 
of all sorts of criticism, made him a hero among 
Af ricans. Like Kwame Nkrumah, perhaps Mugabe 
became a great leader outside of Zimbabwe and a 
dictator within Zimbabwe. Such a figure could not 
escape attracting the attention of scholars as he is a 
polarising figure - Mugabe is caught up in what one 
can term “Mugabephilia” (love for Mugabe) on the 
one hand, and “Mugabephobia” (hatred for Mugabe) 
on the other hand. 

The glaring lacuna in these essays is a lack of 
focus on women leaders who were also actively 
involved in the liberation struggles and imaginings 
of a liberated Af rica. This lacuna is reflective of the 
operations of patriarchy in knowledge production 
and in imaginings of Af rica. Ifi Amadiume (1997) in 
her advancement of women in reinventing Af rica, 
underscored the realities of matriarchal thinking in 
pre-colonial Af rica and how women commanded 
a powerful voice as leaders. Oyeronke Oyewumi 
(2016: 220) highlighted the significance of what she 
termed “maternal ideologies’’ because it is ‘‘enabling, 
ennobling, and inclusive’’---it is “community 
oriented, all-inclusive, life giving, life sustaining, 
and life preserving.” Therefore, the decolonization 
of knowledge has to entail depatriarchization of 
knowledge too.  

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In the last set of essays, there is a shift f rom individuals, 
to ideas and intellectual productions. Kelvin 
Acheampong’s essay highlights the contributions of 
novelists in his analysis of the literary turn in Af rican 
Studies. Zama Mthombeni’s essay focuses on values 
(ubuntu) and ethics in the context of an exploration of 
the problem of xenophobia in South Af rica and how to 
transcend it. The last essay by Kudzai Vanyoro analyses 
the topical issues of sexuality and homophobia, as 
these issues cannot be ignored in any reflections 
on the Af rican idea of Af rica.  Taken together, these 
essays demonstrate the complexities, multiplicities, 
ambiguities, ambivalences and even contradictions 
with Af rican ideas of Af rica.

References

Amadiume, Ifi. 1997. Reinventing Africa: Matriarchy, Religion and Culture. London 
and New York: Zed Books.

Clarke, John Henrik. 1991. Notes for an African World Revolution: Africa at the 
Crossroads. Trenton: Africa World Press. 

Getachew, Adom. 2019. Worldmaking after Empire: The Rise and Fall of Self-
Determination. Princeton & Oxford: Princeton University Press. 

Gordon, Lewis R. 2008. An Introduction to Africana Philosophy. Cambridge: 
Cambridge University Press. 

Maher, Geo. 2022. Anticolonial Eruptions: Racial Hubris and the Cunning of 
Resistance. California: University of California Press.

Mazrui, Ali A. 1963. “On the Concept of ‘We Are All Africans.”’ American Political 
Science Review, 57(1), pp. 24-97. 

Mudimbe, V. Y. 1988. The Invention of Africa: Gnosis, Philosophy and the Order of 
Knowledge. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press. 

Mudimbe, V. Y. 1994. The Idea of Africa. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana 
University Press. 

Ndlovu-Gatsheni, Sabelo J. 2013. Empire, Global Coloniality and African 
Subjectivity. New York and Oxford: Berghahn Books.  

Ndlovu-Gatsheni, Sabelo J. 2018. Epistemic Freedom in Africa: 
Deprovincialization and Decolonization. London and New York: Routledge.  

Ndlovu-Gatsheni, Sabelo J. 2020. Decolonization, Development and Knowledge 
in Africa: Turning Over A New Leaf. London and New York: Routledge. 

Ndlovu-Gatsheni, Sabelo J. 2021. “The Cognitive Empire, Politics of Knowledge 
and African Intellectual Productions: Reflections on Struggles for Epistemic 
Freedom and Resurgence of Decolonization in the Twenty-First Century.” Third 
World Quarterly, 42 (5), pp. 882-901. 

Ngugi wa Thiong’o. 2009. Something Torn and New: An African Renaissance. 
New York: Basic Civitas Books.

Oyewumi, Oyeronke. 2016. What Gender Is Motherhood? Changing Yoruba Ideas 
of Power, Procreation, and Identity in the Age of Modernity. London: Palgrave 
Macmillan 

Wainaina, Binyavanga. 2022. How to Write About Africa. London: Penguin Books

OPINION