Achille Mbembe (CM) is Research Professor in History and Politics at the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research (WISER), University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. He is also the General Director of the Innovation Foundation for Democracy. He is the author of many books, including On the Postcolony, Critique of Black Reason, Necropolitics, Brutalism, and Out of the Dark Night. Written in French, his work has been translated into twenty languages.

He is the laureate of many international awards, including the Holberg Prize (2024) and the Spinozalens Prize (2025).