Historian Achille Mbembe: Africa’s ‘rule of gerontocracy’ is coming to an end – Spotlight
On the sidelines of the Africa Forward Summit in Nairobi, François Picard is pleased to welcome celebrated historian and political theorist Achille Mbembe. He offers deep insight into a continent in the midst of profound psychological, sociopolitical and economic transformation. Author of “The Earthly Community” and one of Africa’s leading voices on post-colonial sovereignty, Mbembe argues that while institutional change is slow-moving, a seismic change is underway: “What has ended is the rule of gerontocracy. It has ended in the minds of the people. That is what matters.”
For Mbembe, contemporary Africa is neither a story of collapse nor uncomplicated renewal, but a continent moving “in multiple directions at the same time”, where “chaotic situations, almost cataclysmic” coexist with “attempts at reinventing democracy from below.”
Driven increasingly by young people, women, intellectuals and civil society actors, these struggles, he argues, may determine whether Africa’s new sovereignty becomes merely another scramble for resources, or the foundation of more open, durable societies.
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Ultimately, Mbembe insists that Africa’s future will not be built on deficit narratives, but on civilisational confidence: “Africa must build not on the basis of what it lacks, but on the basis of what it already has.”
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