The Holberg Prize committee has announced Cameroonian researcher and political theorist, Achille Mbembe, from the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, as the recipient of the 2024 Holberg Prize for his groundbreaking research in African history, postcolonial studies, humanities, and also social science.
Born in Cameroon in 1957, Achille Mbembe earned his 1989 doctorate from the Université Paris 1 (Pantheon Sorbonne), focusing on anti-colonial resistance. Currently a professor of History and Politics at the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research, University of the Witwatersrand, he’s also held esteemed positions at Berkeley, Columbia, Duke, Harvard, and Yale.
Mbembe’s work delves into post-colonial Africa, critically examining racism’s impact on subjectivity. His latest book, Brutalism (2020/2024), addresses climate crisis effects on the global south.
Earlier, he focused on colonial violence, African resistance, and independence struggles, redefining state power as well as post-colonial concepts. His works include On the Postcolony (2000/2001), Necropolitics (2016/2019), and Critique of Black Reason (2013/2017), addressing democracy, race, and identity politics.
Recently, Mbembe expanded to Eurocentrism, the Anthropocene, and AI’s implications, advocating for a universalist understanding of humanity. Heike Krieger, committee leader, further affirmed Mbembe’s well-deserved Holberg Prize 2024.
Educated in Cameroon and France, Achille Mbembe obtained his 1989 doctorate from the Université Paris 1. With an extensive teaching career across prestigious American universities and recognition including the Ernst Bloch Prize, Mbembe’s influence extends globally, evident in his honorary doctorates and translations of his works into 17 languages.
He will receive the award of NOK 6,000,000 (approx. EUR 530,000) during a 6 June ceremony at the University of Bergen, Norway.
Mbembe is one of the most read and cited scholars from the African continent and receives the prize for his pioneering research in African history, postcolonial studies, humanities, and social science over four decades.
He bridges existing thinking on colonialism and decolonisation with pressing questions on contemporary migration regimes, global citizenship, restitution and reparation, technology, climate change, and planetary futures. He is known both as an academic and as a public intellectual for his ability to do so.
The Holberg Prize, established in 2003, honours outstanding research in humanities, social sciences, law, and theology, while also aiming to elevate their status in society. Administered by the University of Bergen on behalf of the Ministry of Education, the prize underscores the importance of advancing knowledge in these critical fields.
