Professor Valentin Yves Mudimbe, PhD: A Read Man, A Giant

By Tshilemalema Mukenge, PhD, Professor Emeritus, Morris Brown College
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Valentin Yves Mudimbe and I knew each other and yet have not really known each other. Our lives intersected at some points over many years. We both attended Lovanium University in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, in the early 1960s. He was in the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters, and I, then Léonard Mukenge, in the Faculty of Social Sciences. At the time, most of us were struggling to understand the textbooks, yet Mudimbe was discussing literature and philosophy with professors, referring to his own books. We departed from Lovanium at different times to different destinations for graduate studies, he to Belgium, me to Canada.

In the 1970s, both Philosophy and Letters and Social Sciences were relocated from Kinshasa to Lubumbashi. Mudimbe got there before I did and stayed longer. I left the Congo for USA driven out by teachers’ deplorable living conditions. Mudimbe was a man of integrity. He fled from the Congo to avoid persecution by Dictator Mobutu Sesse Seko for refusing to accept a scandalously highly-paid political appointment at a time most Congolese were starving, the majority jobless and dying in cascade.

Mudimbe was a polyvalent scholar. In African Studies Association meetings, he was comfortable in the company of philosophers, theologians, anthropologists, as well as literature specialists and linguists. He gained my trust. I sent him a manuscript for review without any apprehension. Mudimbe’s reputation preceded him wherever he went. I live in Atlanta. In 2002, I believe, I learned about his moving from Stanford University in California to Duke University in North Carolina from a colleague anthropologist who was impressed by his perspectives on African philosophy. In the same year, Mudimbe was invited by Spelman College in Atlanta for a week of seminars.

A quite widespread opinion is that Mudimbe’s books are too hard to comprehend. That might be true. I cannot tell. But it is certainly not the case with the one I have read with the intent to learn from, and I have come to appreciate: Parables and Fables: Exegesis, Textuality, and Politics in Central Africa (1991). This book integrates perspectives of Africanists from various humanistic disciplines attempting to redefine Africanity from the African thought and African ways — liberated from colonial and Christian misinterpretations and distortions. It is among the publications of value that have inspired my recent book, MUNTU WA NZAMBI: Portrait of Human as God’s Special Creation (2021). Yes, Professor Valentin Yves Mudimbe was a read man, a giant of diverse knowledge.