Valentin-Yves Mudimbe received his B. A. in Romance Philology from Lovanium University (Kinshasa, Congo RDC) in 1966, and his
Doctorat en Philosophie et Lettres from the Catholic University of Louvain in 1970. Before arriving at Duke University where he became Newman Ivey White Professor of Literature, he taught at the Universities of Paris-Nanterre, Congo (RDC), Haverford College, Stanford, and lectured at many other universities throughout Africa, Europe and North America, as well as at the
École des Hautes Études en Sciences sociales in Paris. He is known worldwide for two path-breaking and greatly influential books:
The Invention of Africa. Gnosis, Philosophy and the Order of Knowledge (1988) and
The Idea of Africa (1994).V.Y. Mudimbe has received several honorary degrees in recognition of his achievements as a scholar. In 1997, he became Doctor Honoris Causa at Université Paris VII Diderot; in 2006, at KatholiekeUniversiteit Leuven, and in 2012, at Laval University, Quebec. He is a Membre Honoraire Correspondant de l’Académie Royale des Sciences d’Outre- Mer (Belgium); a Member of the American Society of Philosophy in French (Société américaine de philosophie de langue française); as well as of the Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy, and the World Institute for Advanced Phenomenological Research and Learning. He served as Chairman of the Board of African Philosophy, and from 2000 to 2013, as the Chairman of the International African Institute (SOAS, University of London).
Kasereka Kavwahirehi is
a professor of Francophone literatures at the University of Ottawa. He received a B.A. in philosophy from the Faculté de Philosophie Saint-Pierre Canisius in Congo in 1994, a M.A. in Philosophie et lettres from the Catholic University of Louvain in 1998, and a PhD. in French studies from Queen’s University (Kingston, Canada) in 2003. He was a Fellow ofAlexander von Humboldt Foundation at the University of Bayreuth (2010-2011) as well as of the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin (2018-2019). He is a specialist in Francophone literatures with particular interests in literatures and social discourse, religion and politics in Africa, and African philosophy.
